By Emmanuel Ebimoh
Following the sanction by FIFA on the Nigeria Football Federation for fielding a suspended Shehu Abdullahi in the World Cup qualifying match against Algeria in November, NFF President Amaju Melvin Pinnick has come out to apologise to Nigerians for the costly mistake.
In a series of tweets on his Twitter handle @PinnickAmaju, the NFF President explained how the mistake happened, apologised to Nigerians and took responsibility for the error that could have cost the country its place in next year’s world football fiesta.
However, Nigerians have so far reacted to the apology on Twitter and many are demanding for the resignation of the NFF President.
See some of the responses below:
Now that’s called leadership Mr Pinnick. Taking responsibility on your watch. Highly commendable. You should start a tutorial class for other Nigerian leaders. And please start with the presidency.
This is the singular most responsible event of governance I’ve seen from any Nigerian in the position of leadership in 2017…. I’m glad it didn’t cost us the world cup and I hope it wouldn’t happen again.
Nigerians with crocodile tears; honourable thing to do is to throwing the towel….resign and tender apology
Pls hire competent hands..it’s ludicrous for someone to assume, with the rule book clearly written in black white.. appropriately updated. Someone must pay for this, if not next time it will be you, cos it will happen again! … Our mumu don do
This is stupidity of the highest order. What if FIFA withdrawal our ticket for Zambia ? Is it a must that Shehu must play every game. Hausa will destroy Nigeria soon. Nonsense, I wish FIFA banned Nigeria for Zambia to so that you people will learn fast.
I am a well meaning Nigerian but the apology does not enough, those responsible should be sacked. Leniency with public office is one of the reasons we don’t have a system that works, we easily give excuse for wrongdoing without addressing the cause of the mistake.
Obviously you guys don’t know the rules of the sport you claim to be administering in Nigeria. Also stop using personal emails for NFF business.
Looool. See me see trouble. A whole FA is assuming everything.I never knew world cup qualifying matches now look like an inter-house sports.
Plz sir u hv apologized don’t rationalize. A technical committee worth its salt can’t make such grav error. That is dere primary assignment. But Dis is nigeria. No sanctions noting.
One small excel sheet detailing players used in the qualifiers, and the cards they received could have noted that. You do not need FIFA to remind you.
I accept your apology but it is shocking that the people that run football in a big nation like Nigeria do not know the rules. You don’t even need an email from FIFA to remind you if you know the rule.
Apology accepted. As compensation for this error, we will accept winning the World Cup. Try and deliver on that and all will be forgiven.
The world football governing body also awarded a 3-0 victory to Algeria, which however did not affect the Super Eagles’ qualification for the 2018 World Cup.
