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Nigeria/Mali: How We Neutralised Cote d'Ivoire, Mali Accord - Ojo-Oba
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This Day (Lagos)
31 January 2008
Posted to the web 1 February 2008
Lagos
The Secretary General of Nigeria Football Association (NFA) Bolaji Ojo-Oba late Wednesday disclosed that a petition written to the Confederation of African Football (CAF) to monitor closely the Cote d'Ivoire/Mali tie in Accra Tuesday may have played a defining role in the result of the match which was the main reason Nigeria is staying on at the on going tournament.
The Super Eagles would have been eliminated from the group stages for the first time since 1982 in Libya if the two Franco-Phone nations had decided to split the points. Before the match Drogba had in an interview expressed his desire to see his Chelsea team mate Mikel Obi progress with Nigeria but also confessed that his heart bled for his Malian wife.
The FA Scribe revealed that the moment they got the information, they decided to write to CAF to monitor the two teams both on and off the pitch till after the match and that the action played a big role in up holding the integrity of the beautiful game.
"When we heard the media reports quoting Ivorien captain Drogba saying he wants to help Mali sail through because his wife is from there and we felt that his comments contravened the ethics of the beautiful game. And in accordance to FIFA Rules and Regulations we petitioned CAF to monitor closely the two last matches in our group," he commented.
Nigeria beat hapless Squirrels of Benin 2-0 while the Eagles of Mali lost scandalously 3-0 to tournament favourites, the Elephants of Cote d'Ivoire and the result gave the Super Eagles a quarter final ticket against host, Ghana Black Stars on Sunday.
However, the FA scribe sees the result of the match as a good omen for African football especially when it comes to predicting out come of matches.
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"What makes football a big business in Europe is because it's highly unpredictable? Look at what Croatia did to England at the last Euro qualifiers? The Croats had already qualified while England needed a draw at home but their opponents took a bold step and eliminated the 'Three Lions' which is a big plus for the beautiful game," he pointed out.
Wow..
Drogba said that he wanted to see his Chelsea teammate OBI (Nigeria) go thru.. he also pointed out that his wife was Malian.. however throughout he maintained that he wanted Ivory Coast to be first in their group... the point was that he would not do any body a favor at the expense of another.. why did the NFA read match fixing in there..
Is the NFA taking credit for Ivory Coast beating Mali.. what if Mali had been a stronger team than Ivory Coast ..
Listen Mr. Ojo-Oba instead of resorting to administrative maneuvering to help your team... [Read Full Text]
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