Eligibility Row: DR Congo Has Case to Answer at FIFA, Dikko Insists

The last has not been heard regarding the quest for Nigeria to qualify for the 2026 FIFA World Cup after Mallam Shehu Dikko, NSC Chairman revealed that DR Congo has a case to answer at FIFA, reports www.totorinews.com.

He disclosed this while speaking as a guest on Arise TV on Friday morning, where he informed football loving Nigerians that DR Congo faultered in their desperation to obtain eligibility for some players to represent the country’s football national team at the continental play- offs in Morocco.

He noted that red flag was observed by Nigeria when DR Congo named some players of other nationalities who were yet to be granted eligibility status to play for the Leopards of DR Congo in their squad for the playoffs.

“When we saw the squad that was put in place for the playoffs, the squad was named on November 1 and the playoffs were on November 13, we looked at the squad of our opponents. We found out from the beginning that even the Congolese had already named players of other nationalities who had not been cleared by FIFA in their squad. That was an alarm, so everybody started monitoring, even though the players were not being played,” Dikko said.

He clarified that the matter did not start when Nigeria lost the playoffs, rather the football ruling body in Nigeria had observed that DR Congo did not follow the due process of how players of other nationalities can switch allegiance to another country of their ancestry.

“This issue did not start because we lost the playoffs. We had been watching what they were doing, and then we found out a day before the qualifiers that they were getting clearances so that the players were qualified to play,” he added.

“But if you look back, what gave them the confidence to name a player of another nationality in their squad to play a match two weeks later, when he wasn’t qualified to play for them until the day before the match they received permission? That raised alarm for us after the qualifiers.

“It is the responsibility of a federation to ensure passports are issued in line with the law. You cannot just issue a passport to someone and change his nationality. If the passport is not issued according to the law of that country, it affects everything,” Dikko said.

The former 2nd Vice President of the NFF further revealed that despite the loss of Nigeria, the fact is that rules governing the administration of football must be obeyed and if any member association of FIFA contravenes any rule, Nigeria has a right to seek redress.

“Yes, we lost. Unfortunately, everybody was angry about it. We are not sore losers, but it’s part of the rules. We bring in our legal team, we bring in our international lawyers. We look at the legal opinion, we look at the laws, and we found out there is some suspicion that some things have not been done right according to the laws of the game.

“There are probably, from what we found out, misrepresentations to FIFA to obtain those clearances,” he concluded.