{"id":28994,"date":"2014-07-09T21:00:17","date_gmt":"2014-07-09T20:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/?p=28994"},"modified":"2014-07-09T21:58:29","modified_gmt":"2014-07-09T20:58:29","slug":"fifa-bans-nigeria-from-international-competition-over-political-intrusion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/fifa-bans-nigeria-from-international-competition-over-political-intrusion\/","title":{"rendered":"FIFA bans Nigeria from international competition over political intrusion"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2 id=\"a-subheader\" itemprop=\"alternativeHeadline\" style=\"text-align: justify;\">Effective immediately, the suspension was issued after Nigerian soccer officials were fired by the government following the team&#8217;s World Cup exit amid a dispute over player bonuses. FIFA has set a July 15 deadline to resolve the problem, or Nigeria faces exclusion from the Under-20 Women\u2019s World Cup that starts in August in Canada.<\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) \u2014 FIFA has suspended Nigeria from international competition after football leaders were fired by the government following the team\u2019s World Cup exit amid a dispute over player bonuses.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The suspension took effect immediately on Wednesday, with Nigerian teams and officials barred from international matches and meetings.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">FIFA has set a July 15 deadline to resolve the problem, or Nigeria faces exclusion from the Under-20 Women\u2019s World Cup that starts in August in Canada.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Nigeria\u2019s government ousted the football federation leadership and arrested its president Aminu Maigari after he returned from Brazil last week. The government blamed officials for embarrassing the country by not settling the dispute of player payments.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">FIFA rules protect its 209 member federations from influence by third parties, including politicians.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The Nigerian government has issued a legal order for the sports ministry to appoint new federation leaders.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cThe suspension will be lifted once the court actions have been withdrawn,\u201d FIFA said.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Nigeria advanced from its group for the first time since the 1998 World Cup, but lost 2-0 to France in the round of 16. Before that game, players rebelled against the federation after not receiving their money for reaching the knockout stage.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Nigeria is also scheduled to begin defending its African Cup of Nations title when qualifying matches start in September. The tournament kicks off next January in Morocco.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Nigeria was also temporarily banned by FIFA after the 2010 World Cup when the country\u2019s president Goodluck Jonathan tried to withdraw the team from international competition until it improved.<\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Related Posts generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Effective immediately, the suspension was issued after Nigerian soccer officials were fired by the government following the team&#8217;s World Cup exit amid a dispute over player bonuses. FIFA has set&hellip;<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Related Posts generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28995,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>FIFA bans Nigeria from international competition over political intrusion - Pointblank News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/fifa-bans-nigeria-from-international-competition-over-political-intrusion\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"FIFA bans Nigeria from international competition over political intrusion - Pointblank News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Effective immediately, the suspension was issued after Nigerian soccer officials were fired by the government following the team&#8217;s World Cup exit amid a dispute over player bonuses. 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