Nigeria Football Federation Secretary-General, Mohammed Sanusi has disclosed that he was quite aware Super Eagles defender, Abudullahi Shehu was not eligible to play the final World Cup qualification match against Algeria.

Nigeria national football team players pose prior to the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifying football match between Nigeria and Cameroon at Godswill Akpabio International Stadium in Uyo, southern Nigeria, on September 1, 2017. / AFP PHOTO

FIFA deducted three points from the Super Eagles and the match awarded to Algeria, after it was clear that Nigeria violated the rules, fielded the player despite warning from FIFA.

‘’We received that communication from FIFA long ago and we sent it to the relevant department for them to take note of,”  Dr. Mohammed Sanusi said.

‘’You will agree with me that the office of General Secretary is like a clearing house, when information is sent, it is forwarded to the relevant department for them to make use of and if there is any progress they now revert to the office of  Secretary-General.

‘’That is why we have departments that are in charge of different segments. We have Technical, Competitions, we have Accounts.

‘’As I said, we do not want to trade blames here, we do not want to say this is the one that is at fault. A committee has been formed and we wait for the committee to finish their job.’’