Both Adamu and Anouma are members of Caf and Fifa

One of the factions in the leadership struggle of the West African Football Union (Wafu) is claiming to have sealed a major sponsorship deal for the beleaguered regional body.

The election of Nigerian Amos Adamu as a rival president of Wafu earlier this month split the organisation down the middle.

Despite the confusion surrounding his leadership, Adamu says a top Nigerian bank, Oceanic Bank, has already agreed to serve as one of Wafu's major sponsors.

According to the Nigerian sports administrator, details of the sponsorship deal as well as a calendar of competitions involving clubs and national teams will be announced on 12 May.

The split in Wafu emerged after Adamu was elected unopposed by nine out of the 16 members in Accra, in a move to oust Ivorian Jacques Anouma.

But another meeting in Abidjan maintained confidence in Anouma's leadership, who was elected president of the organisation in 2004.

Nigeria, Mauritania, Mali, Benin, Ghana and Liberia showed up in Accra while Guinea, Niger and Togo appear to have sent representatives to both meetings.

Adamu says the regional body has been inactive for the past three years mostly because the Anouma-led executive failed to attract sponsorship.

"West Africa is a football zone with such top countries like Ivory Coast, Ghana, Senegal, Togo and Nigeria but for over three years we have been sleeping," Adamu said.

"Lack of sponsorship has been the major drawback for Wafu because no government can fund it as it is not a government creation.

"I am on a rescue mission. Now is the time to move Wafu forward and this we have already started doing by getting money to run some of the competitions we will soon be organising.

"If after a year in office you don't see a remarkable change in Wafu, you can kick me out."

Wafu was founded in 1977 with an annual national team and club competitions but interest diminished in the early 1990s.

Recent hopes to revive it have failed and in one such attempt in 2002, players of Senegal, Sierra Leone and Gambia were held hostage for nine days in the Ivorian city Bouake after rebel soldiers attacked the city.

Despite boasting some of the illustrious football countries like Ghana, Nigeria and Ivory Coast, Wafu has struggled to attract sponsorship like its southern African counterparts, Cosafa.

Yet three of Africa's five World Cup finalists in Germany last year (Ivory Coast, Ghana and Togo) came from the region.