The Nation Newspaper

Tag: FIFA

  • Blatter faults FIFA on suspension

    Blatter faults FIFA on suspension

    FIFA President Joseph Blatter on Thursday said he was not given an opportunity to be heard by the organisation’s Ethics Committee before it provisionally suspended  him for 90 days.

    “Blatter is disappointed that the Ethics Committee did not follow the Code of Ethics and Disciplinary Code, both of which provide for an opportunity to be heard,’’ Blatter’s lawyers, Lorenz Erni and Richard Cullen, said in a written statement.

    “The ethics committee based its decision on a misunderstanding of the actions of the Attorney General in Switzerland, which has opened an investigation but brought no charge against the president,’’ the lawyers added.

    They said Swiss prosecutors would be obliged by law to dismiss the case if their investigation, barely two weeks old, did not establish sufficient evidence.

    “Blatter looks forward to the opportunity to present evidence that will demonstrate that he did not engage in any misconduct, criminal or otherwise,’’ the statement added.

     

  • Amaju Pinnick: FIFA presidential race, an intense affair

    Amaju Pinnick: FIFA presidential race, an intense affair

    NFF President Amaju Pinnick has reiterated that the conditions rolled out by the NFF Executive Committee for Nigerians aspiring for the Office of President of FIFA were perfectly in order and meant to ensure the aspirants make wide consultations before the real contest.

    Speaking on a sports programme on Television Continental (TVC) in Lagos on Friday, in direct reference to the condemnation of the NFF criteria by Olusegun Odegbami (one of the aspirants), Pinnick underscored the fact that the NFF was interested in protecting the image of the country.

    “The NFF is presently working to rebuild and repair the country’s football, in order that we can return to global reckoning. There are so many things we are doing to ensure this, and the NFF is determined that our country does not become a laughing stock as a result of another false step in the political sphere.

    “As the NFF has stated, over the past four years, our country has lost two elections into FIFA/CAF seats. Our stock in football politics has dipped, and for this reason, we must weigh carefully every other step we wish to take again in that respect. The FIFA presidential race is a very serious matter, an intense affair that demands playing the political game on a global canvass.”

    Pinnick said the conditions were not targeted at any aspirant and that they are simply designed to induct the determined persons into the furnace of football politics.

    “Our criteria is reasonable and sensible; this is not a matter for sentiment. We do not underestimate the capacity of the aspirants, but the FIFA presidential race involves too many things and rests on a lot of factors.”

  • Busy CAF, FIFA week for Nigerian refs

    Busy CAF, FIFA week for Nigerian refs

    Nigerian women referees are in for a busy week, dictated by CAF and FIFA

    On September 30 in Yaounde, Cameroun, referees Uloma Nneka and Bosede Momoh, who officiated in the All Africa Games Soccer event, will attend the Women Elite Referees course that will further sharpen their skills in readiness for top grade matches in Africa and the world.

    Uloma and Bose will be joined by Stella Iloje, who will be in Cameroun for the Physical Fitness Instructors Course.

    Before the CAF course, Uloma will lead Hilda Nkwocha, Mimisen Agatha, and Ajayi Foluso to Burkina Faso for a Women World Cup, U-20 qualifier 2nd round match pitching the host against Ethiopia on September 26.

    The Nigerian women U-20 team, the Falconets will also see action same week end against Congo DR in a match that will be handled by referee Therese Sylvie Abou’ou of Cameroun and her compatriots.

  • Fifa Under-17 World Cup: Amuneke not under pressure

    Fifa Under-17 World Cup: Amuneke not under pressure

    Golden Eaglets coach Emmanuel Amuneke is unfazed by the defending champions tag ahead of the Fifa Under 17 World Cup next month and has stressed that he is not under pressure to deliver.

    Looking back at a glorious career, the ex-Nigerian internationalrepresented Barcelona, Sporting Lisbon and played for Nigeria at the World Cup and African Cup of Nations, so he is used to performing at a high level.

    “I’m not under any pressure but I have the sense of direction that we are the defending champions at this level,” Amuneke told thenff.com.

    “I don’t want us to dwell so much on that. We keep working quietly and hard; when the time comes, we shall be ready.”

