Football Intermediaries Association
of Nigeria (FIAN) are taking several
steps to make their work easier and as well as stop quacks from dragging the
profession into the muds.
In August 2018 they held a very important meeting with Minister of Foreign Affair at the
headquarters of the Ministry in Abuja, where the minister gave the body his
words, and promised to be of help as long as issues are still within his reach.
Top on the menu of the meeting were
issues bothering on menace of football players trafficking, identifying
bonafide members of Football Intermediaries Association of Nigeria,
recommendation of FIAN members to embassies within and outside Nigeria and
securing VISA for foreign partners seeking to visit Nigeria as contained in the
letter presented to the minister
FIAN further explained that the major reason for
requesting to see the Minister is based on the fact that the body is into
facilitating transfer of exceptional talents outside the country to pursue
their football career, while noting that some dubious individuals are
continuously exploiting players in the name of getting them lucrative deals
abroad.
A case of about ten Nigerians trapped in Cape Verde
was brought to the front burner, a fraudulent individual who claimed to be a
football agent after collecting millions of Naira, abandoned the players in Cape
Verde and absconded.
Now FIAN has made a move further to National Agency
For Prohibition Of Trafficking In Persons (NAPTIP) to see to issues bothering
on players trafficking, while also noting that Introduction and identification
of FIAN should be an arranged with Agency
A database for the Intermediaries would also be
worked upon in earnest, while the body promised to monitor the activities of
members as well as movements of players through the proposed relationship with
Ministries, Consulates and Embassies.
FIAN believes NAPTIP has
the capacity to prosecute and perpetrators would be brought to book should the
Agency assist in bringing these fraudulent elements to court.
