African champions Nigeria could be thrown out of international
football by the governing body of the sport, Fifa, this week.
The football federation of the West African nation, the NFF, has
been given a deadline of Monday, October 27, 2014 to resolve
its governance issue or face automatic suspension from Fifa.
Caf president was quoted in a statement from the NFF saying to
the Nigeria sports minister, Dr Tammy Danagogo: “I had to
plead passionately with Fifa President, Mr Sepp Blatter not to
take action on Nigeria on Friday, because Nigeria was in the
final of the African Women Championship and a ban on your
country would have been bad for the competition and our
sponsors. We all heard the news of the court ruling on
Thursday, and the football world is angry with Nigeria. That is
the truth.
“The Fifa letter that came to your federation before the elections
of September 30 was very clear about an automatic suspension
should there be any interference with the political process, and
after the elections went ahead, we all thought you had settled
your issues.”
A Federal High Court sitting in Jos and presided over by Justice
Ambrose Allagoa had last Thursday week declared the elections
of September 30, 2014 that brought the Amaju Pinnick executive
committee into office as null and void.
The court also warned the troubled NFF executive committee to
quit parading itself as the country's football authority which has
led to the Chris Giwa group that filed the suit to stake claim as
being the authentic executive committee of troubled Nigeria's
FA.
The governance crisis was further heated on Friday when it
emerged that Pinnick was stopped at the Murtala Mohammed
International Airport in Lagos from travelling to Namibia for the
African Women Championship (AWC) final between Nigeria and
Cameroon following the court ruling.
The Pinnick-led NFF has already claimed that it has filed a stay
of execution on the ruling by the court in Jos, which will be
heard this Wednesday.
Fifa and Caf say they recognise the elections of Pinnick and his
executive committee and even congratulated him on emerging
the NFF president.
But Nigeria, who hold the men's and women's titles in the Africa
Cup of Nations and AWC respectively, now risk missing out in a
handful of 2015 international tournaments as Fifa will not revisit
any sanction meted out on the country's FA until May 2015
when the Fifa congress holds in Zurich, Switzerland.