Article 13, par. 1 and article 17, par. 1 of the FIFA Statutes oblige member
associations to manage their affairs independently and with no influence
from third parties.
The FIFA Emergency Committee on Wednesday suspended the Nigeria
Football Federation with immediate effect, on account of government’s
interference.
A statement on FIFA’s website said the decision follows a letter sent by
the world soccer governing body to NFF last Friday in which it expressed
great concern at the latest development in Nigerian football.
With the suspension Nigerian teams and officials would be barred from
international tournaments and meetings until normalcy returns to the
Glass House.
The statement recalled that the NFF was served with court proceedings
and consequently an order preventing the president of the Federation, the
executive committee members and the body’s Congress from running the
affairs of Nigerian football was granted by a High Court in Jos, Plateau
State, last Thursday.
The court order compelled the Minister of Sports, Tamuno Danagogo, to
appoint a senior member of the civil service to manage the Federation
until the matter was heard in court, without giving any date for such a
hearing.
FIFA has set a July 15 deadline for Nigeria to resolve the problem or the
country’s team would be excluded from the Women’s Under-20 World
Cup starting August 5 in Canada.
But the NFF elective congress has been tentatively fixed for August 26.
“The suspension will be lifted once the court actions have been withdrawn
and the properly elected NFF Executive Committee, the NFF general
assembly and the NFF administration are able to work without any
interference in their affairs,” FIFA said.
Source:The Nation
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