- Title: NIGERIA: SOCCER/FOOTBALL: Soccer fans in Nigeria react to FIFA suspension
- Date: 10th July 2014
- Summary: LAGOS, NIGERIA (JULY 10, 2014) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF PEOPLE WALKING PAST NEWSPAPER STAND
- Embargoed: 25th July 2014 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Nigeria
- Country: Nigeria
- Topics: Sports
- Reuters ID: LVACYK2EYKK30JUQXKUWDOIJUD43
- Story Text: There were mixed reactions from soccer fans in Lagos on Thursday (July 10) to Nigeria's suspension from international football by FIFA because of what it called government interference.
The suspension was imposed after a court order replaced the president of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) with a civil servant pending a full judicial hearing into the organisation. FIFA said the new leader then held unofficial meetings.
Newspapers in Lagos on Thursday lead their front pages with the suspension.
Soccer fan and information technology engineer Tunlope Ogunwobi said FIFA itself is guilty of mixing sport and politicis and he called on the Nigerian government to resolve the issue.
"Even FIFA also mixes football with politics themselves, so I mean and the government of the nation should move the nation forward and if the government of the nation feels that the football house is having issues and really Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) is really - there's so much politics in it, they're always quarrelling with the coaches, complaining about some players, so the government should sanitise issues," said Ogunwobi.
Soccer commentator Emeka Nwani said there was no way of avoiding government interference in football and FIFA knows that.
"The NFF, they have budgetary allocations. The NFF is captured in the budget of every government in this country, so that interference must be there as long as they are bringing out that money and that is my quarrel with FIFA. FIFA will not tell Nigerians that they don't know that the government funds football in this country and that the government funds NFF. I am not saying that interference is good. I know what FIFA, you know, means by not interfering, so that if any federation wants to do what they do, they will do it without thinking of 'oh, this person is related to this governor, this person is related to this person in the presidency'. But it cannot be possible in Nigeria when that same federation gets money from the government," said Nwani.
He added that the likely solution to future suspension will be to create an environment where Nigeria's government is not directly involved.
"I am just saying that if I am in government and this type of thing happens, I will just say 'NFF, we're not fighting, we are not quarrelling'. If there's war in this country, nobody will talk about football, so the government must make that enabling environment ready."
Soccer fan and aspiring academy player Boboye Sylvester said the suspension will affect people, but not discourage those who have a passion for the game.
"We will continue practicing in any way that we can, but not being able to associate with others, not from this arena alone but out of this arena, is really going to affect us, because that improves our game, our mentality, our skills and everything we are meant to learn from this game," said Sylvester.
The FIFA statement said the suspension will be lifted once the court actions have been withdrawn and the properly elected NFF executive committee, general assembly and administration are able to work without any interference in their affairs.
Nigeria, the African champions, reached the last 16 at the World Cup in Brazil before losing 2-0 to France. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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