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.
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