    He added : “We must psyche ourselves that we can do it, but I’m not under any pressure. I think I’ve always been used to pressure, previously as a player and now as a coach.

    “I believe in hard work and I don’t think hard work disappoints anyone.”

    As part of their preparations for the tournament which they have won four times, the Golden Eaglets finished third at the Suwon Tournament in Korea.

  • FIFA suspends Jerome Valcke

    FIFA suspends Jerome Valcke

    FIFA secretary general, Jerome Valcke, has been suspended indefinitely.

    A statement from football‘s world governing body said it had “been made aware of a series of allegations involving the secretary general.”

    Newspaper allegations on Thursday implicated Valcke, 54, in a scheme to sell World Cup tickets for above face value.

    The Frenchman, who has held his role at FIFA since 2007, said he denied the “fabricated and outrageous” allegations, the BBC reports.

    FIFA has been engulfed by claims of widespread corruption since May, when Swiss police raided a hotel in Zurich and arrested seven of its top executives.

    United States officials have since indicted those seven and two other officials on bribery and racketeering charges.

    President Sepp Blatter announced that he would stand down just days after winning re-election in June.

    Valcke, who last month was considering standing to be the new president, is Blatter’s number two at the organisation but now faces a formal investigation by the FIFA ethics committee.

    Earlier on Thursday Eugenio Figueredo, one of the seven officials arrested in May, had his extradition to the U.S approved.

    As well as the U.S inquiry, a Swiss investigation is looking into the bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.

    FIFA has recently set up a task force to tackle corruption which aims to “restore the integrity and reputation” of the organisation.

  • FIFA: OUK for president; ha, ha, ha!

    Hardball should have aptly tagged this piece: “The great Nigerian hustle”. But true to be told, it is not a Hardball original. It is a timeless line lifted from Time magazine. It was way back in 1994 in an edition reviewing the USA ’94 World Cup tournament.

    Time had spotlighted football super-powers – Brazil, Argentina, Italy, among others. In highlighting Nigeria the reigning African champions, the journal described the Super Eagles’ quest for the World trophy in that memorable but unflattering line, “The great Nigerian hustle.”

    Scalding as that line was, you couldn’t fault it. Then as it has remained now (save for few months of sanity), Nigeria’s football, especially its administration, was one great hustle. It was a game of chance, hit or miss. It was devoid of much thought. Players were like wild berries which were dispersed around the world by some ‘explosive mechanism’. At the advent of every tournament, they were gathered, not unlike wild fruits and assembled for contest.

    More troubling, however, to the likes of Time magazine was that Nigeria would hope to win tournaments against teams and countries which had prepared methodically.

    This immortal line comes to mind again as a result of the current clamour by some acolytes of Chief Orji Uzor Kalu (OUK) for him to join the race for the presidency of the world soccer ruling body – FIFA. OUK was a two-term governor of Abia State, a contractor, businessman and football enthusiast.

    But most remarkably, OUK represents the quintessence of “the great Nigerian hustle”.  We speak of that devil-may-care derring-do; that knack to seek to get results anyhow; that desultory, immethodical mode to seek to solve algebraic problems by bypassing equations and formulas.

    How else would one assess the ongoing noisy insistence on OUK vying for FIFA presidency if not an enactment of the good old hustle? FIFA and its current president, Mr. Sepp Blatter, is currently wracked by serious allegations of fraudulent activities. The world body is going through a phase of self-cleansing; the great football house is attempting a rebirth. How then does OUK come into this picture if not to woo opprobrium upon Nigeria?

    Is OUK remotely qualified for this job? Not by any chance. As governor of a wretched state in Nigeria, he shoveled state funds into running a football club (Enyimba FC of Aba) with the sole aim of garnering cheap popularity and massaging an excessively large ego.

    Thus this man spent millions of dollars over eight years to bankroll a football club in a state that lacked basic sporting facilities; a state that lacked basic existential amenities; that was scourged by poverty. He would misplace priorities by committing scarce funds to playing football for eight years.

