FIFA has fined the Nigeria Football Federation 6,000 Swiss Francs (about N2,175,660.00) for fielding an ineligible player in a Russia 2018 World Cup qualifying match. The disciplinary committee of the body in a statement on Tuesday said the three-time African champions fielded Shehu Abdullahi who was ineligible for the qualifier against Algeria on 10 November 2017. This was in violation of article 8 of the regulations of the 2018 World Cup Russia and article 55 of the FIFA disciplinary code for featuring the defender who was ineligible for the encounter.
The committee declared the forfeited and awarded 3-0 in favour of Algeria, with the NFF also receiving a fine of CHF 6,000.
The statement reads, “The sanction relates to the player Abdullahi Shehu failing to serve the automatic one-match suspension imposed on him as a result of receiving a caution in two separate matches of the same competition.
This sanction bears no impact on the final result of the preliminary competition for the FIFA World Cup since Nigeria had already qualified (and Algeria eliminated) before the match took place.”
Due to the sanction, Nigeria’s points in the group stage dropped from 14 to 11, while Algeria gets five points even as the Super Eagles can no longer be considered unbeaten.
Meanwhile, NFF president Amaju Pinnick has directed that an internal probe be set up and persons found guilty dealt with.
‘We accept the decision of the FIFA Disciplinary Committee to fine the NFF and award the match to Algeria, he said.
“However, this is a grave error and somebody must be punished. We apologize to Nigerians for this and assure that this will not in any way derail or even distract us in our well-laid plan to ensure that the Super Eagles have a great outing in Russia.
“At the same time, I want to assure that persons responsible for this slip would not be given just a slap on the wrist. We are actually looking at a re-organization of the Technical Department.
“The Technical Committee will henceforth play a serious superintending role on all details, no matter how minute, in technical matters.
“It is important that all committees and departments at the NFF should move at the same pace as the Executive Committee,” he told NFF media.
