By Mark Baber
October 27 – President of the Confederation of African Football (CAF), Issa Hayatou spoke out over the weekend on Nigeria’s football administration crisis, saying he had managed to delay a ban until after the African Women Championship final between Nigeria and Cameroon, which the country won 2-0, but that a ban was likely to be imposed on Monday.
Hayatou is the member of FIFA’s Emergency Committee representing CAF, and it is the Emergency Committee which will be deciding on the issue of whether a ban should be imposed after the Nigerian Federal Court sitting in Jos ruled last Thursday that Chris Giwa, winner of a disputed August 26 election, should be reinstalled as the legitimate President of the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) and the winner of the disputed FIFA-backed election of September 30, Amaju Pinnick should step down.
The Pinnick faction has filed a “Stay-of-Execution” of the order with the court, which is due to be heard on Wednesday, whilst Giwa has been making some moves to consolidate his position, seeking to reinstate Stephen Keshi as national team coach and thanking the Federal Government for its support of the Nigerian Women’s Team.
FIFA has been regularly intervening in Nigerian football affairs in order to try and bring sanity and order in the face of feuding factions. The August 26th election was widely seen as illegitimate, particularly as the former NFF President was arrested shortly before the vote was taken. However, the September 30th election of Pinnick has also been fiercely criticised as corrupt and against NFF rules.
That Giwa would take his case to a civil court was entirely predictable, and the attempts of members of the Pinnick faction to ignore court orders in order to try and follow FIFA demands can now be seen to have backfired.
Hayatou is quoted as saying, “I appealed to FIFA to give until Monday for Nigeria to put its act together. After that, there is absolutely nothing I can do. It is all very disappointing because we have over 50 National Associations in Africa, but a big country like Nigeria is the one always giving us the biggest headache.
“Nigeria signed to be part of the football world by joining FIFA, and opted to abide by the FIFA-approved Statutes that you have. How many times do we have to tell your country that football matters are not taken to civil courts? If Nigeria no longer wants to be part of the football world, then so be it.”
FIFA has long supported autonomy for football matters from civil courts. Nevertheless, FIFA is itself subject to the civil courts in Switzerland and the supremacy of European competition law and European human rights law has been firmly established by European courts.
If FIFA do move to ban Nigeria today, there is no guarantee the Nigerian courts will back down, that the Nigerian government will introduce legislation to give FIFA diktats primacy over the Nigerian legal system or even that FIFA’s actions will be supported by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, if Giwa takes the matter to that court.
Although the ban will probably be presented as being the result of “government interference,” the Nigerian Sports Minister, Tammy Danagogo clearly has little control over the situation although he also tried to take credit for the delay in FIFA moving to impose a ban saying, “I only pleaded with CAF to allow the Falcons play the final, which they agreed, but CAF has made it clear it will get in touch with FIFA tomorrow (Monday) to talk to them on our behalf. If they are unable to convince FIFA, then I am sure they will pronounce a ban on Nigeria immediately, which I think will not be good for us.”
Danagogo pleaded with FIFA not to ban Nigeria over the actions of Giwa saying, “Now, FIFA’s ban is hovering around Nigeria and I have made it clear to CAF that court case is just a one man affair and it will be unfair for FIFA to punish the entire Nigeria just because of one man. I have told Chris Giwa to relax his mind, but he said no. He is thinking he will win in the court, which FIFA does not want to hear. I have made it clear to all aggrieved persons to take their matter to the NFF Appeal Committee or Court of Arbitration in Sports (CAS).
“As it is now, the decision to ban Nigeria may be taken on Monday, if nothing is done by all football stakeholders, the judiciary and our law enforcement agencies should understand the situation on ground.
“Each time they take football matters to the ordinary court instead of CAS, Nigeria stands the risk of being banned from all football activities. I just hope FIFA will see reasons with us,”
Danagogo also blasted the Director of Nigeria’s State Security Services who he blamed for delaying Pinnick at Lagos airport, meaning he missed the flight to Namibia, much to the concern of FIFA officials.
If a ban is imposed, Nigeria’s qualification match against Congo on the November 15 for the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations would be in grave danger.
However, despite the damage a ban could do to African football (more than 1 in 6 Africans are Nigerian), at a time when African football has many other problems on its hands, FIFA looks to have tied their own hands with their previous statements and a ban which may be seen as a form of selective enforcement of FIFA statutes and which may prove to be counter-productive.
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