Remo Stars defender Issah Ali will be a part of the senior national team of Nigeria squad for the upcoming friendly games against Mexico and Ecuador respectively despite his indictment in match fixing by the Ghana Football Association (GFA), OwnGoalNigeria.com can exclusively reveal.
Alli was handed a first time call up to the senior national team of Nigeria as part of the players for the friendly games against Mexico and Ecuador respectively in the United States of America. His Indictment in match fixing in Ghana threatened his involvement in the game.
The 21 year old was part of a group of players banned by the GFA for match manipulation during his time with Ghanaian side Inter Allies. The ban however starts from next season and it isn’t a worldwide ban yet.
Furthermore, the League Management Company (LMC) will admit Alli into the league in Nigeria when an issue involving his International Transfer Certificate (ITC) is cleared. He was registered in the league without any record that he played in Ghana.
It was why the LMC withdrew his license to play in the league alongside that of his teammate at Remo Stars Andy Okpe who was also indicted by the GFA as he was also a player of Inter Allies around same time.
Checks by the LMC revealed that Ali played for Inter Allies on loan from Remo Stars and was recalled for the NNL promotion playoff to the NPFL with the use of a valid ITC which was issued by the FA in Ghana.
However, the administrators of the Nigeria second division league didn’t include the ITC in the document forwarded to the LMC for his registration on the DTMS. Hence the reason why the Ghanaian team wasn’t captured in his registration.
A copy has since been obtained and he is free to represent Nigeria and also play in the NPFL until at least when the GFA makes the ban worldwide or otherwise. So far neither the LMC or the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) have been told to ban the player by the GFA. As a matter of fact they haven’t even send a copy of the judgment to Nigeria.
