As the deadline given by FIFA for the resolution of the crisis in Nigerian football administration fast approaches, the global football governing body has turned down the request of the Nigerian Ministry of Youth and Sports to come and discuss the issue.
A source in the Zurich offices of FIFA informed www.sportsvillagesquare.com that Nigeria had proposed a meeting through the Nigerian Ambassador in Switzerland, Baba Madugu to meet with FIFA.
According to the source, the letter to FIFA is dated Wednesday August 15. The 16-man delegation, which was to be led by the sports minister, Solomon Dalung, has the ministry’s permanent secretary, Olusade Adesola, and two former NFA chairmen, Kodjo Williams and Ibrahim Galadima as well as former General Secretary, Bolaji Ojo-Oba.
Included in the delegation are the two contesting heads of parallel NFF boards, Amaju Pinnick and Chris Giwa.
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According to the response given by FIFA in rejecting the proposed meeting, the FIFA President, Gianni Infantino is currently indisposed, even though FIFA acknowledges the urgency of the matter at stake.
Nigeria stands suspended by 12 noon on Monday if the administration of NFF is not fully and expressly handed over to the board led by Pinnick.
The letter from FIFA also frowned at the inclusion of Chris Giwa in Nigeria’s proposed 16-man delegation. According to the letter signed by the Secretary General, Fatima Samoura, the organization remarked:
“We would like to recall that one member of the proposed delegation, Mr Chris Giwa, is currently under a worldwide ban, in accordance with the decision of the FIFA Disciplinary Committee dated 10 January 2017 to extend the five-year ban from taking part in any kind of football-related activity imposed by the Nigeria Football Federation’s (NFF) Disciplinary Committee on 12 May 2016.
“In this context, we would like to seize this opportunity to remind you that as per the decision rendered by FIFA’s Bureau of the Council on 13 August 2018, in the event the NFF offices are not handed back to the legitimate NFF Executive Committee under President Amaju Melvin Pinnick by Monday, 20 August, 2018 at 12:00 (CET), the NFF will be suspended with immediate effect for contravening binding obligations of the FIFA Statutes.
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“The suspension would be lifted only once the NFF, under President Amaju Melvin Pinnick and General Secretary Mohammed Sanusi, confirms that they were given back effective control of the NFF and its offices.