The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) on Monday denied trending reports suggesting it owed late Super Eagles captain and coach Christian Chukwu, Afrosport reports.
The NFF was alleged to owe the 1980 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) winner the sum of $128,000 before his demise.
The football body, through its General Secretary, Mohammed Sanusi, took to social media to debunk the rumours, claiming that there was no record of any outstanding debt to Chukwu, who died on Saturday aged 74.
“There is no record in the NFF of any outstanding indebtedness to ‘Chairman’ Christian Chukwu,” Sanusi stated on NFF’s official X handle. “During the first term of the Board headed by Mr. Amaju Pinnick, a committee was set up to diligently peruse the papers of coaches who were being owed, even from previous NFF administrations.
“That committee was given the clear mandate to verify all debts and ensure that the coaches being owed were paid immediately. I am aware that ‘Chairman’ was in the employ of the NFF between 2002 and 2005, before he was relieved of the post following the 1-1 draw with Angola in a FIFA World Cup qualifying match in Kano in August 2005.
“There is certainly no record of indebtedness to him in the NFF.”
Sanusi, meanwhile, implored the public to come forward with verifiable documents proving the federation’s “indebtedness” to any of its national team coaches in the “past two decades”.
“As a credible organisation that is very much alive to its responsibilities, if we are confronted with any genuine document of indebtedness to any coach, we will offset the debt immediately,” he concluded.
Chukwu, a defensive stalwart in his playing days and nicknamed ,Chairman’, captained Nigeria to its first AFCON triumph in 1980.
He was later named head coach of the Super Eagles over a two-year spell from 2003 to 2005, leading Nigeria to the semi-finals at the 2004 AFCON in Tunisia.
