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Former FIFA secretary-general Michel Zen-Ruffinen called on Sunday for soccer’s governing body to allow an external investigation into the contest to host the 2018 and 2022 World Cups following allegations of vote-selling.

FIFA’s own ethics committee, headed by former Switzerland international forward Claudio Sulser, is carrying out an inquiry and is due to make a final ruling in mid-November.

A cue from the IOC

“The problem stems from the fact that when it comes to taking decisions to eradicate corruption, these decisions are delegated to an internal organ; that is, a body that is also part of FIFA,” Zen-Ruffinen told French-language Swiss television channel TSR.

“I think it is the biggest problem. If one wants to eliminate corruption from FIFA, as the International Olympic Committee (IOC) succeeded in doing itself when there was a problem surrounding the organisation of the Olympic Games, the mandate has to be given to an outside body.”

Zen-Ruffinen was FIFA general secretary from 1998 until 2002 when he left after accusing President Sepp Blatter of mismanaging the organisation.

He spoke on Sunday four days after FIFA’s ethics committee provisionally suspended executive committee members Amos Adamu of Nigeria and Tahiti’s Reynald Temarii.

Both have denied wrongdoing and said they expect to be cleared.

Zen-Ruffinen’s involvement

Zen-Ruffinen became involved in the story himself when the Sunday Times newspaper posted a film of him talking to undercover reporters.

“I confirm it was me, but it should be placed in the context of what happened,” said Zen-Ruffinen.

“It was a discussion in the framework of a contractual relationship, a discussion that was totally confidential, held in a place that was not accessible to other people.”

Voting on the World Cup hosts is restricted to the members of FIFA’s executive committee. The decision will be made on December 2.

FIFA is also investigating allegations that two unnamed candidates have broken the rules by acting in collusion.

England, Russia, Spain/Portugal and Belgium/Netherlands are bidding to host the 2018 World Cup while Japan, South Korea, Australia, United States and Qatar are candidates for 2022.

A logjam at the Federal High Court Ikoyi yesterday, where the National Association of Nigerian Footballers (NANF) formally discontinued its case against the NFF has given rise to speculations that the country might be risking another FIFA ban.

Whilst NANF’s case against the NFF was formally struck out by the presiding judge, Okon Abang, the court however failed to reinstate the Aminu Maigari-led board as expected by the defendants who argued that it was one of the conditions given by FIFA when it provisionally lifted the ban on October 8.

“From my own understanding, it is like we have done nothing today if the board has not been given the go-ahead to function. FIFA said that the board should be left alone to work without any interference or else the hammer will fall on us [again],” said Baribote Rumsen, who is a members of the disputed NFF board.

“Right now our fate is in the hands of the judge; if there is anything that can be done latest tomorrow (today) to vacate the order he placed that any of us who parades himself as a board member would be arrested, then we can move forward.”

However NANF’s counsel, Belo Aideloje, said allowing the board to function is equivallent to ‘legalizing an illegality’.

More trouble in the offing

“As at today, legally speaking, there is no new board. Aside that, all the talk about FIFA ban should not be a cause of worry. FIFA is in its own mess right now and is trying to purify (itself), Who is FIFA to give a directive to the Customary Court in Nigeria talk less of a High Court? A court has made a pronouncement and FIFA cannot tamper with such orders. If they want the court to do something for them they should come and humbly approach the court. FIFA is no country, they can’t be giving directives to a country; FIFA has humiliated Nigeria enough,” he said.

Different perspectives

On their part, lawyers have interpreted the ruling differently.

For Barrister Hycinth Igbokwe, the court’s pronouncement on the discontinuance of the case amounts to quashing all orders pertaining to the case.

“For me, the board has been re-installed with today’s judgement. When a case is discontinued on any basis all orders previously made goes with it.”

Aideloje, further advised that the NFF should in essence revert to the former board and then start doing things properly but all talk of new board should be put to bed, at least for now.

FIFA had provisionally lifted the suspension placed on Nigerian football until today, October 26 2010, after noting that the next hearing before the court was scheduled for October 25 and that it was only then that the judge can vacate the court orders.

