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DOCUMENTS: HOW 114-YEAR OLD FIFA ONCE BLACKLIST NIGERIA IN ERROR

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BY KUNLE SOLAJA.

It is on record that the first competition Nigeria’s football team featured in was the JALCO Cup – an annual contest between Nigeria and Ghana which in 1950s was called Gold Coast.

JALCO stood for J. Allen and Company, an automobile distribution company in both countries.

At a time, FIFA did not approve the annual football contests on an assumption that Nigeria had not secured membership of FIFA and therefore was ineligible to play any international match.

From FIFA’s records, www.sportsvillagesquare.com gathered that on August 31, 1953, the Gold Coast FA (now Ghana FA) wrote FIFA to inform it of an impending JALCO Cup contest of October 11, 1953, in Accra and wanted the international body to record it in its calendar of international matches.

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FIFA’s file copy of a 1953 query to Gold Coast (now Ghana) on why it played a match with Nigeria.

  FIFA replied on September 16, 1953 and expressed regrets that the match could not hold as Nigeria was not yet a FIFA member.

FIFA drew Gold Coast’s attention to Art. 15 of its statutes which stated: “Associations in membership with the federation, as well as their clubs shall not be allowed to have sporting relations with unaffiliated Associations or clubs without the consent of the federation“.

FIFA admits error on Nigeria

 

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The letter concluded: “As long as the Nigerian FA is not affiliated with the FIFA, no member of this federation will be allowed to play against Nigerian teams“.

The match took place to the displeasure of FIFA. It wrote to the Gold Coast FA on February 24, 1954.

Gold Coast responded by explaining thus: “We knew the Nigeria Football Association were members of FIFA. In their communication with us some time ago, their letter-headed form showed they were affiliated to FIFA, and so we thought we were all members of the same sporting brotherhood.

Before the match was played, we made a formal application for permission from the FIFA, and we received no reply. We took it for granted that all was well. In view of par. 3 of your letter, it is clear that Nigeria is not a member of FIFA, and we are therefore wrong in assuming that they are. We deeply regret our error“.

FIFA later discovered its own error of judgement and this was conveyed in a December 16, 1954 letter to the Gold Coast FA. Titled “International matches”, it reads:

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Referring to our correspondence exchange in February/March 1954 in the above subject matter, we would like to correct the statement made in our letter of 24th February as follows:

   “When we wrote you that the Nigerian Football Association were not affiliated to this Federation, it escaped ours (sic) notice that they were affiliated to the Football Association, London. Owing to this fact, they are not directly but indirectly affiliated to FIFA and consequent ly are allowed to play international and other matches against teams of any association in membership with the FIFA.

  “The same applies to the Sierra Leone Football Association. You are therefore allowed to play against teams of the Football Associations of Nigeria and Sierra Leone. We would apologise for the error committed and are“.

 

 

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Kunle Solaja is the author of landmark books on sports and journalism as well as being a multiple award-winning journalist and editor of long standing. He is easily Nigeria’s foremost soccer diarist and Africa's most capped FIFA World Cup journalist, having attended all FIFA World Cup finals from Italia ’90 to Qatar 2022. He was honoured at the Qatar 2022 World Cup by FIFA and AIPS.

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