Adelakun makes direct plea to Giwa ……withdraw football matter from court African football expert ‘Tunde Adelakun has made a direct plea to the factional head of the Nigeria Football Federation Chris Giwa to save the country from embarrassment and withdraw all litigations challenging the election of 30 September. UK-based Adelakun made the plea in a release to media houses where he tried to reason with the powers of Nigerian football about the consequences of this continued action. “This goes beyond the two individuals vying for the position of President of the NFF (Giwa and Pinnick), and I want Mr Giwa in particular to think about this”, Adelakun pleaded. “Football came about in Nigeria years ago”, he continued, “and has always been governed by FIFA. Every action we take has been backed by FIFA. If Mr Giwa insists on staying in power, the game he wants to preside over will still be guided by FIFA. So why can we not obey FIFA in this case”, he wondered. Adelakun, Chief Executive of media outfit New African Soccer, expressed hope in common sense prevailing to save Nigeria from an imminent FIFA ban. “We need to think about the generation of footballers – the generation of our youth that will be affected by a ban. Our U17 boys will not be able to defend their World Cup; the U20 team will not be able to participate, the Super Eagles will not defend the African title and they may strip the Falcons of the title the girls worked hard to win only yesterday”, he said. “A lot of people directly and indirectly associated with these teams will suffer as a result, and this is why I am appealing to Mr Giwa to please think of these factors and withdraw these litigations. “Nothing can be worth deliberately depriving thousands of youth a livelihood”. A Jos court had on Thursday ruled that the election of Amaju Pinnick and his board be nullified, a development which saw Pinnick being denied the right to travel to Namibia to watch the Falcons’ triumph Saturday.
Posted on: Mon, 27 Oct 2014 11:29:01 +0000