The world football governing body however said should the NFF still be embroiled in court actions or any other issue preventing it from working freely on that date, the suspension will be automatically confirmed until all problems have been definitively solved.

The matter is still with the court

NANF president, Harrison Jalla, who instituted the case, said his association had kept to the bargain of an out-of-court settle. He however said NANF cannot force the court to reverse the annulment of the August 26 election of the NFF. Rather, he called for a ‘political solution’ to the issue.

“We’ve kept to our own part of the bargain by withdrawing the case. So the court will do justice to the other issues because the NANF can’t influence legal matters,” he said.

Others said as things stand, the crisis is far from being over.

Fernando Alonso could take his third Formula One title in Brazil next week but neither Ferrari nor his rivals expect that to happen after a weekend win in South Korea that owed more to luck than strategy.

Even if the Spaniard won both his previous titles with Renault at Interlagos, and the last five championships have been settled in Sao Paulo, this year’s battle is set to be a cliffhanger right to the finale in Abu Dhabi one week later.

“This championship I believe will go down to the last lap in Abu Dhabi,” Red Bull team principal Christian Horner told reporters on Sunday.

His two drivers, Australian Mark Webber and Germany’s Sebastian Vettel, failed to finish at the new and hastily completed Yeongam circuit some 400km southwest of the capital Seoul.

“There is still only a race win between Sebastian in fourth (place overall) and Alonso in the lead.

“And how many times have we seen this year the championship to and fro? It’s impossible to have a crystal ball and predict what will happen in Brazil and Abu Dhabi.”

Ferrari team boss Stefano Domenicali also expected a tough fight over the last two races, rejecting a suggestion that another victory in Brazil might be enough for Alonso.

“I don’t think so to be honest. I would love it if you were right but I don’t think so,” he said.

McLaren’s Martin Whitmarsh agreed:

“Brazil is a great circuit and always produces a great race, but there is little doubt now the championship decider is going to be in Abu Dhabi.”

Webber had started the day as overall leader but handed the initiative to Vettel when he crashed out – only for the German to suffer an engine failure nine laps from the end while leading.

That left Alonso to collect the winner’s 25 points and, in the latest twist in a rollercoaster of a season, surge 11 points clear of Webber, who won in Brazil last year.

McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton is third and 21 points off the lead while Vettel is four further back. World champion Jenson Button remains mathematically a contender but, 42 points off the pace, the McLaren man is effectively out of the running.

Silverstone warning

Alonso had said after the British Grand Prix at Silverstone in July, when he finished 14th after a drive-through penalty,

that he could still win the championship.

That sounded overly optimistic to some at the time but results since then has more than proved his point.

The Spaniard has won three of the last four races, four of the past seven, and collected more points since Silverstone than any other driver. He also knows exactly what it takes to win a championship and how to handle the pressure.

“We have been doing well, been very concentrated, very focused in the last six or seven races. But we cannot forget we need to be on the podium and fighting for victory in the next two races,” he said after his fifth win of the season on Sunday.

Alonso, whose team had railed against the stewards and cursed their misfortune in Valencia in June, said luck was a key factor but consistency also crucial.

“We struggled to be on the podium for one part of the season, as I said, maybe because of the luck factor.

“Now we are achieving more wins than expected because of the luck factor as well, because today we were third and one Red Bull crashed, one Red Bull blew up, so as we said many times, luck at the end of the year is compensated.”

Ferrari, who decided to make Alonso the focus of their title challenge when they invoked ‘team orders’ at a controversial German Grand Prix in July, will remain focused on improving the car and keeping level-headed.

“The key of the end of the season will be reliability and to keep concentration to the end,” said Domenicali.

“Now is the time to be humble and prepare the race in the best way we can. We cannot afford to have any kind of problem.

“They (Red Bull) have a fantastic car.

But despite this fantastic car we are there, fighting, and we will fight up to the last corner of the last race.”

