The Nation Newspaper

Tag: FIFA

  • Fashanu accuses NFF of misleading FIFA

    Fashanu accuses NFF of misleading FIFA

    Ex-footballer,John Fashanu, has reacted to the suspension of Nigeria by FIFA from all football matters accusing the ousted board of the NFF of misleading FIFA.

    “What FIFA used in suspending Nigeria was correspondence from the dissolved board of the NFF, who in my opinion lied about what truly went down regarding the court order and the congress” he told SL10

    “The court dissolved the board on account of a stakeholder’s injunction, so why not slam the person who took a football issue to a civil court as contained in their rules?

    “But I guess the past board of the NFF misled FIFA by running to them with claims that Government influenced their sacking which isn’t true.

    “I doubt if FIFA is aware of the legality of extra ordinary congress because what the past board in my opinion told FIFA was misleading.”

    Fashanu advised football stakeholders in Nigeria to always carry FIFA along in their dealings with the NFF to avoid this type  of logjam in future.

    He added: “The wise thing they should have done was to submit all document from the extra ordinary congress to FIFA as soon as it was over and even before convening it, they should have informed FIFA, in that way FIFA will not slam ban hearing from a drowning board”

    In conclusion he warned the football house to adhere strictly to FIFA’s directive to reach for an out of court settlement with aggrieved parties to ease talks with FIFA as to why Maigari and co were sacked from the board of the NFF.

  • Suspension of Nigeria: FIFA can’t intimidate Nigeria — Onigbinde

    • Wants FG to hands off sponsorship of NFF

    Former FIFA Advisor and member FIFA Study group, Festus Adegboye Onigbinde has called the bluff of world football governing body FIFA for suspending Nigeria for government interference in football matters as a result of a court order last Wednesday.

    According to FIFA pronouncement: “The decision follows a letter sent by FIFA to the NFF on  July 4, 2014, in which it expressed its great concern after the NFF was served with court proceedings and consequently an order preventing the president of the NFF, the NFF Executive Committee members and the NFF Congress from running the affairs of Nigerian football was granted by a High Court of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

    “The said court order compelled the Nigerian Minister of Sports to appoint a senior member of the civil service to manage the NFF until the matter was heard in court, without giving any date for such a hearing. The authorities then appointed a person who decided to convene an extraordinary general assembly on July 5, 2014. This extraordinary general assembly was convened in violation of the NFF statutes”, the statement read on FIFA website yesterday.

    Onigbinde however told SportingLife that it was high time “Nigeria should call a spade a spade because he who pays the piper surely will dictate its tune. You don’t expect a government to invest huge sums of money in the running of football in Nigeria and still be handicapped in making some contributions to football in the country.

    ‘If FIFA don’t consider Nigerian government sponsorship of football and the huge sum of monies in day to day running of the game as well as sponsorship of national teams in world tournaments as government interference but intervening as a result of court order to ensure peace and order as interference then my advice is that the government of Nigeria should hands off entirely the finance and sponsorship of the game in the country. Let the administrators removed by the NFF Congress be reinstated and start sponsoring football all alone without the support of the Federal Government of Nigeria and see how effective and efficient it would be.

    “If FIFA say we should bring them back, lets bring them back and let them go and look for their money to run their affairs because giving them money will also amount to interference.

    It is a very simple solution, let them bring them back and let them go and look for their own money to run their football since FIFA say government should not interfere in their affairs.

    “What the nation should do now is to sit down and restructure our football physically and technically.  What I expect the Nigeria government to tell FIFA that they have hands off and have left them to run the game without expecting their money. They should also tell the state governments who have been spending so much on football to hand off, same to the local governments to also hands off.

    “Government should not be offended with the stance of FIFA, they should take it to be that FIFA have taken away a load from them. And if tomorrow, we decide to bring ourselves together to call ourselves the Nigeria soccer association at least that one is not under FIFA and if we decided to play among ourselves FIFA will not say we cannot play our football, they only said we can play among the FIFA member nations. And maybe for the next three years we can decide to be playing within ourselves, at least FIFA cannot arrest us for playing within ourselves.

    And, while we are on brake, we should be restructuring and for now the government should listen to FIFA and restate them for them to run their own football. They should not intimidate us by this suspension.

    “If I were the Minister I won’t  bulge because football is dead both administratively and technically in the country and we need time to re-organise our football. If this suspension would help us to achieve this then let it be”, the former first indigenous coach of the Super Eagles  that led Nigeria to the 2002 Korea and Japan World Cup told SportingLife.

     

  • No positive doping tests at World Cup, says FIFA

    A very player tested for drugs at the World Cup in Brazil has been cleared of doping after more than 1,000 tests came back negative, FIFA’s medical committee announced.

