FIFA threatens Nigeria with 48-hour deadline

JOHANNESBURG: Nigeria have till Monday to reverse their decision to ban the national football team from international football unless they want Fifa to suspend their Football Federation.

Fifa spokesman Nicolas Maingot said that a letter had been sent to the countries’ football federation setting the deadline after Nigeria decided to ban their team following its disappointing first round exit at the World Cup this year.

“Failure to do so will lead to the suspension of the Nigerian federation,” said Maingot.

He also said that Fifa would send an official to the West African country to seek a solution to the impasse which followed the decision by Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan to ban the national team for two years.

Earlier Fifa’s general secretary Jerome Valcke said he would meet the Nigerian executive member representing Nigeria at Fifa to discuss the decision. He said the decision to suspend Nigeria would be in line with the governing body’s efforts to retain the independence of football from political interference.

The French revolution

France’s World Cup and European Championship winning defender Laurent Blanc was officially named national team coach. He replaces Raymond Domenech, who stepped down after France’s catastrophic World Cup finals campaign, though, he had already said he would not stay on in the post in any case.  “Blanc will have an extremely pugnacious sporting project with the will to ‘win’ and in order to put the French team back on the rails in both a sporting and a moral point of view,” said French Football Federation (FFF) president Jean-Pierre Escalettes.

Meanwhile, South Korean coach Huh Jung-Moo and Japan coach Takeshi Okada have stepped down after the World Cup. Jung-Moo decided to leave, citing distress from scathing attacks over his leadership during the World Cup while Okada quit his coaching role saying that he needed a break from football.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 3^rd, 2010.