Frustrated Chris Giwa to take fight to Court of Arbitration for Sport

Sep 8, 2014 00:38:00

Expected to vacate the NFF’s Glass House headquarters on Monday, the factional president is going to continue fighting for his rights at the CAS in Lausanne, Switzerland

By Shemmy Sholabomi

Factional NFF president Chris Giwa is set to vacate the Glass House on Monday but is expected to take his case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), Goal has learnt.

This is in order to avoid a potential ban from Fifa which the governing body said it would impose on Nigeria if the proprietor of Giwa FC continues to illegally parade himself as head of the country’s football.

Fifa handed a final warning to the country and will make its decision today, September 8.

Giwa got more than he bargained for on Saturday when the Super Eagles lost 3-2 to visiting Congo in an Africa Cup of Nations qualifying match in Calabar.

The factional leader was prevented from taking part in pre-match formalities as local politicians and other officials met and shook hands with both sets of players before the game kicked off.

It was learnt that the powers that be in Nigeria have bowed to the pressure from Fifa and asked Giwa to vacate the NFF office.

Goal can authoritatively report that as from Monday the NFF office would be manned by a secretariat staff and not Giwa as it has been for the past two weeks now.

“The Federal Government has to demonstrate to football loving Nigerians, especially the youths of the nation, that it has the love of the Nigerian youths at heart and since President Goodluck Jonathan has not hidden his love for sports, a big reason why the Nigerian government has to follow the wish of the people to ask Giwa to step aside,” a prominent football stakeholder told Goal.

But Giwa still has the belief and conviction that he actually won the NFF election on August 26 and has vowed to fight his case at the CAS.