Osun State Commissioner For Youth, Sports and Special Needs, Honourable Yemi Lawal, says the Osun United FC and Osun Babes FC, both owned by government are not generating revenue for the state.
“The state FA Secretary once told me that it is part of the ethics of FIFA that government should not have hands in the administration of a football team.
“When they need money, they will involve the government but when they generate money, the government has no business in knowing how it is spent,’’ he said.
Lawal was speaking on Sunday at the third anniversary of the “Family United by Football (FUBF) Forum’’ at the Osogbo Township Stadium.
The commissioner stressed that the management of the teams only made recourse to the state government or approached him, as the commissioner for sports, when they needed funds.
He lamented that the activities of the state’s FA was shrouded in secrecy, saying it created a negative impression through media propaganda to paint the state government in bad light as neglecting the teams.
Lawal said that the state’s teams have never (to his knowledge) generated a Kobo for the state government.
“I recently learnt that 11 players from Osun Babes had been sold, but no report or remittance of the sales was made known to the state government,’’ he noted.
He said he needed to correct the misconception that the state government does not have records of money generated or deposited into the state’s purse from the sale of players by the teams’ management.
Lawal said, however, that in spite of the misgivings, the state government would begin work on the Osogbo Stadium pitch that was in a terrible state by January 2022.
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