Nigerian Football Federation to vote for Sepp Blatter despite Fifa corruption scandal

NIGERIAN Football Federation (NFF) delegates to Fifa's ongoing 65th congress are poised to vote for the incumbent president Sepp Blatter along with the fellow Africans despite the loud calls for him to be removed over ongoing bribery scandals.

 

Mr Blatter is up for re-election at the congress taking place in Zurich but several confederations have asked him to stand down as a result of the recent bribery scandals that have rocked Fifa. At least eight senior Fifa executives have been arrested by police for collecting bribes to influence the deciding of World Cup venues.

 

Yesterday, the congress got underway with Nigeria was NFF president  Amaju Pinnick leading the Nigerian delegation. During the congress, Mr Blatter will be challenged by the president of the Jordanian football federation Prince Ali bin al-Hussein and several confederations, especially, Uefa, have said they will vote Mr Blatter out.

 

Earlier on in the contest, Dutchman van Praag and former Portuguese international star Luis Figo, withdrew from the contest, saying it was biased. However, despite calls for the postponement of the Fifa presidential elections, the Confederation of Africa Football (Caf) insisted yesterday that voting should proceed as planned today in spite of the corruption charges against senior officials.

 

Mr Pinnick is joined by the NFF first vice president Seyi Akinwunmi, and the NFF general secretary Dr Mohammed Sanusi. Dr Abdulkadir Muazu, the chairman of the NFF Committee on Sports Medicine, who is also the director of sports medicine at the National Sports Commission, is also in Zurich attending the sports medicine conference on the margins of the Fifa Congress.

All the officials attended last night's welcome dinner at the Fifa secretariat, where they reiterated their support for the candidacy of Sepp Blatter like the rest of Caf. According to Caf, it will, however, co-operate in every way possible over the corruption investigations.

 

A Caf spokesman said: "Caf opposes any postponement of the election for the presidency scheduled for May 29. It reaffirms its commitment to work and to cooperate in safeguarding the ethical and moral values that underlie the practice of the sport, its organisation and administration.

 

"Hence its full and ongoing support to the package of measures driven to Fifa in recent years in improving governance. Caf reaffirms its readiness to cooperate in this direction with all the institutions that engage and subscribes it to zero tolerance vis-a-vis offenders regardless of their profile or origin."

European football's governing body, Uefa, had initially suggested they were in favour of postponing the Fifa Congress in Zurich. Although Fifa has now accepted that the elections will go ahead, most of its members are supporting Prince Ali bin al-Hussein, saying Mr Blatter should accept responsibility for the corruption scandal.