Beach soccer: CAF may withdraw hosting rights from Nigeria

Indications are rife that the Confederation of African Football (CAF) may withdraw the hosting rights of the African Cup of Nations Beach Soccer championship from Nigeria.
The championship is scheduled to hold from December 11 to 17 in Lagos. Investigation by Tribunesport reveals that there is cold war going on among top officials of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) and the Lagos State Sports Commission (LSSC) over the composition of the main organising committee and the local organising committee.
The source, who pleaded not to be mentioned, disclosed that the NFF being the eye of CAF believes it should be in charge of the organisation of the championship, citing CAF rules while the top LSSC official argues that there is no way Lagos State as the host state will not have its local organising committee.
The NFF official is accusing the LSSC official of sabotaging the Federation’s effort at organising a befitting championship which will serve as qualifier for the coming up world beach soccer championship next year.
“The NFF wants to control the committee because it is recognised by CAF but LSSC top officials argue that it is not done anywhere, that since the state is bringing in money, then it must have its LOC and that the governor will not ask NFF how the money is spent, but the state official, so based on this, there is need for it to have its LOC and that they are ready to work with the main organising committee set up by the NFF,” he said.
Also it was disclosed to Tribunesport that the LSSF top official believes he should be the chairman of the committee and not a member of the NFF who was nominated by the president, Mr Amaju Pinnick.
This development is responsible for the inability of the committee to make any concrete progress as far as the hosting of the championship is concerned as both parties involved are working at cross purposes. In fact Tribunesport gathered that this has led to the postponement of a planned press conference in Lagos twice.
However, a close ally of the NFF president confided in Tribunesport on Wednesday that CAF has given the country a seven-day ultimatum to sort itself out or lose the hosting rights to another country.
Effort to get the LSSC and NFF officials to react to the development failed as they both refused to reply to series of messages sent to their mobile phones or pick calls put through to them.
Also, Pinnick’s number was not going through as Tribunesport was made to believe he has travelled out of the country on CAF assignment in Gabon.