Clouds over NFA/Ministry disagreement

The sigh of relief being heaved in some quarters following reports of a settlement between the Alhaji Galadima NFA board and the Sports Minister's faction, may be short-lived afterall. This could be so, if reports reaching our offices in Lagos last evening, are anything to go by.

According to our Abuja sources, the arrival of the FIFA Secretary-General and that of CAF may have been responsible for the new tune being re-echoed around the corridors of the meeting as at press time.

We were told that, the man from Zurich, after consultations with his Nigerian colleague, Dr. Amos Adamu, started "muttering new songs such as; having a re-election conducted either in June or July, 2006.

"We suspect that, many water must have passed under the bridge erected by Adamu, who is representing the Ministry and FIFA messenger of peace. Suddenly, what seemed a peaceful settlement yesterday, before the arrival of the World Governing Body's Scribe, has turned to something else.

"But we do hope that, as true Nigerians, peace based on yesterday's (Tuesday, May 23,2006 agreement after a series of meeting) would be given the chance to survive," our Abuja sources prayed.

Meanwhile, when nigeriasports.com contacted Alhaji Ibrahim Galadima on phone, and asked on the development, his answer was briefy - "we are in a meeting right now; why not call me later and I would be able to give you an answer."

Another Abuja source informed us that, though it could be true that "something could have gone wrong somewhere, but the fact remains that, when FIFA was contacted in their Zurich headquarters, the response was that, there was no such thing as having another election.

"The FIFA scribe was sent here with a mandate to assist in settling both parties and there was nothing like arranging another election," our source reaffirmed.