The Chairman of the Nigeria Premier League (NPL), Davidson Owumi, has said he is ready to clear his name of all the allegations of corruption levelled against him.

“I have submitted documents to back up my answers, which the EFCC was seeking to know. They have the right to investigate any petition filed in, said Owumi, who was arrested last week by officials of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

“So I will cooperate with them to make sure that the case comes to a very good conclusion. Like I have said since this case came up, I will not run away from being investigated because I am not hiding anything.

“If I drove myself from Abuja down to Enugu to face the EFCC, I can also tell you that I am ready to clear my name of any wrongdoing,” he said.

The EFCC had on Wednesday asked Owumi to answer a petition bordering on a number of allegations about his tenure as chairman of the Club Owners Association of Nigeria.

Femi Babafemi EFCC Head, Media and Publicity, confirmed that Owumi has reported to the office of the anti-graft body in Enugu and has also submitted relevant documents to help the commission with its investigation.

“He has reported to our office in Enugu, I must tell you. And I have also been informed that he has submitted documents relating to all the allegations levelled against him,” Babafemi said.

Allegations of corruption

Owumi has been accused of running the Club Owners Association of Nigeria, which has been described as an illegal body. He is also being investigated for allegedly running an illegal website; used to sell players from the Enugu club and for the receipt N23 million from Globacom Nigeria Limited under the guise of the Club Owners Association of Nigeria.

According to Owumi, contrary to the claims, the Club Owners Association is neither his company nor an illegal association. He said it has been in existence for over twenty years and was founded by Femi Olukanmi with members like Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu and others.

Owumi told a sports news website that the allegegation that he received N23 million from Globacom was untrue as the club owners had no contractual terms with the company.

He said during the 2007 congress of the NPL, a motion was passed that one percentage of the title sponsorship fee should be ceded to the club owners.

“But the truth is that in the congress of 2007, the motion was moved and adopted that one per cent of the title sponsorship fee should be remitted to the club owners association. The money in question is meant to cover hotel accommodation and flight tickets of the club owners during matters relating to the congress meetings,” he said.

Owumi said he will leave the EFCC to carry out its inquiry into the matter since they have every document at their disposal.

After successfully securing a ticket to the Africa Youth Championships (AYC) scheduled to take place in Libya next year, Flying Eagles coach, John Obuh, says he now has his eyes on the African title.

The Nigerian under-20 team defeated their counterpart from Mauritius 2-1 in the final round of the qualifiers at the Abuja National Stadium over the weekend and qualify with a 4-1 aggregate score line to join seven other countries that will be vying for the African title.

“I am happy we have now qualified, we have seen our mistakes during the qualifiers and we now have the time to correct them before the championships proper so we can also give a good challenge for the title” Obuh said Obuh who was in charge of the Golden Eaglets team that finished second at the last World Cup hosted by Nigeria hinted at plans of fortifying the team that secured the qualification ticket.

“I think the team is not that bad. You know the players, they are very good.

“But there will be some inclusion in the team ahead of the tournament in Libya,” Obuh said.

More support

Mauritius Coach, Raven Dorasami, has also tipped the Nigerian team for honours in Libya.

“Your boys have great skills, strong and highly talented. I think they are sure bet to win the 2011 Africa Youth Championship in Libya. They are a very strong side,” Dorasami said.

“I think the Nigerian team played better, in the defence, attack and in the midfield.

He, however, observed that the Flying Eagles’ weakness was shown in the defence which he said needed to be fortified ahead of Libya 2011.

“If I were to identify any weakness in the Nigerian team, that would be the defence, it was shaky today,” the coach said.

Nigeria had been tipped to win the last edition in Rwanda, but finished in a disappointing third postion which led to the sack of Ladan Bosso, who was coach at that time.

Nigeria’s last win at the tourney was at the 2005 edition in Benin where Samson Siasia led the team to victory and a second place at the World Cup played in Holland.

Nigerian defender Danny Shittu at the weekend made a great start to his Millwall career as he bagged the Man of the Match award in the Lions’ 2-0 win over Derby County.

