TheCable

The woeful performance of Adamawa United in the 2020/21 Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) season is due to mismanagement and paucity of funds, sources have told TheCable.

The state-owned football club were attacked by gunmen along the Benin-Ore expressway during their trip for a matchday 11 clash against MFM on Friday night.

TheCable had also reported how the team travelled to Kaduna — the venue of their match against Jigawa SC — on the day of the clash and then arrived at the stadium thirty minutes before the game — a development that supposedly took a toll on one of its defenders who fainted as a result of “stress”.

But insiders have told TheCable that Sanusi Faruk Jauro, the state’s commissioner for youth and sports, should be held responsible for the “awful” way the players and officials are being treated.

One of the sources wondered why the club should be going through financial difficulties when the state government has been paying them on monthly basis.

“The commissioner has taken over the running of the team. I don’t see any reason why Adamawa United should be going through any financial difficulties. Because the government has been giving the club subventions every month since February when there was no league till today,” one of the sources said.

“With this there should be no reason whatsoever for the team to lack or be complaining of money. Since the government has been releasing money for the club, I don’t see any reason why the ministry should be treating the team the way they do.

“The players get one or two thousand sometimes for a week to feed themselves. They have even slept at a filling station once for their home game because the ministry refused to release money meant for the team. They could not get accommodation for them to stay.”

Another insider lamented that due to lack of funds, the team once slept at Gombe — the venue of their home games — because they could not afford to put them in a hotel.

“There was a time the players slept five in a room at an away match. That is the same reason why the head of medical does not travel with them for away games. Because of lack of funds,” the source added.

“The ministry hardly meet up with the COVID-19 guidelines and LMC protocols and rules for every game. The players are suffering and not properly taken care of.”

Reacting to the allegations, Faruk Jauro admitted that the club has financial problems because of due procedure in ensuring that the monthly funds for the team are promptly released.

“Adamawa United has financial problems. The N30 million grant requested for which has been approved by the governor has not been gotten till date,” Faruk told TheCable.

“Because the N12.5 million was supposed to be for their salaries but it is what we still use to execute matches.

“The monthly fund released by the Ahmadu Fintiri’s government is N12.5 million. But you see, the money is been shared among Adamawa United, Adamawa Queens and the feeder team.”

Adamawa United have been hosting their home matches at the Pantami Stadium in Gombe this season as the Future Stadium in Yola is still under construction.

“Because we don’t have stadium here in Adamawa, our matches are always away. For our home matches we go to Gombe to play,” the commissioner added.

“The minimum we can spend on playing our home match at home which is in Gombe is N1.5 million. And what we spend on away matches depend on the distance.

“I met with the governor and told him that we need more money in other for us to be able to pay players, officials, and all that. That amount of money given out cannot go round for the three teams.

“And they usually pay at the end of the month. And we don’t get the money as at when due for us to be able to sort all the necessary things out.”

Faruk, however, denied allegations that he is the one diverting the money meant for the team.

“Contrary to the opinions out there that I have been pocketing the money meant for the team, is not true. I have not even gotten the additional money applied for,” he said.

“Even the 32-sitter bus we applied for, till now we have not gotten it for the team. There’s an issue with the ministry of finance. COVID has affected a lot of things.

“We are still pressurizing the governor to please help us with the grant as soon as possible for us to be able to do things properly.”

TEAM STILL ON NNL PAYMENT STRUCTURE

The players are still placed on the same salary structure they received during their time with the Nigeria National League (NNL). The highest and least salaries paid to a player were N80,000 and N50,000 respectively.

LMC CLUB SALARY FRAMEWORK

The League Management Company stipulated that the least amount of money that should be paid to a player is N150,000.

DAILY ALLOWANCE REDUCTION

The team’s daily allowance has also been slashed from N5,000 per day to N1,000.