    Jiri Dvorak, FIFA’s chief medical officer, told a newsmen that every player on each of the 32 competing teams – 736 players in total – had provided blood and urine samples.

    Dvorak said 777 out-of-competition tests were conducted between March 1 and June 11 plus another 232, four from each of the first 58 matches played in Brazil, since the tournament kicked off on June 12, and all came back negative.

    “We have not found any prohibitive substances… either prior or during competition,” Dvorak said.

    FIFA said players from the four remaining teams left in the tournament would be subject to further random testing with the results expected before their team’s next game.

    The samples have all been flown across the Atlantic Ocean to the World Anti-Doping Agency’s laboratory in Switzerland after WADA revoked the accreditation of the drug-testing facility in Rio for failing to comply with international standards.

    The last time a player was caught doping at a World Cup was in 1994 when Argentina’s Diego Maradona tested positive for ephedrine and was sent home in disgrace.

    Football has long viewed itself as largely immune from the use of performance enhancing drugs which has badly tarnished other sports such as cycling.

    This week, Michel D’Hoogie, the chairman of FIFA’s Medical Committee, said he did not think the use of performance enhancing drugs was widespread in the game.

    “I will never say there is no doping in football, but I say there is no doping culture in football,” D’Hoogie told a news conference.

    FIFA has steadily stepped up its drug testing procedures over recent years, including the introduction of biological profiling of players to track changes in their blood samples.

    In conjunction with WADA, FIFA began building profiles on players in 2011 but this is the first time it has used it at the World Cup.

    WADA’s director general, David Howman, applauded FIFA for its tougher stance in a video. “Hats off to FIFA,” Howman said.

  • Nigerians shocked, disappointed after FIFA ban

    Nigerians have expressed shock and disappointment following the ban imposed by FIFA on the country as a result of government’s interference in the running of football there.

    Nigeria has been suspended from international football after the Sports Minister Tammy Danagogo appointed a civil servant to run the country’s football following a court ruling which restrained the elected executive committee of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) from office.

    The country will be barred from taking part in the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup in Canada if the ban is not lifted by July 15.

    The country’s U-17 team, who are the defending world champions, are also in danger of missing out on the African Junior Championship next year in Niger Republic as they are due to play a qualifying match on July 20 in DR Congo.

    Former Nigeria coach Christian Chukwu expressed disappointment over the ban by FIFA and feared for the future of the game in the country.

    “I am sad to hear that FIFA have banned us. From all indications, if things are not done according to FIFA, we will miss out of the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations, our U-20 girls won’t play in Canada and lots more. Our football will suffer a lot as this can only take us backwards,” Chukwu said.

    Former Nigeria skipper Mutiu Adepoju said he was shocked by the country’s suspension.

    “FIFA have banned us? I am short of words, I don’t know what to say right now. I am short of words,” Adepoju said.

    Former Lobi Stars and Akwa United coach Justin Tenger said it was a shame that we have to be told to do the right thing by FIFA.

    He said: “This is the saddest thing ever to happen to Nigerian football. Where are we heading to now?

    “It’s too bad for another body to put our house in order for us, when we should organise ourselves better instead of what we are now witnessing.”

    A football stakeholder, Aminu Kurfi demanded for the resignation of the country’s Sports Minister Danagogo for his poor handling of the crisis that has rocked the country’s football.

    “We talked to top officials that we are doomed, but they refused to heed our sincere warning and this is where we now find ourselves,” he lamented.

    “The minister, a qualified lawyer, was misguided by those who ought to know better. He should quit on account of his poor handling of this matter.”

    He added: “This was always a witch hunt and now the government has to rescind its decision and revert to status quo.”

  • Falconets caught in FIFA web

    • Body refuses to issue World Cup tickets
    • Team stranded in Abuja

    World soccer governing body, FIFA, may have commenced the process of ostracizing Nigeria from global football activities following the recent purported ousting of the Alhaji Aminu Maigari led Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), by a section of the football fraternity that brands itself ‘congress’.

    This indication came to light following the refusal of FIFA to issue travelling tickets to Nigeria’s U-20 Women national team, Falconets to take part in the upcoming U-20 Women’s World Cup tagged Canada 2014. The tournament runs between August 5 and 24 and the Nigerian side was scheduled to travel out early for acclimatization and play some preparatory games before the tournament.

    A confused official of the team said the team went to the Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport in the course of the week but were told that the team does not have tickets from FIFA to travel out. They have since returned to their hotel  in Abuja and have been training under darkness as the foisted NFF leadership seeks to conceal FIFA action against Nigeria.

