The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has dismissed as a complete hoax, the claim by a convicted Singaporean match-fixer, Wilson Raj Perumal, that he helped Nigeria reach the 2010 Fifa World Cup finals.
According to British Tabloid, The Guardian, Perumal detailed a meeting with a football official in which he promised to help Nigeria qualify for the World Cup in return for free rein in organising three warm-up matches and a cut of the money Fifa provides for hosting a training camp during the tournament.
Secretary General of the football federation, Musa Amadu, in a statement in Abuja on Tuesday, declared that the entire claim by Perumal was nothing more than fiction, stressing that the true heroes of Nigeria’s qualification were the Federal Government, the NFF, players and coaches of the Super Eagles and football-loving Nigerians.
The Nigeria Football Federation.
Amadu said: “We have gone through the fictitious write-up by the Singaporean, who was fittingly convicted for his nefarious activities and has spent time in jail. The NFF will only say at this moment that there was no truth to the claim and that we had nothing to do with Perumal all through the Super Eagles’ qualifying series for 2010 FIFA World Cup.
“We have ordered for the book itself with a view to digesting it and looking critically at it. If the book impugns on the image of the Nigeria Football Federation, our players and the larger image of our dear country, we will take appropriate action.”
The Singaporean claimed to have influenced three players on his payroll to help Nigeria win one of their qualifiers.
He also wrote that he promised the Mozambique FA a $100,000 bonus if they were able to holed Tunisia to a draw and to stop Tunisia from leapfrogging Nigeria and clinching automatic qualification.
“My plan had worked and I was the unsung hero of Nigeria’s qualification to the final rounds of the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa,” Perumal wrote in his book.
“Ferrying Nigeria and Honduras to the World Cup was a personal achievement. ‘F*ck,’ I considered. ‘I got two teams to qualify for the World Cup but I cannot tell anyone.’”
Amadu insists that further enquiries should be directed to world football-governing body, FIFA, since the match was a FIFA competition qualifier.
by Greenstarnetwork admin..
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