Sports

Rio: Siasia begs Buhari to release funds for Olympic team

Published

8 years ago

July 7, 2016

Nigeria U-23 Eagles coach, Samson Siasia, has sent a passionate appeal to President Mohammed Buhari to help to salvage the financial crisis rocking the Olympics team.

Siasia while lamenting the team’s shoddy preparations ahead of the 2016 Rio Olympics maintained that the country cannot win any medal at the competition without funding.

“We just want to appeal to President Muhammadu Buhari to come to the rescue of sports in the country as our father and sports-loving President, ” Siasia said from the team’s training base in Atlanta, United States of America.

“We don’t have money. We are in the (United States of) America now without any money. So, it is a big problem. How are we going to win gold, if we keep begging for money to take care of our athletes?

“The sports sector is dying and it is adversely affecting the Olympic teams that have qualified to represent Nigeria at the Rio Olympics Games, not just football, but the other (seven) sports that Nigeria will campaign in in Rio.

“The reason is well known which is the Sports Ministry needs to be funded adequately. This has adversely affected the Nigeria Football Federation too. Everybody is borrowing.

“This has to stop. President Buhari has to help us by approving some funds for our Olympic teams to prepare well.”

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