The former Bolton Wanderers and Watford player, who only signed a three-month contract last Friday with the English Championship side, had a fantastic debut at the New Den even making an impact as early as 26 seconds into the encounter when he was on hand to make a vital headed clearance.

He was substituted in the 77th minute to a standing ovation from the home fans as the Lions recorded their first home win since the end of August.

At the end of the game Shittu was handed the supporters’ man-of-the-match award and the Nigerian has expressed gratitude to the club’s fans for the honour.

“I’m not going to lie, I was surprised but very honoured,” he said of the fans’ reaction to his debut in a report carried by the Southwark News. “It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been playing, when you come to a new place you’re still a bit nervous.

“The manager (Kenny Jackett), who I’ve known for a long time, has taken to me straight away but for the fans to treat me like that… they might not understand how big a deal that is. I really appreciated that and I thank them for it.”

Cramp-induced substitution

Shittu produced a number of crucial blocks and crunching tackles before succumbing to cramp in the 77th minute – something he says was down to a lack of recent match practice.

“I’d only trained for two days, and for the last few months I’ve spent Saturdays taking the kids to the park,” explained Shittu, who made his Super Eagles debut in 2002.

“I’ve been doing my own thing but there’s nothing like match fitness – you can do as much running on the treadmill as you like.

“I knew that tiredness would affect me, but all I wanted to do was keep going today. I’m glad that the reason I came off was just because of cramp and not an injury.”

The 30-year-old has since gone on to make close to 30 appearances for Nigeria with the last of them coming in the Super Eagles’ 2-0 victory over Madagascar in a 2012 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier decided in Calabar.

“The last game I played was about four or five weeks ago, for Nigeria against Madagascar,” he said, referring to the September 5 match in Calabar.

“I’ve been playing for Nigeria for six or seven years now, so every time there was an international break I’ve been getting packed away somewhere so I haven’t had time off like this for years.

“It was good for me to spend some time with my family – I’ve got four kids and I’ve really got to know them over these past few months. It’s a big thing and it probably delayed me getting back into football.”

Arsenal overwhelmed 10-man Manchester City 3-0 in the Premier League yesterday while Manchester United secured a 2-1 win at Stoke City with two goals from Wayne Rooney’s stand-in Javier Hernandez.

City were left chasing shadows from the fifth minute at Eastlands after defender Dedryck Boyata saw red for a last-man foul on Marouane Chamakh and Arsenal won with goals by Samir Nasri, Alex Song and Nicklas Bendtner.

Chelsea, who beat Wolverhampton Wanderers 2-0 on Saturday, lead the Premier League standings with 22 points.

Arsenal and City are both now on 17 points, alongside Manchester United after Hernandez struck four minutes from time to seal his side’s first away league win of the season.

In Sunday’s other match Liverpool claimed only their second win of the season when they beat Blackburn Rovers 2-1 at Anfield, with Fernando Torres among the scorers.

Arsenal had Cesc Fabregas back pulling the strings in a league game for the first time in five weeks and he made a huge difference with a display full of promptings and probings.

Arsenal had a scare in the first minute when Lukasz Fabianski saved well from David Silva’s clever flick but before five minutes were up the hosts were reduced to 10 men when Fabregas slid a perfect pass into the path of Chamakh and Boyata dived in needlessly to bring him down just outside the box.

Arsenal soon made their numbers pay when Nasri played a nice one-two with Andrei Arshavin before scoring from a tight angle in the 21st minute.

Fabregas’s nimble feet proved too much for Vincent Kompany five minutes before the break, earning a penalty for a trip, only for Joe Hart to make an excellent diving save from the Spaniard’s spot kick.

Fabianski was called into action to foil Silva again as City started the second half brightly but the fluttering flame was extinguished when another Fabregas pass caused chaos and allowed Song to poke in the killer second goal after 66 minutes.

Bendtner came off the bench for his second appearance of the season to complete the scoring two minutes from time.

