The Nigeria Football Federation has responded swiftly to the recent sanction placed on the federation by the world football governing body, FIFA.
The NFF reacted to the sanction through their Twitter handle, with tweets signed by the President of the Federation, Amaju Melvin Pinnick.
NFF President has directed that an internal inquiry is to be instituted immediately & persons found culpable be dealt with.
“We accept the decision of the FIFA Disciplinary C’ttee to fine the NFF and award the match to Algeria.
At the same time, I want to assure that persons responsible for this slip would not be given just a slap on the wrist.
We are actually looking at a re-organization of the Technical Department.
The Technical Committee will henceforth play a serious superintending role on all details, no matter how minute, in technical matters.
“It is important that all committees and depts at the NFF should move at the same pace as the Executive C’ttee,” said Pinnick via Twitter.
The Nigeria Football Federation was sanctioned for fielding an ineligible player in the match between Algeria and Nigeria on 10 November 2017.
However, the sanction does not in any way hurt Nigeria’s qualification for the 2018 FIFA World Cup finals, as the Super Eagles had picked the ticket from Group B ahead of the clash in Constantine.
The match is declared to be forfeited and awarded 3-0 in favour of Algeria, with the NFF also receiving a fine of CHF 6,000.
The sanction relates to the player Abdullahi Shehu failing to serve the automatic one-match suspension imposed on him as a result of receiving a caution in two separate matches of the same competition.
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