Shehu Dikko, chairman of the National Sports Commission (NSC), says FIFA is yet to communicate a ruling on the petition of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) against the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo) for allegedly fielding ineligible players during the World Cup playoffs.
Dikko spoke in a chat with journalists after meeting with
President Bola Tinubu at the State House on Thursday.
DR Congo defeated the Super Eagles on penalties in the final
of the African playoffs for the 2026 World Cup. The loss ended Nigeria’s World
Cup dream.
However, in December, the NFF filed a petition with FIFA,
accusing the Congolese FA of deceit in clearing players for its national team,
despite their status contravening the country’s citizenship laws.
NFF added that some of the “fraudulently registered” players
played for DR Congo at the playoffs.
The matter has been tabled before the FIFA Disciplinary
Committee for a ruling. However, over the past few days, Nigerians have become
anxious about the case after several falsified verdicts began circulating
online.
Addressing the situation, Dikko said FIFA has not informed
the federations when the matter will be adjudicated, adding that “when they
finish, they will tell the world”.
He added that Nigeria has a “good case” against DR Congo and
is “confident” of the evidence.
“We had a misfortune or penalties in the playoffs. We lost
it, but we found out there are some breaches here and there, which we believe,
even before we played the playoffs, those breaches, we noticed them and we
already documented them,” Dikko said.
“So ourselves and the NFF submitted to FIFA, what we feel
were the breaches against the rules and regulations, which are also part of
sports, it’s not being sore losers, it’s just what it is. So the relevant
bodies of FIFA are dealing with it, and we are hoping, any moment, we will hear
their decisions.
“But we are confident we have a good case. But I keep
saying, we have put the World Cup behind us already. Whatever happens, it is
what it is. But we are not looking at that, we are looking at how do you build
for the next competitions, the next AFCON, the next WAFCON is next month.
“You can see how we pushed the performance at the last AFCON
in Morocco, everybody was happy about it. So World Cup is a closed chapter, but
yes, we have a pending legal issue to deal with. It’s not within our competence
to do, our own is to say this is what we feel was the wrong thing that was
done, and we leave it.
“Even FIFA, it’s not the FIFA deciding, there are
independent bodies in FIFA who are independent of FIFA; disciplinary committee,
ethics committee, are independent bodies of FIFA, they make their decision
based on what they see on the rules and they won’t tell you, we are doing it
tomorrow or next tomorrow, when they finish, they will tell the world. But we
are confident that, yes, if it is legal issues, we have a good case. That’s why
we submitted the case.”
SPORTS SECTOR CREATED ALMOST 140,000 JOBS IN 2025
Shehu Dikko also said the sports sector has “induced almost
about 140,000 jobs” into the Nigerian economy in 2025.
The NSC chairman said the jobs were created both directly
and indirectly across the sports sector.
“The President is talking about sports is not just being
measured about the medals, it’s being measured about what you contribute, the
GDP, how much was created. Last year we induced almost about 140,000 jobs, both
direct, indirect and induced, across all the sporting ecosystem. That is how we
are now measuring our sports and other kinds of parameters,” Dikko said.
“I remember right from the beginning, we unveiled what we
call the New Hope Initiative for Nigeria Sports Economy, the real framework,
which clearly defined where we are going and which way we are going, and has a
clear objectives and has a clear outcomes that we are looking at, what will be
the final outcome, and that is the final outcome we are seeing; we are winning
on the pitch, we are also winning on the on the economic side.
“One of the things that we have to now push more is about
the infrastructure because we need infrastructure to work. So we also discussed
that, and part of the memos Mr President is looking at is to see how we can
fast-track the development of sporting infrastructure across the country, both
the elite sports and also the grassroots sports.”
In November, Dikko had revealed that sports was contributing
“almost more than” one percent to Nigeria’s gross domestic product (GDP).
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