By Monica Iheakam
Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has appealed to Nigerians for forgiveness following the Algeria blunder that earned the country a sanction from the World Football ruling body.
This appeal is coming even as the NFF President Amaju Pinnick vowed that heads will roll at the Abuja Glass house for the grave error that has embarrassed the entire nation.
An angry Pinnick has directed for an internal inquiry be instituted immediately and persons found culpable be dealt with.
“We accept the decision of the FIFA Disciplinary Committee to fine the NFF and award the match to Algeria.
“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 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,” stated Pinnick.
FIFA yesterday sanctioned and fined Nigeria of 6,000 Swiss Francs for fielding an ineligible player in the match between Algeria and Nigeria on 10 November 2017.
Nigeria, who had already qualified for the finals, drew 1-1 but FIFA awarded the match to Algeria by a 3-0 scoreline after the Super Eagles fielded the ineligible Abdullahi Shehu who had failed to serve a one-match ban for accumulated yellow cards.