NFF Warns Sharks, Defends Denial Of Ticket CAF Confed Cup

The Nigeria Football Federation, NFF has issued a thinly disguised threat to Sharks, as the Port Harcourt club continue to press their claims for a place in the CAF Confederation Cup.

Warri Wolves, who finished fourth in the League, were awarded the ticket at the expense of Federation Cup finalists Sharks, and the Garden City club are refusing to roll over.

Sharks and the Rivers State Football Association have argued, citing CAF Regulations and precedence that they should have been rightfully awarded the slot, but NFF Secretary General Bolaji Ojo-Oba disagrees and issued a subtle threat in the process.

“We are surprised at the attitude of the Rivers State Football Association and their agents, who have been employing inelegant language in their correspondence with the Nigeria Football Federation. The football world has order and structure; it is not an animal kingdom.

“While the fellows have been arguing that the CAF Confederation Cup regulation did not expressly make mention of a fourth–placed team in the League, they have also failed to show us where the regulation expressly made mention of a second–placed team in the Federation Cup.

“Their argument has been desperate and porous, their inferences have been poor and irrelevant, and the instances they have been drawing up do not match. We will not exchange gutter language with them, but they should be very careful at this stage,” Ojo-Oba was quoted as saying in a press statement released by the NFF Media Officer Ademola Olajire.

Ojo-Oba went on to argue that the decision by the Federation to award the 2010 CAF Confederation Cup second slot to Warri Wolves FC was in the best interest of the nation.

“If we didn’t pick the Cup winner, Enyimba FC, we would have had only one slot for the CAF Confederation Cup, meaning that we would have on our own forfeited one slot as a result of not entering the Cup winner.

“CAF made it clear that the Cup winner must have a slot in the Confederation Cup, and failing which any country which hitherto had two slots would only be able to register one team. What we have done is in the best interest of the nation and we have explained the position to all reasonable stakeholders.”