Falode Under Fire Over High-handedness As Aisha Buhari Cup DG

Falode Under Fire Over High-handedness As Aisha Buhari Cup DG By Niyi Busari Officials of Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) and some members of Local Organizing Committee for the First Lady of Nigeria Invitational Tournament also known s Aisha Buhari Cup have criticised the high-handedness attitude of the tournament's Director of Organization, Aisha Falode. In June, the NFF had announced its first Vice President, Seyi Akinwunmi as Chairman of LOC and Falode as DG, with the Committee saddled with the responsibility of organizing a befitting international tournament that will uphold the good name and image of Nigeria. Since the inauguration of the LOC, BSN Sports gathered that Falode has been running a one-person show, influencing the match commissioners appointments and improper use of personal email in official communication with other participating countries with no recourse to the NFF secretariat. "There are ways international tournaments like this is handled. And that's why committees and sub-committee were set up to handle some certain things like, communication, referees' appointment, sending official letters to countries," a member of the sub-committee who pleaded anonymity told BSN Sports. "Unfortunately, Aisha (Falode) acting as the Director of Organization took over all the responsibilities of the most of committees including the secretariat, and in the process committed costly mistakes that almost messed up the competition. "I mean, how can she (Falode) be the one to singlehandedly influence almost every appointments, including referees and match officials as well as use her personal email to send messages to the five invited countries."   A nominee of the Lagos State Government serves as Vice Chairman of Local Organizing Committee while other members include, Ibrahim Gusau, Chairman of Chairmen of the NFF Executive Committee, Amina Daura, NFF's Head of Women's Football, Hon Ayo Omidiran, AIG Umar Baba, Kemi Areola, Ademola Olajire and host of others. BSN Sports checks showed that Falode also singlehandedly appointed a Ghanaian general Coordinator, Acheampong Frederick who is not qualified to be a match commissioner for such international competition and forced him on the LOC to Commission all games in the invitational tournament. The tabloid also uncovered that Falode, who doubles as the Nigeria Women's Football League supremo also made changes to list of match officials approved by the technical committee thrice before the start of the competition.   [caption id="attachment_53980" align="aligncenter" width="718"] Ghanaian match Coordinator, Acheampong Frederick [/caption] "The most shocking part is that, Acheampong was picked by Falode as the match commissioner between his country, Ghana and South Africa which is blatantly against the international best practice. It's long we had event like this and the tournament should have helped engage and expose relevant indegenous football administrators. "The responsibility of selecting match officials for games rest solely on the shoulder of the Technical Unit of the Technical and Facility Sub-committee. The Committee whose duty was taken over by the Nigeria Women's Football League supremo was chaired by Olayinka Olagbenro and also have Austin Eguavoen, Garba Lawal, Bola Oyeyode, Dayo Enebi as members and Mohammed Ameenu as Secretary." Another source said When contacted for her response, Falode denied having hands in referee appointments, adding that all allegations leveled against her were not true. "That's not true. All those allegations were false. I will call to explain better when I get to the stadium. I have been busy attending to so many things but I will call you back to clarify all the allegations once i get to the stadium," she said via a phone call. The six-nation invitational tournament held from September 15-21 involved South Africa, Morocco, Ghana, Mali, Cameroon and hosts Nigeria, with the each participating countries playing at least two matches in Lagos.