Amos and Funds
You can never keep a Nigerian down from taking their rightful place of fleecing unsuspected victims. Even when their hand is caught in the proverbial cookie jar, they will perform the tactics of any insolent child: deny, deny, deny.
Our FIFA executive Amos Adamu is no different. After getting caught in the World Cup bribery scandal back in November, he has maintained his innocence and has filed appeals. FIFA has rejected his appeals and he will now take his case to the mythical “Court of Arbitration for Sport.”
Now, I’ve not heard of this Court of Arbitration for Sport, but it seems like they are a legit organization (as much as FIFA is a legit organization). They are some nebulous non-profit whose goal is to be some final arbitrator of international sports, and ends up handling Olympic appeals among others. He’s most likely hoping he can pay his way to redemption perhaps.
In the meantime, others in African Football are calling for him to step aside and allow the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) to appoint a new representative. However, the current Minister of the Nigerian National Sports Commission, Professor Taoheed Adedoja, feels that Adamu is innocent and losing his position on the horse-trading block would be a blow. There are also discussions that the visit of the NFF to FIFA’s headquarters during the time of the Appeal was suspect, and perhaps was part of a “bribe to cover up a bribe.”
This also opens up the case for Ibrahim Galadima of the Nigeria Football Association (NFA) to lobby hard for the seat. The NFA seems to be a different organization from the NFF, and perhaps is related to their national team, but my research has been poor to middling in that regard. I do know if the appeal is upheld, there will be a bit of a power vacuum in African representative to FIFA.
