The General Secretary of the Nigeria
Football Federation Mr. Musa Amadu has said that the Federation only got
“a routine letter” from the international football governing body FIFA
rather than a query.
Amadu said that the NFF was surprised
that a letter asking for current position of things with the league
would be interpreted as query or threat from Switzerland where FIFA has
its headquarters.
“We are responding to the letter but we
all know that no matter how insignificant a petition may be from a
country, the basic thing FIFA does is to ask for state of affairs from
the country’s FA and that is exactly what has been done in this
instance,” Amadu said.
In the letter sent to the NFF Abuja
office on Tuesday, FIFA asked the NFF to furnish it with details of the
league and the company registered to run the league in Nigeria.
The letter, dated July 30, and signed by
its Secretary General, Jerome Valcke, was in reaction to a petition by
Rumson Baribote, alleging irregularities in the running of football in
the country by the NFF leadership.
The petition, dated July 19, alleged
that the NFF fraudulently registered a private company (League
Management Company) to run the Nigerian football league as against FIFA,
CAF, NFF and NPL statutes.
Baribote wrote in his petition, “The
above mentioned name (NFF) has virtually hijacked our functions as the
chairman and that of the elected board members of the Nigerian premier
league and given same to a company of his through the instrumentality of
the government on Nigeria corporate affairs commission.”
FIFA then asked Amadu for explanation on the alleged illegality by the NFF President, Alhaji Aminu Maigari.
FIFA, in the letter, under the headline
“Request for a report on the current situation” wrote, “Dear General
Secretary, We refer to the attached letter dated 19 July 2013. The
author of the letter alleges that several actions taken by the NFF
Executive Committee are inconsistent with the NFF Status.
“In order for our office to get a clear
picture of the current situation, we would like to kindly request you to
provide us with a report. In particular, this report should include a
description of any actions that have been taken by the NFF in relation
to and affecting the Nigeria Premier League and/or its officers, as well
as details of any related action filed in an ordinary court. We thank
you in advance and look forward to receiving your report.”
Baribote was the Chairman of the league board before he was removed from office last year.
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