By Jude Opara, Abuja

The crisis that rocked the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) following the 2014 elections into the board of the federation may have come to an end as the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) based in Lausanne, Switzerland yesterday threw out the case instituted by Amb. Chris Giwa who was also laying claims to the position of the president of the football house

Giwa and five other members of his group had querried the rationale behind FIFA president, Sepp Blatter congratulating the NFF president, Amaju Pinnick because that was a clear endorsement of the September 30 election in Warri, Delta State where Pinnick was elected.

But in its ruling, CAS argued that a congratulatory letter cannot mean an endorsement because it has no legal bearing on what happened in Warri.

On why FIFA did not recorgnize the August 26th Abuja congress where Giwa and his team claimed that they were elected, the Court ruled that FIFA has the right not to recorgnize elections of member associations where there are convincing evidence to prove that there was a third party interfetence. It cited the video evidence where state operatives arrested some members of the then Aminu Maigari board.

CAS also held that the plantiffs did not seek intervention whether the NFF election was conducted in line with Nigerian laws as well as the CAF and FIFA Statutes.