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'FIFA Will Ban Nigeria' – Kodjo-Williams

Published

10 years ago

August 29, 2014

Kodjo-Williams has warned that the election crisis rocking the football house was capable of derailing Nigeria’s bid to qualify for the 2015 African Cup of Nations in Morocco.
Two factions emerged during the General Assembly of the NFF held Tuesday in Abuja, with one faction, holding election, where the owner of Giwa FC, Christopher Giwa was declared the new President of the NFF.
But the other faction, consisting majority of the delegates, held their own Congress, where they nullified the decisions reached at the earlier Congress and fixed elections for September 4 at the International Conference Centre in the Federal Capital Territory.
With both parties fighting for the control of the soul of Nigerian football administration, pressing matters like the upcoming AFCON qualification matches of the Super Eagles against Congo and South Africa at the start of September have been left unattended to, a development that Kodjo strongly frowns at.
Speaking in an interview with Sports Vanguard, Kodjo said that he was not surprised with the show of shame that characterised the Congress of the NFF.
“I knew that this sort of an embarrassing show was always going to come out because the people who are running the NFF are not football technocrats. Most of them are politicians, who see football administration as an opportunity to climb up the social status, forgetting that the first reason why they are there is to develop the game.
“Most of them are clueless as to the direction to take the game to. The only thing they fight for is power and that is why they threw decorum into the wind when they held two separate Congresses in Abuja. They simply want power by all means and would stop at nothing to get their ambition fulfilled”.
Nigeria host Congo in Calabar on September 6 and and travel to Pretoria to play Bafana Bafana on September 10, with little or no hope that the NFF crisis will abate.
And speaking on the consequences the infighting will have on Eagles, Kodjo was unequivocal that Nigeria may not get to defend their title in Morocco next year.
“Like the old saying goes, when two elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers, it therefore stands to reason that our footballers will be the biggest losers of this unnecessary fight over who governs the NFF. We might not qualify for the tournament in Morocco if these people are called to order quickly”, said Kodjo.