“We played some outstanding football at times and it’s very difficult to stop a team playing at that tempo,” Fabregas told Sky Sports “Even if they had 15 (players) and we had 11 we would still go and win.” Rooney replacement

After Rooney had hogged the headlines all week it was his stand-in Hernandez who was the toast of Manchester United fans after his double overcame battling Stoke.

He opened the scoring with a dextrous back-header after 27 minutes but as United eventually stat back to defend their lead they looked to be heading for another draw when substitute Tuncay Sanli curled in a lovely equaliser after 81 minutes.

Mexico striker Hernandez, however, topped an impressive all-round display by seizing on a loose ball to prod in the winner four minutes from time.

“Drawing so many away games hasn’t been good enough this season, so today there was a lot of relief at the end,” said defender Gary Neville after his 600th United appearance.

Liverpool remain in the bottom three on nine points but there was a real feeling of relief around Anfield as they not only chalked up a rare win but played some enterprising soccer.

Sotirios Kyrgiakos put them ahead early in the second half with a header and after a Jamie Carragher own goal in the 52nd minute, Fernando Torres grabbed the winner a minute later with only his second goal of the season.

Harrison Jalla, president of the National Association of Nigeria Footballers (NANF), will today officially take the case filed by his players’ union against the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) out of court.

NANF had sued the NFF, as well as several other officials including the recently suspended FIFA executive committee member Amos Adamu, to a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos in respect of the disputed August 26 elections into the NFF’s executive committee.

NANF’s action however went contrary to FIFA regulations and was one of the sore points listed by the football world body when they recently suspended Nigeria from international football at the start of the month; a suspension that was later lifted by the Switzerland based organisation.

FIFA’s lifting of the suspension was however preceded by an agreement by NANF to settle their grievance against the NFF out of court following an October 6 meeting in Lagos with some of the parties involved in the case, most notably Adamu.

In spite of this, NANF’s decision doesn’t become official until a pronouncement by the court, and that is what Jalla will be seeking to do today when the case resumes for hearing at the Federal High Court in Lagos.

Notice of discontinuance

“We are filing for a notice of discontinuance as we are putting the interest of Nigeria first,” Jalla told NEXT. “We gave our guarantee to FIFA that we will resolve the matter out of court and that is what we intend to do so we can put the matter behind us.” As part of the agreement reached at the meeting where NANF agreed to an out of court settlement, certain conditions had to be met by the NFF top of which is an amendment of the statutes of the NFF to affect the composition of its congress whose number was considerably reduced prior to the August 26 NFF board elections.

In a bid to get this implemented, Jalla and other NANF officials were at the weekend in Abuja to meet with officials of the National Sports Commission (NSC), as well as members of the House of Representatives Committee on Sports, and the NFF.

Jalla refused to divulge details of the meeting but he expressed optimism regarding the implementation of the changes to the NFF’s statutes.

Asked whether NANF’s decision to withdraw the case would have any effect on the court’s earlier decision to nullify the NFF elections that ushered in Aminu Maigari as the football body’s, Jalla said:

“That is no longer our business. The court has ruled on that and our business now is to take the case out of court in line with FIFA’s directive.” Pull quote: our business now is to take the case out of court in line with FIFA’s directive

The Athletics
Federation of Nigeria (AFN) is ready for the Obudu International
Mountain Race and the second African Nations Mountaining Running
Championships, Maria Worphil, the secretary general of the federation
has said.

The event scheduled
for next month at the Obudu Ranch Resort in Obudu, Cross River state is
the sixth edition of the fast growing mountain race.

“The AFN is ready
to organise the best mountain race ever anywhere in the world when the
sixth edition holds next month in Obudu. We have put all the necessary
logistics in place and the federation is blessed with men and women who
can hold their own in terms of the technical organisations of events of
the magnitude of Obudu mountain race,” Worphil said.

Worphil also said
the AFN has been receiving many entries from fellow African Nations in
respect of the African Nations Mountaining Running Championships.

“We sent out
entries before the start of the recently ended Commonwealth Games and
the response has been very encouraging. What I can guarantee is that we
will have far more nations than the six who participated at the
inaugural edition of the championships last year,” she said.

