Hard-up Nigerians paying double for the FIFA President Sepp Blatter privilege

When the newspapers here reported the British government's decision to adopt a national minimum wage of £3.60 an hour, the figure was treated as something akin to a lottery win. For some months now the Nigerian government has been promising to implement their own promise of a 3,000 Naire per month minimum salary, having already abandoned their initial figure of 5,200 per month. The new monthly figure is the equivalent of just over £20 and the papers played with the figures endlessly, highlighting the fact that most Nigerian workers will, for instance, receive around nine pence an hour while their British counterparts get the equivalent of about 110,000 Naire each month.

In the circumstances then, it's not all that surprising that there has been a fair amount bit of anger amongst the local population that ticket prices for games at these championships have been set at between 250 and 1,000 Naire (£2-£8).

As a result of the pricing - though not entirely because of it, for the chaotic ticket distribution has also been a factor - the expected full houses have not materialised. Attendances for the 36 matches played so far have varied wildly with the opening game attracting around 30,000, Ireland's first match one tenth of that number and most of the others falling somewhere in between.

The issue of attendances is actually one of the few which has prompted FIFA officials here to openly criticise Local Organising Committee (LOC) officials and the federation is pressing hard for prices to be either dropped or admission to be waved entirely in order that more people can attend the remaining matches of these championships.

FIFA's attitude is not exactly born out of any great feeling of altruism, though. Although the world body is keen to continue its policy of promoting the game in this part of the world, the reality is that its officials here are keenly aware that empty stadiums look poor on television and this championship is being broadcast in over 100 countries.

The federation has already escaped a far more serious embarrassment, however, for had General Sani Abacha, the dictator who died last June on the eve of the World Cup in France, lived to witness this tournament, it seems certain that FIFA would have found itself at the centre of a truly humiliating shambles. As it is the economy may still be in decline but the political situation in Nigeria has improved dramatically in the 10 months since Abacha's death.

Under the General's regime, leading political opponents were killed and many more imprisoned. Widespread censorship in the media was enforced and corruption, particularly that of the police and army, reached previously unthinkable levels. Yet Abacha was the man with whom FIFA was effectively dealing. He was the man underwriting the national association's financial guarantees and it was he who visiting delegations called upon to hear reports of how the preparations were progressing. Not since Argentina in 1978 had football's leading administrators allowed one of their championships to be so nakedly exploited by a dictatorship in search of an expensive publicity stunt.

The arrangement very nearly backfired, for Abacha was so corrupt that he and his cronies were even stealing the money allocated for the tournament and at around the time of his death the federation was worried that it was going to have to pull the event from Nigeria for a third successive time. Fortunately for the boys up in Switzerland, Abacha keeled over in the nick of time and his successor, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, not only released the required cash to get the venues ready but also decided to allow elections.

Now FIFA President Sepp Blatter and Co carry on as if the timing was all carefully planned, this championship coinciding nicely with the transition to civilian rule - due to be completed on May 29th when former dictator, General Olusegun Obasanjo, assumes the presidency after winning an election which many here still believe to have been rigged.

Few associations from wealthier nations see what there is to be gained from staging a tournament of this size in a developing country and none could hope to expect their government to levy telephone, electricity and water bills as well as the cost of public transport in order to help finance such a venture. The fact is that the people of Nigeria had paid to see the 52 games scheduled for this World Youth Championship many times over before a ball was kicked.