By ROMANUS UGWU, Abuja
The transfer imbroglio raging between Premier League side, Rangers
International Football Club of Enugu and Warri Wolves, may take a
worrisome dimension, as the management of the Delta State club has
warned that it has evidence to drag both the Nigeria Football Federation
(NFF) and the Flying Antelopes to the Court of Arbitration for Sports
(CAS) to prove its ownership of Sunday Mba.
Fielding questions from the media in Abuja yesterday, Chairman, Delta
State Sports Commission, Mr Amaju Pinnick, warned that the federation
or Rangers would not intimidate Wolves into giving up on the ownership
tussle, insisting that with the documents and evidence at their
disposal, the club was ready to explore any legal option to prove its
case.
Asked what the club would do should the federation rule that Mba
belongs to Rangers, Pinnick replied: “All we expected the NFF to do was
to appeal to Warri Wolves not to make things difficult for Rangers and
the player in question. “We have so many evidence to claim the ownership
of Mba if the NFF decides to erroneously declares him a Rangers
players.
“With the documents and evidence in our hands, we can take it up to
the level of the CAS to ensure that we prove our ownership of Mba,” he
warned. “It does not end at resolving that Mba is not a Wolves’ player.
There are some evidences to prove their resolution.
If they said that Mba was not our player, there were things that were
sinister that must be unveiled. Of course, we will follow it with due
diligence. We can go to the NFF Appeal Committee and if the committee
uphold that Mba is not our player, then we will take our case to CAS.
“But, we should also know that there is what we call the Nigerian
factor. I can assure you that the federation will rule in our favour
because the only document they brandished was the contract Mba
purportedly signed in 2006 to 2014, which contravenes the FIFA Status. ,
which states that a player cannot sign contract more than five years,”
he noted.
Commenting further on the protracted transfer saga, Pinnic said:
“Sunday Mba’s case is very regrettable because it is clear and crystal
that he is Warri wolves players.
But, we do not want to dwell much on that because I can assure you
that within the next one week, a pronouncement will be made by the NFF
and we know that that pronouncement will clear all the issues
surrounding the player.”
“We do not expect the NFFto negotiate with Rangers as they did in
their first pronouncement. How can we negotiate with Rangers over our
own player? If it is pronounced that Mba belongs to Warri wolves, the
NFF has no right to determine whether we will sell him to Rangers or
not. It behoves on us to determine what we want to do with him, if we
are selling, at what price and so on.
“The duty of the NFF is to determine the ownership of the player and
there it ends. They do not have the right to determine who buys him. We
believe in the leadership of the NFF and though it has delayed much in
determining the right owners of the player, we believe this time around
justice delayed will not be justice denied. We are ready to receive the
player very warmly to the fold of Warri, where he rightfully belong, but
it will this time around take the role of the NFF to let him off the
hook,” he said.
Speaking on whether Wolves will still sell Mba to Rangers, he
quipped: “If we must sell him, we should first look at the value of the
player, we believe in the sanctity of the game. We must underline the
fact this boy has a future, but because he has become a star in one
championship does not give him the room for impunity or behave above the
law.” “Warri Wolves has so many other players and we believe that Mba
is not bigger any of them. We believe that he has a future and we want
to support him build his future.
We will have to come out in a management meeting to determine the
real value the player, if we make up our minds to sell him at last for
the interest of his future career. “We know Rangers for example cannot
afford a N100 million for Sunday Mba, we may decided to sell him for N20
million or N15 million or certain amount which the club can afford, but
with a clause of 50 percentage from his subsequent transfer fee.
We are not hard or difficult on Mba or Rangers, but what reject is
the kind of pranks and antics which Rangers brought into the whole
issue. “But, definitely we know that it can happen because we know that
there are rule guiding football and the NFF on their own must follow the
statutes which is clear in its section 5 and 17 (3) respectively as
regard the transfer of players.
We cannot be intimidated by either the NFF or Rangers over Sunday Mba,” he warned.
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