Chairman, Nigerian Football Supporters Club, Rev. Samuel Ikpea has said that the different Nigerian supporters clubs in the country cannot be forced to come together.
There are currently numbers of football supporters clubs in the country which includes Authentic Nigeria Football Supporters Club, Football Fans Club of Nigeria, Super Eagles Supporters Club and Nigeria Football Supporters Club.
In an online chat, Ikpea notes that the Sports Minister can only advise the clubs on being a body as existing ones are legally registered.
“It will be difficult to be talking of making Supporters club one. All the existing ones are legally registered with CAC. The sports minister can only suggest ways of how existing clubs can come together but cannot impose it on them.”
“The leadership of these organizations exist separately but the fact remains there were litigation before the new breed of Supporters club.” He added.
Speaking on how recognised the Supporters club is, the former assistant national secretary of the club said the club is well recognized and awarded deserved respect.
“In the 2014 FIFA World Cup, FIFA had series of meetings with us in which they disclosed that for the safety of all. They really want to avoid us coming in with sticks that will be used on drums, as it could cause injury, so we had to comply. However, we gave them the assurances that NFSC have never had such records of causing injury on fans with drum-sticks and at one or two matches, they gave us a waiver.”
Samuel Ikpea became chairman of the Nigerian Football Supporters Cub in 2016 and has being in service for over 2 decades.
