A scout to the former coach of Nigeria Gernot Rohr has provided another angle In the light of the protest lodged by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) against DR Congo for fielding ineligible players against Nigeria in the world cup qualifiers playoff.
NFF petitioned FIFA on several players of DR Congo in that game who were in possession of dual nationality, in conflict to their constitution which doesn’t allow citizens to possess another nationality.
The players in question numbering seven in total didn’t renounce their other citizenship as provided by the constitution of DR Congo before picking up the passport of the African country.
” This is a straightforward case if you ask me because you have to first and foremost be a bonafide citizen of a country before you are eligible to play for an country according to FIFA. It’s clear that you must meet all the national laws for that to happen”, he told OwnGoalNigeria.com in an exclusive chat.
” I remember when we had Kingsley Ehizubue and Tobias Lawal with the Super Eagles. Ehizubue based on his citizen status in the Netherlands isn’t eligible to get another nationality. So that was how he was not able to play for us after getting an invitation.
” Then there is Lawal, we drafted him in to join us for a friendly game. While with us he wanted to get a Nigerian passport and was told that Austrian laws doesn’t permit dual nationality. We lost out on a promising goalkeeper due to it and he is now a full fledged international for Austria . So rules are rules”, he concluded.
Mohammed Mowiz Suleiman
