BEVERLY HILLS, December 12, (THEWILL) – President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Amaju Pinnick, has apologised to Nigerians for the error that caused Nigeria to be fined N2,162, 923 by FIFA.

THEWILL recalls that the world football governing body sanctioned Nigeria for fielding an ineligible player, Shehu Abdullahi, for the clash against Algeria.

The match was declared forfeited and awarded in favour of Algeria, with three points deducted from Nigeria’s total tally in the World Cup qualifiers.

Although, the deduction would not affect the final group ratings as Nigeria had already qualified before the match, Pinnick, reacting to the news, declared that “somebody must be punished.”

He, however, insisted that the incident will neither affect nor distract the federation’s laid down plans for the World Cup.

“We accept the decision of the FIFA Disciplinary Committee to fine the NFF and award the match to Algeria,” Pinnick said in a statement released by the Communication Department of the Federation.

“However, this is a grave error and somebody must be punished.

“We apologize to Nigerians for this and assure that this will not in any way derail or even distract us in our well–laid plan to ensure that the Super Eagles have a great outing in Russia.

“At the same time, I want to assure that persons responsible for this slip would not be given just a slap on the wrist.

“We are actually looking at a re-organization of the Technical Department. The Technical Committee will henceforth play serious superintending role on all details, no matter how minute, in technical matters.

“It is important that all committees and departments at the NFF should move at the same pace as the Executive Committee.”