The Federal Government has lampooned the Nigeria Football Federation over the crisis rocking this year’s FA Cup (now known as Aiteo Cup).
The government also frowned at the degradation of domestic league football in the country, due to inconsistent calendaring and other attendant problems.
The Ministry of Youth and Sports Development, through its Press and Public Relations Unit, while reacting to the latest crisis where football clubs have pulled out of the AITEO Cup, called on the NFF to fix the crisis.
The ministry said it was unacceptable that teams were treated against the rules but according to other considerations not in the rule books.
” Our league has never sunk this low. Several times, through writing and verbal discussions, the Ministry has brought this to the attention of NFF and persons in charge of the Domestic league,” a part of the statement noted.
The statement said that unfortunately, things are getting worse, instead of getting better and that the Federal Government will be left with no choice but to act to save the crumbling system in place and bring about desired changes.
The statement quoted the ministry as mandating the NFF to act swiftly and find encompassing and sustainable solutions to all contending issues around the Aiteo Cup, saying “there is a race against time to act, so the NFF must swing to work swiftly to restore sanity,”
“The NFF should know that a critical aspect of the country’s sports cannot be experiencing degradation due to bad management from the administrators and expect the government to keep quiet. Government will not stand idly by and watch our domestic football come to disgrace, ” the statement said