President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Amaju Pinnick, has been vindicated on his stance against the order for a replay of the second leg of the 2019 Champions League made by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) Executive Committee.
Following appeals lodged by the two clubs, Esperance of Tunisia and Wydad Casablanca of Morocco, the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) ruled on Wednesday that the CAF Executive Committee “did not have jurisdiction” to make the order. It directed that the matter should be referred to the “competent CAF authorities” to decide.
When the CAF Executive Committee sat by the side of the FIFA Congress in Paris to take the decision, Nigeria’s Pinnick was the only member, who opposed the recommendation, pointing out that it was utterly wrong and destructive of football for the policy-making body to disregard the authority of the referee in a game.
Seeing that Ahmad was intent and had skewed the deliberations of the Executive Committee to arrive at the order, Pinnick took leave before the resolution was passed. It was at that point that the plot not to renew his mandate as CAF First Vice President thickened. Read more