    The team handled by Peter Dededvo, have been in darkness as to the next point of action, even as there are indications that FIFA will not blink an eye in its determination to ensure that Nigeria tows international football order by reinstating the Maigari led board and wait for the August 26 Congress to take necessary action instead of  the current state of brazen interference of the Sports Ministry that is being witnessed.

     

    “Those in doubt of what we are saying can go to the NFF and also the Falconets hotel in Abuja and see how dejected the girls are because they don’t know what will happen next, especially as all those concerned are flexing muscles to the detriment of Nigerian football”, a source hinted on Wednesday.

  • NFF: Nigeria safe from FIFA hammer – Minister

    NFF: Nigeria safe from FIFA hammer – Minister

    The Minister of Sports, Tamuno Danagogo, on Wednesday assured that Nigeria is not at risk of the world football ruling body, FIFA’s hammer over the crisis that engulfed the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF).

    Apart from a court order, some members of the NFF board removed its Chairman, Aminu Maigari from office. FIFA had threatened to sanction Nigeria if the government was behind the crisis in NFF.

    Speaking with State House correspondents, the minister said the government did not unduly interfere in the issue as a legitimate NFF Congress was responsible for Maigari’s ouster.

    According to him, the NFF crisis was fuelled by moves to stop Maigari from manipulating and succeeding himself in the forthcoming NFF executive committee elections billed to hold in the next few weeks.

    He said: “Nigeria is safe, I can tell you that. What FIFA wants is for the right things to be done and there should be a high level of independence in what is happening. So far, if you look at what has happened, I think government has been very fair, government has done everything possible not to unduly interfere.

    “As a government, we have constitutional duty to maintain law and order. When factions in football family begin to dispute, we have a duty to see that we don’t allow them kill themselves, we don’t allow them destroy the buildings where they are operating. Beyond that, we have not done anything. What we have done, is to see that law and order is maintained.

    “Firstly, you must understand that the first thing that happened as soon as we returned from Brazil, was the old NFF, that is the Maigari-led NFF on the 3rd of July, wrote to me, informing me that there is a court order saying that they are not the legitimate executive council of the NFF and that a civil servant has been appointed or directed to take over and then urged me to intervene to maintain law and order. And what we did was to ensure that there is a law and order.

    “And of course, the group of FA chairmen and stakeholders, who also didn’t want the Maigari government to continue, called their congress and the congress passed a vote of no confidence on that exco. At the beginning, FIFA thought maybe it was a government action, a court action, but we have gone far beyond that. We are talking about a legitimate Congress of NFF, of the football family in the whole country meeting and passing a vote of no confidence. That is not government action. It is strictly a decision of a majority of football stakeholders in the country.

    He went on: “Ordinarily, the tenure of the Maigari led exco has almost come to an end, may be by July or August. And it is a routine, even in our national politics, that once we get to election season, there is always a dispute between parties who are interested.”

     

  • Obasi on song in Schalke romp

    Obasi on song in Schalke romp

    Nigeria winger,Chinedu Obasi has put the disappointment of missing the 2014 FIFA World Cup behind him to focus on achieving success with German Bundesliga club,Schalke 04.

    Obasi,who is currently taking part in pre-season with the Gelsenkirchen club, scored in the pre-season friendly against Westfalenliga outfit DJK TuS Hordel at Lohrheidestadion.

    It was Schalke’s first pre-season friendly game ahead of the 2014/15 campaign.

    Obasi scored from the penalty spot in the 55th minute after Sydney Sam was fouled in the box.

    The 28-year-old Nigerian scored three league goals in 15 Bundesliga appearances for Schalke in the 2013/14 season.

    He has now signaled his intent for the new season with his goal scoring performance against Hordel.

    The next pre-season friendly will be in Arnsberg on Thursday at the Hochsauerlandkreis Arena.

  • Thiago’s appeal rejected by FIFA

    Thiago’s appeal rejected by FIFA

    Thiago Silva will miss Brazil’s FIFA World Cup semi-final after an appeal to rescind the caution he received against Colombia was rejected.

    Brazil captain Thiago Silva received his second booking of the tournament in the 64th minute of their 2-1 win over Colombia last Friday for blocking goalkeeper David Ospina from taking a kick.

    The Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) appealed the decision in the hope of having the decision overturned to allow the 29-year-old to play in tonight’s last-four meeting with Germany at Estadio Mineirao in Belo Horizonte.

    However, their plea has fallen on deaf ears, with FIFA’s disciplinary committee instead opting to dismiss the case.

    A FIFA statement read: “With regard to CBF’s request for the cancellation of the caution shown to the player Thiago Emiliano da Silva during the match played against Colombia, the chairman came to the conclusion that the FIFA Disciplinary Committee cannot consider the matter given the fact that there is no legal basis entitling it to grant such request.”

