Amaju Pinnick
• I have no hand in it, says Chris Green
There were insinuations in some quarters yesterday that a faction in the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), was planning to unseat its president, Amaju Pinnick over his move to contest the CAF Executive Committee election, with accusing fingers being pointed in the direction of Technical Committee chairman, Christopher Green as the main actor behind the ‘coup.’
For the past weeks, the relationship between Pinnick and Chris Green had not been cordial, especially after news broke out that Pinnick had submitted form to contest for the CAF Executive Committee election.
The Technical Committee chairman, Green, was the first to cry blue murder over Pinnick’s move alleging that Pinnick did not carry other board members along before submitting his form.
The crisis further degenerated yesterday, following alleged plot by Green to spearhead Pinnick’s impeachment.But Green denied the plot when The Guardian contacted him yesterday saying: “It is not true. Everybody knows me to be a lone ranger. I fight my battle alone and I don’t like speculations. What I said all along was that Amaju should have carried other people along in his quest to contest for CAF Executive seat. That has been the practice. That was the way Sanni Lulu, Aminu Maigari and others did it, so why should Amaju’s case be different? there is no plot to impeach him,” Green said.
However, some board members of the NFF described Chris Green’s denial yesterday as afterthought. “The man is not telling you the truth,” one board member told The Guardian in a telephone chat yesterday. “He actually wants Amaju removed at all cost because he feels the president did not dance to his tune in the appointment of a Technical Adviser for the Super Eagles. Green actually wanted Tom Santfiet as against our popular choice of Garrett Rohr for the job. He actually traveled to Belgium to see Santfiet and I am sure he had a personal agreement with hm. That was why he vehemently opposed to Rohr’s appointment.
Green is from the South-south region and I don’t know why he is always fighting his people. He did it to Peter Singabele, Chief Oyuki Obaseki, Davidson Owumi and now he wants Amaju removed at all cost. He is the brain behind a recent petition to the sports minister Solomon Dalung over FIFA’s money. Why should it be Chris Green all the time?. This is the same man who gave Green huge amount of money to go for treatment in US when he was very sick. Let’s see what comes out his impeachment plot against Pinnick,” the board member said.The NFF boss, Pinnick refused to pick calls and respond to several messages sent to his phones by The Guardian yesterday.
