![\"\"](\"https:\/\/nigerianews.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/CD5F8BBF-9C9D-4CE5-B52C-CC0864526732-300x133.jpeg\")
December 13, 2017: Following FIFA sanctions on Tuesday, the President of the Nigeria Football Federation, Amaju Pinnick, has taken responsibility for the error, just as he pleaded for forgiveness.<\/p>\nDecember 13, 2017: Following FIFA sanctions on Tuesday, the President of the Nigeria Football Federation, Amaju Pinnick, has taken responsibility for the error, just as he pleaded for forgiveness.<\/p>\n
Pinnick through his official Twitter handle: @AmajuPinnick, on Wednesday narrated what led to the incident.<\/p>\n
He tweeted: \u201cI\u2019ll start by tendering my wholehearted apology to Nigeria and Nigerians for the Shehu Abdullahi error.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is unforgivable and could have undone months of hard work. As head of the Federation, I take responsibility for this. It happened on my watch.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile accepting the Federation\u2019s fault here, let me quickly explain how this went by unnoticed.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt doesn\u2019t change the fact that we didn\u2019t keep our eyes on the ball and will help us in our planned restructuring of the Technical & Competitions Department.<\/p>\n
\u201cShehu Abdullahi got his first yellow card in our very first preliminary match against Swaziland away.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen the draws for the Group Stages were made, the Technical staff made a grave error; assumption.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey assumed the cards gotten prior would not count.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be fair to them, throughout the qualifying series, official match documents didn\u2019t even show that Shehu Abdullahi was on a yellow card.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor instance, when we played Cameroon, Mikel, Moses and Balogun were put on notice that they had yellow cards.<\/p>\n
\u201cTeam meetings were even held about how to handle their cards so they wouldn\u2019t miss crucial games.<\/p>\n
\u201cShehu Abdullahi was never in the mix.<\/p>\n
\u201cShehu then received a yellow against Zambia in our penultimate game, two years after the Swaziland match.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
December 13, 2017: Following FIFA sanctions on Tuesday, the President of the Nigeria Football Federation, Amaju Pinnick, has taken responsibility for the error, just as he pleaded for forgiveness. Pinnick through his official Twitter handle: @AmajuPinnick, on Wednesday narrated what led to the incident. He tweeted: \u201cI\u2019ll start by tendering my wholehearted apology to Nigeria […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[88],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sport-news","entry"],"yoast_head":"\n