The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) will in days to come to benefit from a proposed FIFA $150 million largesse that will see the Amaju Pinnick led board gets $500, 000 (about N180million) as a first step of a relief plan to assist the football community impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to a release from FIFA, the funds will help cushion the effect of the coronavirus in addition to operational funding due to member associations for the years 2019 and 2020.

“The pandemic has caused unprecedented challenges for the entire football community and, as the world governing body, it is FIFA’s duty to be there and support the ones that are facing acute needs,” said FIFA President Gianni Infantino.

“This starts by providing immediate financial assistance to our member associations, many of which are experiencing severe financial distress.

“This is the first step of a far-reaching financial relief plan we are developing to respond to the emergency across the whole football community. Together with our stakeholders, we are we assessing the losses and we are working on the most appropriate and effective tools to implement the other stages of this relief plan.

“I would like to thank the chairpersons of the FIFA Development Committee, Shaikh Salman Bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa, and the FIFA Finance Committee, Alejandro Domínguez, for their commitment and urgent approval of these measures by their committees.”

As part of the measure, all remaining entitlements of member associations to operational costs under the Forward 2.0 Programme will be released in full for the years 2019 and 2020. In particular, the release of the second installment of operational costs for 2020, which was originally due in July, will be paid immediately.