The highly celebrated sponsorship deals between AITEO Group and the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) is reportedly on thin ice as the oil and gas company threatens to review the contract due to poor leverage.

According to The Punch, officials of AITEO Group are unhappy with how the NFF is “handling things”.

Last April, the NFF signed a five-year Federation Cup sponsorship deal worth N2.5bn with AITEO Group, a development that was widely praised by Nigerian football lovers.

“They told us that the Aiteo Cup would be a media event, which means the competition will be widely publicised. But it is almost coming to an end and the newspapers and broadcast media seem not to know what is happening.” A senior AITEO Group official anonymously told The Punch.

“We have not seen the programme for the competition. In fact, the NFF only informed us of the quarterfinals’ draw a few hours before the event. There is no plan for anything… things are not done that way.”

The energy group also signed an agreement with the NFF to pay salaries of national team coaches’, a move that permanently solved NFF’s inability to pay its coaches.

“We are talking of more than N5bn  sponsorship that has been made so difficult for us to leverage on.”

“If the NFF continues this way, we will be forced to review our relationship with them.” the official added.