The senior national team of Nigeria lost a very good case against DR Congo fielding ineligible players due to the poor handling of the case by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), OwnGoalNigeria.com reports.
Nigeria filed a protest against DR Congo for fielding players who have dual nationality, which contravenes the constitutional requirements to be called a citizen of Congo.
As many as eight players were flagged by the NFF in the protest that would have seen Nigeria pick a ticket to the inter continental world cup playoff, which DR Congo used to qualify for the world cup.
However they messed up what was a very good case according to sport lawyer Joshua Ishaya, who spoke with our correspondent from his base in the United Kingdom.
” It was a good case that was messed up by the NFF. From what I gathered it was flagged by someone at CAF to them, but a fee as ordinary as the protest fee wasn’t paid by the NFF”, Joshua said.
” Secondly it exceeded the timeline for filing and on technical grounds it was considered dead on arrival. FIFA didn’t even sort to hear from DR Congo on the petition before it was dismissed.
” The president of the NFF Ibrahim Musa Gusua and his entire team have to look at themselves in the face and apologise to Nigerians for messing up what was a very good case. That was nonsense and it’s on Gusau”.
Mohammed Mowiz Suleiman
