THE Ibrahim Gasau faction of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria has announced that kitmaker Puma has prematurely ended its association with the body.
The AFN has been in turmoil for the last few years over a leadership tussle and currently has two men claiming to be its president — Gusau and Tony Okowa.
The Gusau-led AFN entered into a four-year contract with Puma in 2019 for the Germany company to kit Team Nigeria athletes but the deal has been riddled with controversy.
In spite of reportedly providing kits for Nigeria’s team to the Tokyo Olympics, Puma was ignored at the Games and the athletes donned Afa wear.
“German sports wear manufacturing giants PUMA has terminated its four -year contract with the Athletics Federation of Nigeria,” the AFN stated in a press release emailed to Naija Times on Wednesday.
“In a letter dated Wednesday 4th August 2021 and signed by the company’s director Manuel Edlheimb, PUMA said it was officially notifying the Athletics Federation of Nigeria of its termination of Sponsoring and Licensing Agreement.”
The AFN reproduced the Puma letter, which purportedly read: “We are refersing to the licensing and sponsoring agreement signed between our company and your federation.
“As a direct consequence of the recent developments, particularly at the Tokyo Olympic Games 2020 and pursuant to clauses 9.2 and 7.3 of the Agreement, we hereby terminate the Agreement with immediate effect.
“PUMA especially declares to be discharged from any or all obligations towards all stakeholders involved and reserves all rights against these entities and individuals.”
The Puma kit deal was due to expire in 2022 but the sportswear make had apparently had enough of Nigeria’s problems.
The AFN explained that part of the contract was for Puma to “supply apparels to all age categories to Nigeria’s athletics team for four years at no cost.”
“In addition, gold medallists at the Olympic Games will earn $15,000, silver medalists will get $5,000 while a bronze medal will fetch athletes wearing the PUMA apparel at the games $3000,” the AFN added.
The Gusau faction claimed that they made efforts to give the athletes the PUMA kits and shipped bags of kits with 40 items each to Tokyo through the Nigerian Embassy in Japan.
However, they claimed that sports minister Sunday Dare, who is backing the Okowa faction of the AFN, prevented the Ambassador from sending the kits to the athletes.
The AFN reiterated that on September 3, 2020 the Department of State Services cleared the Gusau-led board and its marketing firm Dynamic Sporting Solutions Nigeria Limited of receiving money meant for the federation.
