The Summer Olympics which was postponed earlier this year due to the global pandemic is now 8 months away, and since he who fails to plan, plans to fail, the Basketball Federation has decided to start preparations early ahead of the mega event. That preparation is set to cost the country billions of Nigeria.
According to the Vice President of the Basketball Federation who doubles as the Chairman of the Technical Committee, Babs Ogunade, the Federation has budgeted a sum of $4m to execute its plan for the Summer Olympics for both the men`s and women`s teams
The country broke a record when the D`Tigress qualified for the Summer Olympics during the FIBA Women`s Olympics Qualifying Tournament in February becoming the first country in the continent that has ever qualified their two teams at the same time for the Olympics. The men`s team had picked up one of the available slots for Africa at the Olympics during the FIBA World Cup last year. This had a big impact on the budget.
“The NBBF board is elated to have qualifications for both D`Tigers and D`Tigress – and proudly a first by any African country – but there is the huge burden of funding the teams. The federation needs N2Bn (estimated) to prosecute the Olympics in Tokyo." - Ogunade
The budgeted sum will cover travel, accommodation, player allowances and bonuses, camps and friendly international games for both teams. A significant portion is attributable to air travel as the Federation hope to provide world class experience for the invited players.
“The known NBA standard is that their players cannot fly on economy tickets but at least Business Class. And the NBBF could have nearly 10 of such players in the team. The federation is trying hard to have fair morale balancing and would then have to buy the same type of tickets for the players rather than have some sit in the business section and others in the economy class. The same treatment will then also apply to the ladies.”
The Federation is looking at the Ministry of Youth and Sports Development as primary source of funding while calling on corporate organisations to partner with the Federation. We also expect the International Olympic Committee to subside part of the expenses.
The Olympics will take place in Tokyo from 23 July - 8 August 2021 with 206 countries expected to participate.
Comments