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Godfrey Gaya, a former lawmaker, has urged the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to ensure disciplinary measures are taken against erring officials following FIFA’s sanction on Nigeria for using an ineligible player.
TheNewsGuru reports that FIFA had on Tuesday said NFF was to pay a fine of 6,000 Swiss Francs for fielding an ineligible Shehu Abdullahi against Algeria.
The Nov. 10 match in Constantine was a Russia 2018 World Cup qualifying fixture, and it had ended 1-1.
The Super Eagles defender Abdullahi Shehu was to serve the automatic one-match suspension as a result of receiving a caution in two separate matches of the same competition.
Gaya, who was a former Chairman of the House of Representatives’ Committee on Sports, however told Sports Journalist on Wednesday in Abuja that the development was embarrassing.
He said whoever was responsible should be sanctioned.
“This has happened repeatedly in NFF and sanctions have not been applied.
“It was said that FIFA informed NFF prior to the situation, but it did not take it into consideration.
“That match against Algeria was inconsequential and we could have even filed players that had not featured at all in any of the qualifiers.
“If we had not qualified before that match we would have lost our chance at the World Cup, in addition to the sanction.
“ We are supposed to be participating at the World Cup with our heads high, but now it appears as though we are not capable of running our football well or keeping records,’’ Gaya said.
The former House Committee chairman however blamed the NFF General Secretary, Mohammed Sanusi, for the negligence.
“The General Secretary should know that this is his duty as number one administrator and the chief executive officer of the NFF.
“ If the letter which FIFA sent was not worked upon then that responsibility rests on his shoulders,’’ he added.
Meanwhile, Amaju Pinnick, the President of NFF, has through his twitter handle, @pinnickamaju, apologised for the error.
“It was a lack of diligence in and by one of our departments and we are ensuring that errors like this never happen again.
“On behalf of all at the NFF, I apologise,’’ the tweet read.