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President
of the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF), Aminu Maigari has vowed to
revoke the licence of Pius Oleh, the FIFA agent who helped to arrange
the United States President’s Holiday Celebration Soccer Tournament.

The Super Eagles
were billed to take part in the four-nation tournament, also known as
the Green Bowl Soccer Tournament, involving the national teams of
Mexico, Panama and Costa Rica. They were already in the United States
of America (USA) before receiving news of the postponement of the
tournament.

The Super Eagles,
made up entirely of players from the Nigerian domestic league, returned
home on Monday while the NFF is exploring ways at getting an expense
refund as well as compensation from Oleh, whom they have also
threatened to report to FIFA.

But the NFF isn’t
going to stop at just reporting Oleh to FIFA as they are also keen to
see his license revoked by the Switzerland based body.

In a telephone
conversation with NEXT, Maigari declared that the NFF is not taking the
issue lightly and were going to see the matter to the very end.

“We have set
machinery in motion and we want FIFA to investigate the organiser of
the tournament and to also have his license, which he is using to
parade about as a FIFA agent, revoked,” he said.

He added: “We
trusted him implicitly and we did not expect such from him.” Speaking
on why he was accorded such trust, Maigari explained that: “In football
circles, in as much as you come and tell people that you are licensed
by FIFA, UEFA or any of these bodies that regulate the sport, we do not
think of checking out if the signature is correct or not especially if
the agent is already known to some people.” The Nigerian delegation for
the tournament, made up of 20 players and nine officials had already
touched down in Dallas, Texas on last Thursday morning before it was
made known to them that the tournament had been put off for two weeks.

Asked if the Super
Eagles would honour the new date that has been set, Maigari was
vehement in saying that the NFF is no longer interested in sending
another delegation to the United States.

“To us, the
tournament is nonexistent. We do not even want to have anything to do
with people who organise things in such ways,” he continued.

“Already, our
players are back home. Where do we place the unnecessary expense? We
are just sorry we wasted the time of those players.” He added.

Government demands explanation

Meanwhile, Sports Minister, Taoheed Adedoja is demanding an explanation from the NFF over the botched tournament.

According to Laja
Akintayo, the minister’s special assistant, Adedoja is seeking for
clarification as to how and why the national team and the entire
country were exposed to the embarrassment.

“The minister is
miffed about the whole saga,” Akintayo said. “He has invited Maigari
and his people for a meeting and wants to know the circumstances
surrounding the botched match and why the team was stranded in the US.

“The organisers
have embarrassed the government and people of Nigeria. The minister is
utterly disappointed with the turn of events and has called for details
in order to prevent future occurrence.” NEXT learnt that, Adedoja, who
also made the trip to the United States for the invitational
tournament, has summoned Maigari and other members of the NFF’s
executive committee to a meeting to know the financial details of the
postponed tournament.

NEXT also learnt
that a query was issued to the NFF on Monday demanding that the
federation explain before the close of work on Wednesday the
circumstance surrounding the botched tournament.

In the letter
signed on behalf of Adedoja by Alhassan Yakmut, the sports ministry
expressed dismay at the way the NFF handled the situation while also
ordering the football federation to give full details of the entire
saga.