FIFA threatens Nigeria with suspension unless government leaves soccer team alone

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This article was published 02/07/2010 (5939 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

JOHANNESBURG – FIFA will suspend Nigeria from world soccer unless the country’s government overturns its ban on the national team by Monday.

FIFA spokesman Nicolas Maingot said that FIFA will contact the government by letter on Friday to tell Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan he has until 6 p.m local time Monday to back down on his threat to pull the Nigerian Football Federation out of international competition for two years.

"Failure to do so will result in the suspension of the NFF," Maingot said.

FIFA rules try to protect soccer from government interference, and have the power to suspend member federations which do not manage their affairs independently.

National and club teams then cannot play in international competitions and football officials are barred from attending meetings. FIFA also freezes financial support for suspended members.

Jonathan said Wednesday that he was banning the national men’s team from international competition and dissolving the NFF management board after the country’s first-round exit from the World Cup in South Africa.

Jonathan also ordered a probe into alleged financial corruption at the federation.

Maingot said FIFA will not recognize an interim management team sent in by Jonathan’s government to run the federation.

Nigeria’s representative on the FIFA 24-member ruling executive, Amos Adamu, also will be in his home country on Monday for last-minute mediation.

Nigeria was knocked out of the World Cup last week after losing two of its first-round matches and scraping a 2-2 draw with South Korea.

The Super Eagles, one of six African teams at the tournament, finished last in Group B, while Argentina and South Korea advanced.

Maingot insisted that the Nigeria dispute should not distract from what could be a historic day for African football. Ghana plays Uruguay in the quarter-finals Friday, attempting to become the first African team to reach the World Cup semifinals.

Nigerian Sports Minister Ibrahim Bio could not be reached for comment Friday, though local newspapers quoted him as saying Nigeria would move forward with Jonathan’s ban regardless of FIFA’s actions.

"My friend, you cannot have cancer and continue to live with it because you don’t want to spill the blood," Bio said Thursday. "We are ready to spill blood to remove the cancer."

On the streets, Nigerians already dejected by the Super Eagles’ lacklustre performance seemed to welcome any change to a squad that once brought the nation glory when it made the second round in the 1994 World Cup.

Jonathan, who became president in May after the death of elected leader Umaru Yar’Adua, has been gathering public support after promising to change a government widely considered as one of the world’s most corrupt.

It appears that the soccer federation is his first tangible target.

"Football gets Nigerians drunk and helps them forget their sorrows, forget that the roads are bad and there is no electricity," columnist Victor Ehikhamenor wrote in Friday’s edition of the Lagos-based NEXT newspaper. "They are living substandard, below-the-breadline lives while our thieving leaders build castles in space."

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Associated Press writer Jon Gambrell contributed to this report from Lagos, Nigeria.