Following the decision by the FIFA Emergency Committee, FIFA has today, 3 September 2014, sent a letter to the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) confirming that the NFF will be suspended on Monday, 8 September 2014 at 07:00 Nigerian Time if Chris Giwa does not give up his claim to have been elected as NFF president on 26 August 2014.
Fifa threatens to suspend Nigeria over Chris Giwa's presidency
The decision follows events linked to the NFF general assembly held on 26 August 2014. While the said general assembly was duly convened by the NFF Executive Committee to adopt a new roadmap leading to the NFF elections, some members proceeded to hold elections in the absence of the NFF President, who was being held by security forces for questioning.
In a letter sent on 29 August 2014, FIFA confirmed that it would not recognise the results of the aforementioned elections and that the matter would be brought to the respective FIFA bodies should there still be persons claiming to have been elected and occupying the NFF offices at midnight on 1 September 2014. On expiry of the deadline, some people were still claiming to have been elected and were occupying the NFF premises.
Given the current circumstances, the FIFA Emergency Committee has decided to set a new deadline of 8 September 2014 at 07.00 Nigerian Time. Should the new deadline not be respected, the NFF will be automatically suspended until the board claiming to be elected vacates the premises of the NFF and the NFF General Secretary is able to perform his work without interference. The NFF Executive Committee as it was composed on 25 August 2014, meaning under the presidency of Aminu Maigari, should then convene as soon as possible a first extraordinary general assembly to elect the members of the electoral committee and a second extraordinary general assembly in the shortest time possible allowed by law in order to proceed with the elections of new NFF office-bearers.
The final deadline was decided by Fifa's emergency committee on Wednesday after an initial date of 1 September passed without Giwa stepping aside.
If the ban comes into force on Monday it means the African champions would not be able to play their Africa Cup of Nations qualifier on 10 September in South Africa.
Nigeria were banned from global football for nine days in July for government interference in the running of the football federation when Maigari was forced out of his post by a court ruling.
After his reinstatement, he was voted out of office by the NFF's executive committee a few days later. However, Fifa did not accept this and Maigari was once again back as president in August.
No comments:
Post a Comment