FIFA May Ban Nigeria From Competitions

Following the Minister of Sports, Solomon Dalung’s directive that the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) should comply with the Supreme Court judgment delivered on April 27, 2018, sacking Amaju Pinnick-led board, sport analysts and Festus Keyamo, a lawyer, said on Monday that the world football governing body, FIFA, may ban Nigeria from competitions.

The Supreme Court had upheld the judgment of the Federal High Court, setting aside the election into the executive committee of the NFF held on September 30, 2014.

The obvious implication of all these is that if any attempt is made to recognize Chris Giwa and derecognize Amaju Pinnick and his board, FIFA will definitely impose a lengthy ban on Nigeria from all football competitions locally and internationally and that will spell doom for Nigerian football, analysts and Keyamo said.

It should be noted that FIFA has consistently maintained that the matter has been taken to the highest Court of Sports Arbitration in Switzerland by the same individuals and they have lost.

“FIFA is only bound by the decision of the Court of Arbitration for Sports and does not entertain or tolerate decisions by local courts in footballing nations worldwide.

“Hence, FIFA has since upheld the decision of the Court of Arbitration on this matter and recognised the NFF board led by Amaju Pinnick.

“Nigeria has a duty to comply with that decision. In addition, for the indiscretion of those individuals like Chris Giwa to approach the local courts, FIFA has since imposed a worldwide ban on them from all footballing activities,” said solicitor to Pinnick, Festus Keyamo.

The immediate casualties of this ban would be the Falconets who have qualified and are scheduled to participate in the Under-20 Female World Cup this month; the final phases of the AFCON qualifiers for the Super Eagles scheduled for August/September this year and the Super Falcons defending their title in December in Ghana this year.