By Solomon Nwoke
FORMER Secretary General of the Nigeria Football Association (NFA), Alhaji Sani Ahmed Toro has urged the arrow head of the ‘rebelling’ football administrators, Chris Giwa to abide by the rule of the game by respecting the status of the NFF, CAF and FIFA.

Sani Toro

He made the call as the seven-man reconciliation committee which has the former chairman of NFA, Alhaji Ibrahim Galadima as chairman, Dr Tijani Yusuf, Dr Bolaji Ojo-Oba, Barrister Musa Amadu, Paul Bassey, Barrister Obi and Mrs Carol Nkem Ojukwu as members was inaugurated by Sports minister, Solomon Dalung.

Speaking yesterday, Alhaji Toro said, “the rule of the game is very clear and must be respected, The minister has taken the right step by setting up a reconciliation committee that is composed of all football experts in the country to look into the problem and advise the government on the way forward. It’s a good development”.

Alhaji Toro who would not want to proffer any form of sanction on Giwa urged Nigerians to wait patiently for the outcome of the committee’s report.

He disclosed that when the matter first came up, “I quickly advised the minister  to ensure that the crisis does not get out of hand in order not to earn us FIFA hammer because Giwa infringed on one of the statutes of FIFA.

“I don’t want to pre-empt the outcome of the committee’s findings. Let’s wait and see what they’ll come out with and I don’t want to go that far as to proffering any form of sanction that should be meted out to him (Giwa).

One thing about Giwa, whether we like it or not, is that he’s one of the two private club owners in the country. He however, took the wrong direction by going to the regular court for a football matter.

“My advise to Giwa is that he should realise that he’s a member of the football family and even as a member, he should abide by the rules of the game. You cannot take football matters to the regular court, but to CAF, FIFA of CAS ( Court of Arbitration for sports)”, he stressed.