    Today, some fellas are taking a disgraceful Nigerian joke all the way to the world stage in Switzerland. An awkward league of supporters including former President Ibrahim Babangida, octogenarian politician, Chief Mbazulike Amaechi, tarred CAF executive, Amos Adamu, former footballer, John Fashanu and sports promoter, Felix Awogu.

    Taking the joke even farther, one impetuous supporter said he is the “crazy outsider” FIFA needs. Well, before any ‘crazy’ move is made, let it not be neglected that OUK has a small issue with the anti-graft agency, EFCC. FIFA won’t need that now.

  • Mba gets FIFA assignment

    Mba gets FIFA assignment

    FIFA technical advisor on refereeing and NFF refereeing consultant,  Linus Mba, has been appointed by world football –governing body, FIFA, as Referee Assessor for the 2018 FIFA World Cup preliminary match between Namibia and The Gambia.

    The match will take place in Windhoek, capital of Namibia on October 13.

    With both teams set to execute the first leg of the fixture in Banjul two weeks earlier, the match at the Sam Nujoma Stadium, starting 4pm Namibian time, will have Botswanan Joshua Bondo as referee, with fellow Botswanans Oamogetse Godisamang, Moemedi Godfrey Monakwane and Lekgotia Leonard Johannes as assistant referee 1, assistant referee 2 and fourth official respectively.

    Jorge Mario Fernandes from Angola will be the match commissioner, and Nigerian Mba will be the referee assessor.

    Mba, a former FIFA referee, also served in the CAF Referees Committee and is highly -respected globally in the area of referee assessment and training.

  • FIFA pick date for presidential poll

    FIFA pick date for presidential poll

    A new FIFA president will be elected at an Extraordinary Congress on February 26 next year, Goal reports.

    The date was confirmed on Monday following an Extraordinary General Meeting of the governing body in Zurich, Switzerland.

    Outgoing president Sepp Blatter laid down his mandate back in June, just four days after he won a fifth consecutive term by beating Prince Ali bin Hussein May election.

    Blatter’s decision to step down came in the wake of a corruption probe in which 14 people, including nine FIFA officials, were indicted on charges of racketeering conspiracy and corruption two days before that election.

    And his presidency will now end in seven months’ time, with UEFA president Michel Platini widely tipped as a front-runner to succeed him.

    Platini has not confirmed whether he will stand but is reported to have the support of Europe, South America and Asia as well as the CONCACAF confederations.

    It is unclear who would potentially run against Platini, although former Brazil international Zico has also stated he would like to stand for the presidency.

  • Corruption: Switzerland extradites FIFA official to U.S

    Corruption: Switzerland extradites FIFA official to U.S

    Swiss authorities said on Thursday they had extradited to the United States an official detained in a U.S corruption investigation into world soccer’s governing body FIFA.

    They did not name the official, but the news came six days after a source told Reuters that Jeffrey Webb – one of seven current and former FIFA employees arrested in Switzerland in May – had agreed not to fight his extradition.

    The allegations under investigation by U.S and Swiss authorities cover bribery, fraud and money laundering, including possible corruption in the awarding of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to Russia and Qatar respectively.

    They have rocked the administration of the world’s most popular sport, raised questions for the game’s powerful commercial sponsors, and forced FIFA President Sepp Blatter to announce he will step down.

    A Swiss justice official said: “The first of the seven FIFA officials being held in custody in Switzerland was extradited to the U.S on July 15.

    “He was handed over to a three-man U.S police escort in Zurich who accompanied him on the flight to New York.”

    Webb and the six others were arrested by Swiss police in a dawn raid on a luxury Zurich hotel two days before a FIFA Congress in May where Blatter was re-elected for a fifth term.

    An indictment unsealed by U.S prosecutors in Brooklyn charged soccer officials and marketing executives with exploiting the sport for their own gain through bribes of $150 million over 24 years.

  • Female World Cup: USA defeat Nigeria

    Female World Cup: USA defeat Nigeria

    The Super Falcons of Nigeria have been defeated by the United State of America at the ongoing FIFA Women World Cup in Canada.

    The United States team won the Group D 3rd leg match against Nigeria after securing a goal just at the end of the first half of the crucial match.