IT is official. Nigeria has given up its hosting rights for next year's FIFA Under-17 World Cup.

Minister of Sports and Chairman, National Sports Commission, Abdulrahman Gimba, who confirmed the development yesterday during a visit to the Presidential Villa in Abuja, said it was unfortunate, even as he voiced concern over the impact of the action on the country's integrity in the comity of nations.

The lukewarm response of the private sector to the youth soccer fiesta's sponsorship may have partly informed government's decision to back out of hosting the tournament.

Gimba said: "The cancellation is correct, unfortunately. It is not a question of how much now, but a question of integrity and timing. Unfortunately, the private sector hadn't made itself available. We tried to reach them but we did not succeed. Their response was not being quite great. If we have to host it, we have to host well because the integrity of the country will be at stake. We wouldn't have accepted late funding. But we were not able to make the appropriate impact on the private sector."

Nigeria got the hosting rights for the FIFA Under-17 World Cup in 2006 as compensation after it lost its bid to host the 2010 Africa Nations Cup to Angola.

The Local Organising Committee (LOC) of the cancelled soccer tournament had proposed a N37 billion budget to host it. The Presidency shot it down, arguing that there were more pressing issues for the nation to address than expending such a huge amount on football.

But in a reaction, former Super Eagles Coach, Adeboye Onigbinde, yesterday cautioned against giving up the hosting rights of the football tournament, as it would be a great embarrassment to the country.

Onigbinde, a long-standing member of the FIFA technical committee, said: "Well, I can tell you authoritatively that FIFA was not surprised by the development, though the football body was jolted. But I can assure you that FIFA has always had plans 'B' and even 'C' for all its competitions, especially those ceded to developing countries like Nigeria.

"I still believe that it is a speculation, but if the country had actually withdrawn, then it is very shameful and embarrassing. This would only present Nigeria to the rest of the world as an unserious nation and it would be very difficult for the international community to trust and take Nigeria seriously in the future."

He added that the immediate implication of the action would be the absence of the defending champion, Nigeria, at the tournament, as the Golden Eaglets failed to qualify for the African finals coming up in Algeria early next year.

Hosting the tournament would have given the Nigerian team automatic qualification.

But to another former Super Eagles Coach, Fanny Amun, the decision to withdraw from hosting the tournament is the best thing Nigeria has done in recent years.

Amun, who assisted Onigbinde at the Japan/Korea 2002 World Cup, believes that hosting the competition would have amounted to wasting scarce public fund.

"Congratulations Nigeria, congratulations President Yar'Adua. This is great news for all lovers of Nigeria. Only the blind and selfish individuals who inhabit the sports sector would criticise this patriotic decision taken by the Presidency.

"In recent years, all we have achieved in sports is our readiness to host every competition no matter the cost to our economy. We all know that the idea to host every competition is the brainchild of one man.

"We rush to host any event, CAF, FIFA, WAFU and we don't pause to ask the benefits of such investments. The truth is that somebody is using it to further his ambition in international sports circle. But we must ask ourselves what we have gained from such ventures.

"Have we looked at the expenditure of the COJA we hosted in 2003? We should think of developing our athletes instead of spending the money unwisely," the former Golden Eaglets Coach, who won the FIFA U-17 World in Japan in 1993, said.

Also, ex-international, Adokiye Amiesiamaka, has commended the Federal Government's decision to back out of hosting the championship.

According to him, contrary to the Gimba's fear that the nation's image would suffer with the action, it would boost Nigeria's clout before the international community.

Amiesiamaka said: "People are going to look at us with a lot of respect because this action means the era of waking up and taking decisions without a verifiable cost-benefit analysis in Nigeria is gone.

"I am really happy that President Yar'Adua has put his foot down and refused to release taxpayers' money to be sunk into that project because there is the tendency that the amount, as staggering as it is, would not have been spent entirely on the itemised purposes.

"As has been the case in the past, blackmailing the executive at the 11th hour to release money for the tournament, which is just less than one year to go, is not the best. This is because the money may not be judiciously utilised for the purpose it was meant. This would mean we have resorted to the same fire-brigade approach to doing things.

The former Green Eagles star added: "I have always been of the opinion that the way the National Sports Commission was set up does not give enough room for the private sector to take active participation in sports development. So, there is bound to be some form of apathy on their part when it comes to them bringing forward so much money to sponsor a tournament of that magnitude.

"The President should urgently implement the recommendations of the Presidential Advisory Committee on Sports. If the recommendations were implemented, there would be no last-minute search for sponsors.

Meanwhile, Confederation of African Football (CAF) President, Issa Hayatou, yesterday pleaded with Nigeria to reconsider its decision not to host the competition.

In a letter to the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), which copy was made available to The Guardian, Hayatou narrated the circumstances that led to the rights being awarded to Nigeria, adding that the continent would be the laughing stock of the world football fraternity if the decision was not reversed.

