Lagos centre still in turmoil over money, accreditation

During FIFA's tour of facilities earlier in the year, Jack Warner had commended Lagos State as one of the states ready to host the tournament and even asked other centres to learn from the Centre of Excellence.

Chaos

However, the same cannot be said in terms of organisation, as the Teslim Balogun Stadium, which plays host to Group B members in the ongoing FIFA World U-17 football competition, comprising Brazil, Mexico, Switzerland and Japan, on Friday bore semblance to a chaotic battlefield as officials scurried about, trying to get people accredited and putting flags bearing the logo of the competition in strategic places.

Stewards and volunteers for the event, who were yet to be accredited as at press time, were seen loitering around the National Stadium, waiting to be addressed by the Venue Manager, Security, Dotun Aderibigbe who was at the Teslim Balogun Stadium, running around and trying to control the situation.

Disorganised

One of the coordinators of the stewards, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said a large number of the stewards had already opted out, due to the disorganisation and shabby treatment being meted to them by the LOC officials.

"When we first started, we had about 1,000 people who registered as stewards but right now, they are not up to 200. They are really disappointed with the whole process and I don't blame them. The stewards are yet to be accredited, and these are things that should have been done a long time ago.

"FIFA had already made the money available but the money has already been squandered by the top officials who later said they didn't need stewards so the Venue Manager had to solicit for support from the Lagos State Government. Initially, they were supposed to be paid N10, 000 per day but the governor, Babatunde Fashola said that the government couldn't afford it, and made the amount N20, 000 for all the days."

Left in the lurch

Some of the stewards were seen leaving the venue in anger while one of them, recounting her experience to NEXT Sports said:

"Since Monday, they've been asking us to come here but they don't attend to us. On Tuesday, we came but could not do anything because we had to protest after they said they will reduce the money from N20, 000 to N15, 000 but now they've agreed that it will not be deducted.

"We came yesterday (Thursday) by 10 in the morning and they told us to come back today. We are still waiting for them. They have not even assigned duties to us and have also not given us the uniforms we are supposed to wear. In fact I'm tired of this whole arrangement."

Journalists groan

Even journalists have not been spared the hardship. Scores of them based in Lagos assigned by their organisations to cover the tournament have yet to be accredited even though majority of them duly completed the accreditation registration on FIFA website.

They are threatening to boycott the coverage of the tournament if the situation does not improve in the next few days.