The Bureau of the FIFA Council will next Monday August 20 suspend Nigeria from engaging in football activities if the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) offices are not handed back to the legitimate NFF executive committee under President Amaju Melvin Pinnick, who was duly elected on 30 September 2014.
Nigerian football politics took a new dimension last Monday, when Chris Giwa resumed at the offices of the Nigeria Football Federation in Abuja, as the president of the football body.
Giwa has been locked in a leadership tussle with the Amaju Pinnick-led NFF board, after an order from a Jos High Court stopped the election which brought Pinnick to office on September 30, 2014 in Warri, Delta State.
According to a media statement on the official website of FIFA on Tuesday, the NFF will be suspended with immediate effect for contravening art. 14 par. 1 i) and art. 19, as well as art. 14 par. 1 a) of the FIFA Statutes.
The statement also stated that the suspension would be lifted only once the NFF, under President Amaju Melvin Pinnick and General Secretary Mohammed Sanusi, confirms that it has been given back effective control of the NFF and its offices.
Furthermore, the Bureau also decided that if the suspension of the NFF takes effect, the Nigerian team, the Falconets currently competing in the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup France 2018 will still be allowed to continue to participate in the tournament on an exceptional basis given that the tournament is underway.