Posted by By Richard Jideaka, Abuja on
The Chairman of the Nigeria Football Association (NFA), Alhaji Sani Lulu Abdullahi, has cut short the return of John Mikel Obi to the national team with an order to the Super Eagles head coach Berti Vogts to drop him from the match against Macedonia on Wednesday.
…Say he is still banned
The Chairman of the Nigeria Football Association (NFA), Alhaji Sani Lulu Abdullahi, has cut short the return of John Mikel Obi to the national team with an order to the Super Eagles head coach Berti Vogts to drop him from the match against Macedonia on Wednesday.
Alhaji Lulu told Daily Sunsport in Abuja on Friday that the NFA had not lifted the suspension of Mikel Obi and that he was shocked to see his name in the media as one of the invited players for the friendly international match with Macedonia in Skopje.
He added that he did not okay the list before it was made public
He stated that the agreement NFA had with Vogts was that he would talk to Mikel, afterwards he would get back to the NFA for clearance on the next line of action.
"I have told Vogts not to use Mikel in the match against Macedonia, and I have also demanded for an explanation from the secretariat on how the invitation came about. We have no personal grudge against Mikel, so people should not misconstrue NFA's position on the issue of discipline to mean that we want to ruin the fledgling career of the young man
"Posterity will judge us if we allow Mikel to set a precedent that would be difficult to correct in the future. Mikel has erred and he has to follow due process in apologizing to Nigerians and the NFA, with a pledge not to repeat such misdemeanor again. He has to show remorse, apologize to NFA and his colleagues before his suspension would be lifted
"Shittu, his manager, called me and I told him what Mikel has to do and, until he does that, he remains suspended from the national teams. I also told Mikel that he has to face the NFA Disciplinary Committee when he called me, and I stand by that. I can only appeal to Nigerians to support us in our effort to instill discipline in all our national teams," Lulu stated.
The NFA boss said further that his fears were that if Mikel is allowed to go free, some other players might decide to stay away from some matches and beg later, adding that this could happen when we need them most.