Third party and government interference currently pose a threat to the participation of Nigerian and Spanish teams in the 2018 World Cup. This threat is in line with FIFA statutes which govern the conducts of Football Federations under the international Football community.
FIFA has issued a warning that it would not consult with any of the parties fighting for the leadership of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) before issuing a ban on the country from participating in the game if it discovers that a third party has been meddling in the nation’s football affairs.
In the same vein, FIFA and the Spanish Government agreed in February that there was a need to clarify the situation regarding the country’s Football Federation (RFEF) to avoid a potential World Cup ban. In December 2017, FIFA had issued a warning to the RFEF that it could be banned from the World Cup because of suspected Government interference.
The issue of interference in both Countries stems from the clamouring over who is qualified to take charge of the respective Football Federation and the medium of determining who that person should be. While the RFEF is calling for elections, the NFF is in court.
FIFA considers these issues as issues of third party and political interference and through a letter to the Nigerian body in 2016, placed a five year ban from participating in any international football activities on the officials who were jostling for the position.
On Friday, May 4, the Supreme Court directed the parties fighting for the leadership of the NFF to go back to the Jos High court to sort out the suit filed by one of the parties claiming it is the right board to lead the federationn. This sparked the suspicion of the World Football governing body and resulted in the warning.
Also, considering the fact that the parties contending for the positions have been banned from Football related activities, FIFA warned that they were not supposed to be seen participating in activities relating to the sport. According to FIFA, if the parties involved act contrary to the direction of the ban, it would definitely affect the Nigerian team’s participation in the 2018 World cup in Russia.
Nigeria and Spain are not the only Countries to have faced ban from FIFA due to government interference in recent years. In 2015, Indonesia was banned from competing in qualifiers for this year’s World Cup. This was after FIFA said the Central Government had taken over its federation’s affairs.
In the same year, Kuwait was suspended following a government bill which FIFA said interfered with the independence of the Country’s football association. This was considered a contravention of FIFA Statutes.