    Meanwhile, the disciplinary committee also confirmed that no action will be taken against Colombia defender Juan Zuniga for a challenge that saw Brazil star Neymar suffer a tournament-ending injury.

    Neymar sustained a cracked vertebra in the 86th minute of the clash after Zuniga’s knee came into contact with the Barcelona forward’s back.

    The CBF complained to FIFA about the tackle, for which Napoli player Zuniga did not receive a yellow card.

    But FIFA has ruled that they cannot issue a punishment as the incident “did not escape the match officials’ attention”.

  • I never asked FIFA to ban Matuidi — Onazi

    I never asked FIFA to ban Matuidi — Onazi

    Super Eagles midfielder Eddy Onazi has said he never asked  FIFA to ban France international Blaise Matuidi for injuring him when both countries met in the second round of the Brazil 2014 World Cup.

    “I never granted any interview calling for FIFA to sanction Blaise Matuidi. I was unfortunate to be at the wrong end. It could have been him,” the former My People FC starlet said on his official Twitter page.

    The Nigeria international also revealed that he did not suffer any fracture but only sprained his ankle, and he has confirmed as much through the same medium.

    “Contrary to what you have read, I didn’t suffer any fracture. Fortunately, it was a sprain,”  Onazi added.

    The central midfielder is reportedly on the radar of teams in England, and is available for a transfer fee in the region of eight million Euros.

  • Do they know there’s a World Cup?

    WORLD Football ruling body, FIFA have estimated that about 1.1 viewers the world over will watch the World Cup in Brazil telecast live. This is minus 600,000 people expected in Brazil to cheer on their countries. Notwithstanding this stunning revelation, Sunday Nation has uncovered Nigerians who do not care about the football fiesta. While some of them are conscious about the global event but are not bothered and will not be joining the massive viewership, others don’t even know there is a World Cup happening anytime soon.

    Interestingly, some of them are housewives and mothers who are closely connected to husbands, sons, and daughters who would give their right hands to see World Cup matches live.

    According to Mrs. Nike Omidiji, a Secretary, “Nothing concerns me with the World Cup. If they collect their money, they won’t give me so what is my problem with it. Why will I stress myself watching it or give myself wahala, thinking about whether Nigeria will win or not when the country is under Boko Haram threat.”

    Mrs. C. Fashina, a shop owner and is remotely aware of the World Cup but is not attached to it, she says; “It is a result of entertainment now. I don’t know anything about the World Cup, though I’m aware it’s starting soon. I doubt if I will watch it. My only care is that Nigeria should win.”

    For Mrs. Hannah Olupinla, an accountant, she would not be watching because for health reason: “World cup, hmmm, I don’t use to watch World Cup o because I cannot give myself hypertension (laughs). It is true now. I don’t think I will be watching it. I pray to God to help Nigeria reach the final stage so that they will bring the trophy home. However, will they share me part of the money that government will give them when they come back with the trophy? Therefore, what is the essence of watching it and wasting my saliva, my energy and shouting it is a goal when they score. Before you know it my BP will just shot up.”

    Businessperson; Mrs. Juliana Shogo shares Hannah’s sentiment. “I don’t know about any World Cup coming up because I am not a football fan. I don’t really watch football and then most of the times Nigeria don’t do well and in the end I will suffer hypertension because they will end up losing and give me pains. I am not watching this year’s World Cup,” she declared.

    Pa James is a security guard who identifies with the World Cup as a tool to while away time “I don’t know what they do at the World Cup but I know they kick the ball around and everybody watch it on TV. I don’t know much about the World Cup. But if when they start I will watch.”

    Victoria Omowunmi and Ganiat Kareem are both salon assistants and their opinions defer on the World Cup. For Omowunmi football does not just jell with her; “I don’t watch it because I don’t like football.” Nevertheless, for Ganiat, Bokom Haram insurgency, insecurity, educational problems and unemployment in the country occupies her mind than 22 men fighting over one ball.

    Hear her: “Bring back our girls. It is not World Cup that is on my mind. World Cup will not bring money to my family and let the Polytechnics call off their strike so students can return to school. One of my family friends in the military just died because of the insurgency in the north. Nigeria should even forget about going to World Cup because there are other things to take care of; there is no security, no jobs. Look at me, I am a graduate, and I work in a salon. I am angry. Of all things, World Cup, what do I care? Is it The World Cup that will give me a job?”

    However, Odunayo Akande, another housewife says he will see some matches with her husband; “I don’t like watching football because most of the time I just sleep off but if my husband is watching it, I will watch it with him.”