Nigeria: Imo FA Raises Alarm Over Ban of Fans

By Angela Nkwo-Akpolu

The chairman of the Imo Football Association, Mazi Amanze Uchegbulam, has raised an alarm over the safety of officials on the continued ban of spectatorship from football marches.

Uchegbulam made the assertion in a letter to the president of the Nigerian Football Association (NFF), Amaju Pinnick and obtained by LEADERSHIP Sports.

According to him, the ban imposed as part of measures to contain the spread of Covid-19 has resulted in endless death threats from supporters during every football match.

"The FA chairmen also have been receiving death threats from daring supporters of various clubs whose access into the stadia have been denied. Shall we wait until a Football Administrator is killed for enforcing a federal government directive," Uchegbulam queried.

He further lamented that the club managers were evasive to cooperate with the State FA to enforce the regulation even as he noted that they were not to blame due to the level of death threats they had also received on their part.

The Imo FA boss called on NFF president to liaise with the Sports Minister to relax the rule and save administrators incessant threats and attacks during matches.

The NFF had in a letter dated February 17, 2021, ordered spectatorship ban in adherence to the federal government policy on COVID-19

This article originally appeared on Leadership

Photo: Leadership