FIFA騒動の全容（英文）

☆FIFA騒動の全容（英文）

Senate begins amendment of Decree 101

THE Senate yesterday began work on a version of the amendment bill on the Nigeria Football Association (NFA), Decree 101 which it put together based on memoranda from stakeholders.

The Upper House gave the Senator Kanto Bello's Committee on sport 14 days to work on the bill for an Act to repeal the NFA Act, establish it (NFA) and provide for the organisation and administration of football in the country in conformity with the status of the Federation of International Football Associations (FIFA).

The Senate work on of the amendment bill on the Football Association NFA Decree 101 which based on memoranda from stakeholders.

The Upper House itself, despite threats from the Federation of International Football Association (FIFA), gave the Senator Kanti Bello Committee on sports 14 days to work on it.

And to drive home the point of the ban, Kanti Bello, who led debate on the bill listed 13 consequences of FIFA ban. They are:

☆Nigeria will be kicked out of the international football community. This development will give us the infamous distinction of being the only country to be banned thrice by FIFA on account of administrative non-compliance. We had been banned earlier for age falsification and administrative discrepancies.

☆Nigeria will lose its qualifying slot for the next World Cup holding in Germany in 2006 and with that will go over two million dollars that would have come from qualification grant, preparatory advances and participation fees.

☆igeria will be kicked out of qualifying series of the 2006 African Nation's Cup holding in Egypt.

☆The implication of above is that Nigeria may only feature in another World Cup final in 2010 and the 2008 for Nations Cup and this will deny a generation of Super Eagles players the opportunity of competing at highest level of the sports.

☆Nigeria will be unable to secure international friendly matches or be invited to any international tournament anywhere in the world.

☆Nigerian's female team "the Falcons" will be excluded from all international competitions.

☆All national age-grade teams from Nigeria such as the Flying Eagles, Golden Eaglets and the Under 23 Olympic team will equally be isolated from international community.

☆Nigeria will be unable to attend or vote at football congresses world wide and therefore will be unable to have its voice heard or its delegate elected into any position.

☆As a consequence of above, the growth of our domestic football league will be adversely affected as players will be denied the ambitions and dream of aspiring to get national call ups for some years to come.

☆Nigeria international world ranking will experience a nose-dive and many years may be required to restore it.

☆This development will place enormous strain on our nation social fabric since our talented youth (footballers) will be unable to express their talent and may be tempted to divert their talent/energies on negative social pastimes.

☆Once more, Nigeria image and in particular the National Assembly will again be in the headlines for unfair and false reason of refusing to enact a law.
In addition, according to Bello, FIFA ban would deny the country of its most veritable tool of national unity and social harmony since the sport provided a major rallying point for the nation.

Details of the Bill released to journalists yesterday showed that there shall be a General Assembly of all state chairman of the NFA as the highest organ. It shall have a chairman elected by the assembly whose tenure will run for four years. The Bill also recommends an Executive Committee of a chairman and eight other members. The members of the committee must include one representative of the organised private sector, one from the Federal Ministry of Sports and one of the Nigerian Referees Association (NRA).

Basically to execute the policies of the General Assembly and advise on matters affecting the NFA, the committee chairman and members are to be elected for a tenure of four years by the General Assembly.

A major highlight of the Bill is that a Nigerian Amateur or Professional Footballer cannot be transferred outside the country to play for a foreign clubside without the transfer document providing for:

unconditional release of the player for a national football engagement organised by FIFA, Confederation of African Football (CAF) and West African Football Union (WAFU), and;

payment by the foreign club of fees prescribed by the NFA.
The Bill stipulates that a Secretary General shall be appointed to run the Secretariat of the NFA, while funding shall be through government funding, funding from FIFA, CAF, and WAFU, grant-in-aid, endowments and donations, charges, fees, dues recovered by NFA, and interest on invested funds of the association.

情報元　ガーディアン