The race

The Obudu
international mountain race is organised by the Cross River State
government, in conjunction with the Athletic Federation of Nigeria
(AFN). It is supported by the African Athletics Confederation (CAA),
the World Mountain Running Association (WMRA), and the International
Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF).

The race covers a
distance of 11 kilometres uphill to an altitude of 1,575 metres above
sea level, taking you to one of the finest tourist destinations in the
world, the Obudu Mountain Resort.

This year’s race, which has been confirmed for the last week of
November, will, apart from the main race, feature activities like a
Doping in Sports Seminar, the Media Race, Children’s Race, and a Gala
Night/Fireworks. The main race will flag-off alongside the African
Championship at 8.00 a.m on Saturday November 27, 2010.

As God sits ensconced in majesty on his throne in Heaven, he watches over the affairs of men. Loving and compassionate as he is, he does not share his glory with mortals.

And so when men begin to play God, his anger is stirred and he visits his wrath upon them. For some time now, Sepp Blatter and his lieutenants at FIFA have been acting as if the world belonged to them alone.

The former footballer from Switzerland drunk on the influence conferred on his him by virtue of his leading the monopoly that FIFA has become, has been throwing his weight around lately.

Like a bully, he has taken to threatening member nations at the slightest opportunity as if FIFA were a global overlord charged with the responsibility of whipping errant nations into line. Our dear country, Nigeria has become his hapless victim. Goaded on by our shady and unpatriotic compatriots, Blatter has been poking a finger into our eyes.

In his arrogance, Chinua Achebe’s advice that “those whose palm kernels have been cracked for them by benevolent spirits should not forget to be humble”, has been lost on him. And so like we have been told again and again, pride goes before a fall.

On Sunday, August 17, Blatter and his henchmen at the Glass House in Zurich were brought down to earth from their castled height in Switzerland.

That day, news broke that two of his executive committee members, Amos Adamu (the man known in Nigeria as Mr Fix it) and Reynald Tenarii demanded money from Sunday Times of London reporters who posed as lobbyists for American interests in the 2018 World Cup bid before the Americans pulled out of the race. Both men were alleged to have asked for different sums of money to guarantee their votes. A video footage released showed Adamu in negotiation with the reporters.

For FIFA, an organisation with a huge question mark hanging over its credibility, it was as we would say in Nigerian parlance, “bad market”.

Since the incident, the normally loquacious and belligerent Blatter has become thoroughly chastened. On Wednesday when he addressed a press conference after the ethics committee announced the suspension of Adamu and Tenarii, Blatter looked his full 74 years of age. He looked a frail and broken old man.

The allegation about the FIFA officials has not come as a shock to me. While both men remain innocent until investigation into their matter has run its full course, there’s a lot to be said for the way FIFA does business.

Encouraging graft

It seems to me from the way the whole bid process is structured that FIFA has wittingly or unwittingly encouraged its members to engage in unseemly conduct. In the first place, it beats my imagination why the football body is choosing host countries for World Cups that are eight and twelve years removed from now. Why the hurry? The 2010 World Cup just ended in South Africa and the next one in Brazil is a full three years away; so why are Blatter and his men opening up bids for 2108 and 2022?

Is it because Blatter suspects that if he gets a next term, which would expire sometime around 2015, he is unlikely to make a case for another term and so must make provision for his retirement and those of his ageing lieutenants?

What has happened should be act as reality check for Blatter. As he goes about seeking ways to mitigate the effect of the allegations, he must bear in mind that the world, which has become weary of the shenanigans of FIFA officials and which remains mindful of past cases of allegations of acts corruption against past and current executive committee members, expects that Adamu and Tenarii should face the full wrath of the law if found guilty. That is the only way he can ever hope to begin to regain the confidence of the football community around the world. For if truth be told, people are tired of FIFA’s way of doing business. They demand transparency, which unfortunately, the glass house in Zurich has not been able to provide.

Anything less, will only serve to further confirm the widely held view that the world football governing body is nothing but a cult of individuals sworn to protect their personal interests to the detriment of the beautiful game.