The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has initiated an appeal following FIFA’s Disciplinary Committee’s decision to dismiss its protest against the Democratic Republic of Congo, Completesports.com reports.
The protest questioned the eligibility of certain players fielded by Congo in a decisive 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifying playoff.
After finishing 1–1 in both regulation and extra time, the Leopards triumphed 4–3 in the penalty shootout to claim victory.
The NFF alleged irregularities in the issuance of passports that allowed certain DR Congo players to feature in the encounter.
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NFF General Secretary, Dr Mohammed Sanusi, confirmed that the federation had received the ruling, but would challenge it through FIFA’s judicial procedures.
“We have received the decision of the FIFA Disciplinary Committee on our petition, but we are not satisfied with the decision, which rejected our petition,” Sanusi told thenff.com.
“I want to assure Nigerians that the NFF has immediately commenced the process of appealing the decision.”
With the initial complaint now dismissed by FIFA’s Disciplinary Committee, the NFF will seek a review of the case through the appeal process in an effort to overturn the ruling.
By Adeboye Amosu
8 Comments
NFF should please stop wasting every Nigerian’s time and resources on a wild goose chase of “appeal” to nowhere.
Shameless people! What makes you ever think Fifa will give you verdict after SE failed on the field? Better plan and start early preparation for the 2030 WCQ version now.
Nff Make una rest abeg….I no say na fifa participation fee una dey fight for cos deep down una know say even if we go, na rubbish we go go play there….
Save this energy for something better and put your house in other jare.
Akindani dani people.
So FIFA already communicated its ruling to you, but you decided to only release the less important report on fines against you and DRC instead to media houses on Monday? I’m sure you got both rulings same day, but witheld this one.
In any case, even if your petition succeeds at CAS, a third party (likely Jamaica) would be involved and would claim automatic ticket if it lost to DRC, (which I doubt by the way.).
As I see it, in the end, neither DRC nor Nigeria will be at the World Cup.
Don’t forget that while DRC focused on the business at hand at the playoffs, Ekong was rallying his boys for a protest. Same with Cameroun. Trifling and belittling your opponents at such a critical time came back to bite both countries. I’m sure Ekong didn’t just retire. He was forced out by the NFF over that incident.
As much as I have a few issues with Ndidi, he’s comparatively a more level-headed and locally grounded captain and would have prevailed on the team to shift their grievances until after the playoffs
Let’s rally around our girls for World Cup glory next year.. July and August would soon be year and the men’s WC would be over. This year’s edition is already being overshadowed by war and politics. The gloss and shine has reduced for this year”s WC.
Will Onigbese NFF be sacked soon?
That’s the big step forward we need to take.
The NFF president, technical director and all the board members.
Sack, sack sack them all very quickly! Today! Do not delay!
Very shameful
Sanusi has been NFF secretary general since 2014.
His tenure was unanimously renewed by Gusau board in 2024 for another 3, 4 or 5 years.
I don’t even care to know.
He is the one actively pursuing this matter, because definitely, another NFF board will come in September.
God forbid Gusau dreams a second term
But has sanusi not reached diminishing returns?
I blame our sports writers and stakeholders for seeing this rubbish and doing nothing.
NFF in its entirety should resign.
Sanusi in the new board will still lead to failure again.
Nigeria is bigger than any individual na.
Stop deceiving us with CAS petition this time.
If I were CAS, I will deliver the sake verdict after the world cup.
Let everything be an academic exercise.
An old dog won’t learn new tricks.
Ideally also, any player who played in both 2022 and 2026 world cup qualifiers debacles should not think of “redemption” campaign with 2030 from next year.
They should not hamper our future starlets to gain national appearances.
Chelle should phase them out now.
Who is adarabioyo at 29 seeking to displace right now?
NFF is a clown sha.
NFF should let this go. Your petition has been heard and the matter thrashed out as lacking merit. As a country we should not be fighting to qualify through the backdoor. I mean we had all the chances to qualify without all this Melodrama. How can the Super Eagles explain drawing 5 matches. the fact is we failed to qualifying from the planning stage 2 years ago and we should accept the outcome