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Nigeria might be sanctioned by FIFA: report

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-10-28 16:48

LAGOS -- World soccer governing body FIFA may go ahead to impose sanctions against Nigeria following the country's unexpected withdrawal from hosting the Under-17 World Cup, according to the report from the Nation newspaper Tuesday.

Nigeria committed itself to an international agreement and entered into guarantees with FIFA for the hosting of the Under 17 World Cup. The pact was signed by Nigerian President alongside seven Ministers on the 16th of March, 2007, the report said.

A Local Organizing Committee was constituted and funds running into several millions sunk into the development of six stadia across the vast West African country, it said.

The Guarantees issued to FIFA on the hosting of the Under 17 World Cup by the Nigerian Government states in part: "valid, binding and enforceable for any and all relevant national, state and local authorities including any and all succeeding governments and or national, state and local government authorities irrespective of any change in the government or of its representative or any changes in the laws and regulations."

The Government Declaration signed by Nigeria's former President Olusegun Obasanjo explicitly states that it "shall be governed by the laws of Switzerland. Any dispute concerning the Declaration shall be exclusively resolved by an arbitral tribunal pursuant to the international Arbitration Rules of the Swiss Chambers of Commerce. The seat of the arbitration shall be Zurich."

But in what has been described by FIFA sources as a brazen volte-face and a clear breach of the Declaration and Guarantees, Nigeria' s Sports Minister, Abdul Rahman Hassan Gimba, a Barrister at law, in a letter dated October 20, 2008, one year away from the commencement of the World Cup, notified FIFA that Nigeria lacked the capacity to deliver a world class event as it was faced with a myriad of challenges including a deficit National Budget and the crushing effect of the global financial melt down.

Gimba's letter reads "Government efforts are now being channelled toward pruning down on expenditure and in the light of challenges confronting Nigeria it regrets is inability to host the Under 17 World Cup as earlier undertaken."

Sources say FIFA may consider very stiff sanctions against Nigeria in spite of Gimba's plea "that the cataclysms which now threaten the world economy was not envisaged at the time of the commitment."

Close observers of football developments say Nigeria risks a backlash that may constitute a set back to its football development while Nigeria's pull out may send wrong signals that Africa is not ready to host the world in any capacity.