Abuja – President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Amaju
Pinnick has refuted claims by former international, Chief Segun Odegbami
that his failure to register for the forthcoming election for the FIFA
presidency was due to sabotage from home.
Odegbami who, despite getting the endorsement of the NFF ahead of
former Abia State governor, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu on Tuesday claimed that
the NFF did not give him all the support because their endorsement came
late. He also accused his rival, Orji Kalu as well as former executive
member of FIFA, Dr. Amos Adamu of scuttling his journey to Zurich.
But addressing journalists after an emergency committee meeting late on Tuesday, Pinnick said the NFF after getting the final government endorsement of Odegbami last Thursday forwarded same to him because he was the person that substantially complied with the laid down requirements needed for anybody to be presented as a candidate for the election slated to take place in February, 2016.
“The federation met a couple of months ago and gave some conditions for anybody wishing to contest to meet, including getting endorsement from local federation; proof of eligibility as specified by the FIFA Electoral Code; endorsement from government because it is the country that you want to represent and endorsement from CAF. Now between Orji Kalu and Odegbami, it was Odegbami that substantially complied with our demands. Only last Thursday we got the final endorsement from the government for Segun Odegbami and we forwarded same to him.
“As a federation ours was just to nominate, we thought that he had gotten the other endorsements and ours was to be the icing on the cake and at a point he said all he needed was our nomination and we thought he had other nominations because he is a very popular person not just in Africa but beyond. I did my best as president of NFF. I was calling him every one hour, I don’t think we did badly as a federation.
“Ordinarily when you are going for a contest like this, there are 209 federations and you needed only five endorsements you should have gotten it.
“And talking about the so-called sabotage, I don’t want to delve into such a sensitive area, I don’t think it is true, nobody could have arm twisted me. To me it is unfortunate that we lost out but we should leave it like that, I will say we have learnt our lessons.”
Many analysts have expressed regrets that the former national team captain failed to fly the country’s flag at the FIFA elections even after getting the endorsement of the NFF before the deadline last Monday.
Pinnick Amaju
But addressing journalists after an emergency committee meeting late on Tuesday, Pinnick said the NFF after getting the final government endorsement of Odegbami last Thursday forwarded same to him because he was the person that substantially complied with the laid down requirements needed for anybody to be presented as a candidate for the election slated to take place in February, 2016.
“The federation met a couple of months ago and gave some conditions for anybody wishing to contest to meet, including getting endorsement from local federation; proof of eligibility as specified by the FIFA Electoral Code; endorsement from government because it is the country that you want to represent and endorsement from CAF. Now between Orji Kalu and Odegbami, it was Odegbami that substantially complied with our demands. Only last Thursday we got the final endorsement from the government for Segun Odegbami and we forwarded same to him.
“As a federation ours was just to nominate, we thought that he had gotten the other endorsements and ours was to be the icing on the cake and at a point he said all he needed was our nomination and we thought he had other nominations because he is a very popular person not just in Africa but beyond. I did my best as president of NFF. I was calling him every one hour, I don’t think we did badly as a federation.
“Ordinarily when you are going for a contest like this, there are 209 federations and you needed only five endorsements you should have gotten it.
“And talking about the so-called sabotage, I don’t want to delve into such a sensitive area, I don’t think it is true, nobody could have arm twisted me. To me it is unfortunate that we lost out but we should leave it like that, I will say we have learnt our lessons.”
Many analysts have expressed regrets that the former national team captain failed to fly the country’s flag at the FIFA elections even after getting the endorsement of the NFF before the deadline last Monday.
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