General Secretary of the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) Mohammed Sanusi has stated that the body has commenced the legal process to appeal the decision by football’s world governing body, FIFA, to reject the NFF’s protest against DR Congo’s qualification to the 2026 FIFA World Cup playoff stage.
He made this statement in respect to FIFA’s decision to reject Nigeria’s protest against DR Congo’s qualification over ineligibility grounds citing that the Congolese fielded players who had not fully cleared their nationality switch to the African nation prior to their involvement in games that qualified Congo to the playoff stage.
“We have received the decision of the FIFA Disciplinary Committee on our petition, but we are not satisfied with the decision, which rejected our petition. I want to assure Nigerians that the NFF has immediately commenced the process of appealing the decision” Mohammed Sanusi said in a statement.
Nigeria’s appeal against FIFA’s decision is very likely going to be lodged at the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS).
DR Congo beat Nigeria to qualify to the inter-continental playoff as Africa’s representative and will take on the winner of the clash between Jamaica and New Caledonia on March 31. A win qualifies the Leopards to the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
