As the battle for the control of Nigerian football rages, the camp of the impeached president of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Alhaji Aminu Maigari may have settled for a member of the League Management Company (LMC), Mallam Shehu Dikko as an alternative candidate should Maigari lose out of the contest.

The group which met in the wee hours of Thursday last week at Serob Legacy Hotel, Abuja where 26 State FA chairmen were said to have annulled the impeachment of Maigari also used the opportunity to plan for an alternative.

A chairman from one of the Northern states told Sports Vanguard on the condition of anonymity that the Maigari’s camp is sure of victory any time the election was conducted because they have decided to work as a team to support any candidate even if Maigari eventually loses out of the on-going power game.

Maigari, sacked

“This group is very intact ad I bet you it will take a lot to break into our ranks because we have resolved to back our ‘president’ and in a situation where they succeed in pushing him out, we have a vibrant alternative in a young sports technocrat who has all that it takes to take Nigerian football to the next level, and that man is Shehu Dikko”.

The relationship between the Maigari led NFF and the LMC was so intimate that members of the LMC were said to have been present at the Abuja meeting which was said to have ended at about 1.45 am (Friday morning).

Also when the operatives of the Department of State Security (DSS) prevented a planned press conference at the hotel, Dikko effectively provided his private house which also serves as office for the LMC to host the press conference.

The election into the executive committee of the NFF has been scheduled to take place on August 26, 2014 in Abuja. The new board will administer Nigerian football for the next four years.