Federation of International Football Associations (FIFA) has threatened to ban Nigeria ,if the crisis rocking Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) is not resolved,National Daily learnt.
In a last-ditch effort to avoid embarrassing Nigeria because of the respect the world’s highest football organ has for the country, FIFA has also requested to have a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari in London.
FIFA was quoted to have said that it has “huge respect” for Nigeria, and added that this was why it wanted to do everything possible to avoid a clampdown, including a possible meeting with the Nigerian President.
General Secretary of the NFF headed by Amaju Pinnick, Mohammed Sanusi, had said that he could only be sacked by a body recognised by Confederation of African Football (CAF) or FIFA.
Mr Sanusi added that he would not be bothered by any declaration of his being sacked by any group.
The Chris Giwa-led NFF board had on Sunday said it had terminated the appointment of Mr Sanusi as NFF General Secretary.
According to the Giwa-led NFF board, Sanusi’s appointment termination followed the enrolment Order 5, page 3 of the Order of the Federal High Court in Jos.
According to the order, all acts, resolutions and or decisions made or taken by the Executive Committee of the NFF purportedly elected on September 30, 2014 were also set aside.
Fresh crisis started in NFF when the Minister of Sports and Youths Development, Solomon Dalung backed Chris Giwa to take over NFF’s glasshouse against Amaju Pinnik who was in Russia for the 2018 World Cup.
Mr Festus Keyamo (SAN), the counsel to Pinnick had said that the order of the court recognising the NFF election of Chris Giwa would not be binding on FIFA, as he added that such step if not quickly reversed could earn Nigeria stiff penalty from the world governing soccer body.
However, Keyamo said Mr Pinnick had never been a party to any case in court, as he also noted that the order of the court was not binding on FIFA, of which the NFF is an affiliate