The letter reads: "Upon arrival in Zurich yesterday, I was extremely disappointed and shocked when I was informed that your national association decided to inform FIFA that your country is withdrawing from hosting the U-17 FIFA World Cup, which was assigned to your association in 2009.

"I would like to remind you that the FIFA Executive Committee decided to award the U-20 and the U-17 World Cups to Africa in 2009 since our continent is hosting for the first time in 2010 the senior FIFA World Cup. Only African candidatures were accepted for these two events.

"The decision of Nigeria to withdraw from hosting this event next year is really embarrassing not only to CAF but to the whole African continent.

"We count on your wisdom to review this decision since Nigeria in its capacity as one of the football powerhouses of the African continent is one of the African countries which can make Africa proud whenever hosting world events."

Source?

http://www.guardiannewsngr.com/news/article03//indexn2_html?pdate=241008&ptitle=Why%20Nigeria%20can't%20host%20U-17%20World%20Cup,%20by%20minister

I totally agreed with the position of the Nigerian government! Enough of this "BIG BRODA" attitude and posture the rest of Africa is throwing at Nigeria! We need that $30 million like yesterday especially at this point in time of our national life. In a few months, we'll officially be fifty years, no roads, no rail, no good health care and yet we dey host different festivities & tourney like owambe party! Let's face the real issues! In fact, this is one thing baba go-slow has done that really impressed me. . . enough is enough!Haba!

GoldCircle:

I totally agreed with the position of the Nigerian government! Enough of this "BIG brother" attitude and posture the rest of Africa is throwing at Nigeria! We need that $30 million like yesterday especially at this point in time of our national life. In a few months, we'll officially be fifty years, no roads, no rail, no good health care and yet we dey host different festivities & tourney like owambe party! Let's face the real issues! In fact, this is one thing baba go-slow has done that really impressed me. . . enough is enough!Haba!

N35 Billion = US$300 Million.

Raising US$300 Million in the Private Sector to fund Public Infrastructure projects for hosting a schoolboy World Cup will be a hard sell in Nigeria.

Nigeria has already been eliminated from the African Qualifiers and our hosting of the competition gave us an automatic ticket which will be lost by this withdrawal.

http://www.kickoffnigeria.com/static/news/article.php?id=2831

The local organising committee for the 2009 Under-17 World Cup in Nigeria have reduced the World Cup hosting budget to N17 Billion Naira (about US$150 Million).

Finally, baba go slow has done one things right.
Nigeria needs all the money we can get now to fix things.
Let Brazil host under-17 and let us give water, good road and better health system, and light to our pple.

I totally agree with the Yaradua’s move, we have other more important pressing issues that we need to attend to as a country. I’m on the other hand eagerly waiting to see those other pressing issues that we are going to spend the $30 million on.

Nigeria could have used this opportunity to improve their roads, finally build a good transport and rail infrastructure and reintroduce Nigeria to the rest of the world, bringing much need tourist revenue to the people. That is what most countries do when they are keyed to host world tournaments e.g.Beijing 2008. It is not like Nigeria doesn't have $300 million either. So why the hullabaloo? Just use the opportunity to improve the country for all Nigerians.

It's about time a Nigerian government, especially this inept and useless one to do something that can be considered reasonable. Often Nigerian leaders behave as if they live in a different planet when it comes to using public money. From FESTAC to all the useless so called age group world championship that gullible Nigerians calls world cup that absolutely means nothing to the rest of the world.

The world economy is going bananas and this crooks in Zuric and Cairo called FIFA and CAF want Nigeria to cough out 30 millions dollars towards a meaningless competition. And that corrupt CAF president called Isa Hayatou from Cameroon has the gut to say that he is embarrassed by Nigerian decision. Embarrassed? why not ask his own country Cameroon to host it if he is so ashamed? Useless beareaucrat!!
When was the last time Cameroon hosted any event in Africa? 1968 nations cup, that is 40 years ago. And Hayatou has been in and around CAF for almost 30 years.

Now that Nigerian leaders has developed some brain cells, it about time they too, systematically withdraw from all 36 meaningless organisations that Nigeria belong to that gulp millions of dollars of public money in membership fees and levies annuall, like, ILO, OPEC, IOC, NAO etc.

EloSela:

Nigeria could have used this opportunity to improve their roads, finally build a good transport and rail infrastructure and reintroduce Nigeria to the rest of the world, bringing much need tourist revenue to the people. That is what most countries do when they are keyed to host world tournaments e.g.Beijing 2008. It is not like Nigeria doesn't have $300 million either. So why the hullabaloo? Just use the opportunity to improve the country for all Nigerians.

not all international tournaments are sucessful, the montreal olympics was an economic fiasco. nigeria 99 was a disgrace to the country. nigeria should avoid the embarrassment of empty stadium and power outages during games. abeg use money for better more profitable investments

No, its just a waste of money and an opportunity for our corrupt leaders to steal more money.

The President got this R IGHT.