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Ayo Ositelu, one of
Nigeria’s most experienced journalists has advised President Goodluck
Jonathan to call the bluff of world football governing body, FIFA over
its decision to ban Nigeria from all its global football competitions.

Ositelu, former
Sports Editor of The Punch Group of Newspapers, said by banning Nigeria
the way it has done FIFA has shown disrespect to a sovereign nation.

“It is about time
Nigeria called the bluff of the arrogant dictators or self-styled
overlords who delight in issuing threats and terrorising mostly
developing countries on the flimsiest of excuses. I really do not know
how the self-serving opportunists who found themselves running world
football got the idea that the Nigerian government decides what goes on
in the courts of law,” Ositelu said.

“Where was FIFA
when government gave Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) N900 million for
the South Africa World Cup? Where was FIFA when government was
financing all NFF programmes? And where will NFF be without government?
Does FIFA know that corporate bodies do not support sports or football
in Nigeria? It is the government that fund the sport.

“Everybody knows
who is behind all these problems, the same person who has controlled
sports for 20 years with little to show for the government’s massive
investment in sports,

particularly
football. I’m sure the government knows what to do before one man
single-handedly destroys what Nigeria has built for more than seven
decades.”

Fishing out culprits

He said FIFA ought to show Nigeria more respect.

“What is the
problem of FIFA if government say they want to increase the number of
club in the league? If FIFA can do without Nigeria, they should go
ahead so that the country could organise its football,” Ositelu said.

“On June 6, 2006,
when FIFA ordered England, Spain, Italy and Germany to reduce the
number of the teams in their leagues so that players play less matches,
these nations told FIFA to go to hell and why is FIFA concerning itself
with unimportant issues instead of focusing on important issue like
goal-line technology. The tenure of Sepp Blatter as FIFA boss is the
most corrupt in the history of FIFA.”

Ositelu also called for an investigation to expose those behind the nation’s recent predicaments.

“The person or
persons must be brought to book. After all, no person (not even
President Jonathan) is bigger than Nigeria. The sports minister is not
minister of football but of sports, I think the FIFA ban will help us
to focus on other sports… money spent on football should be diverted
to other sports in Nigeria”.

NPL responsible

In a related
development, the National Sports Commission (NSC) has said it is not to
blame for the enlargement of the Nigeria Premier League to 24 teams
from its original 20. Olukayode Thomas, Special Assistant to the Sports
minister, Ibrahim Bio, said neither Bio nor Patrick Ekeji unilaterally
increased the number of teams in the premier league “On the issue of
the league, the decision not to relegate any team was taken by the NPL,
NFF and the club owners, who met in Abuja to resolve the dispute
between Baribote and the NPL. So what is the ministry’s role in that
case?” Thomas asked.