The NFF Player's Status/Arbitration Committee: A Toothless Bulldog?

By: Ezeaku Amobi

“For justice is not a game of hide and seek. Rather, it is a game of fairness which is played with openness and according to the rules of the game.”- Nnaemeka Agu JSC (as he then was).

For decades the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) Player’s Status and Arbitration Committee has been in existence, conducting its affairs as sanctioned by the laws regulating the football arena internationally and locally. However one is tempted to as whether the Committee is a ‘toothless bulldog’ that would never be able to deal with the rampant breach of contractual agreements between members and the blatant unenforceability of its decisions passed over the years especially by Football Clubs in Nigeria. This has indeed shredded the football community’s moral, economic and psycho-social fabric to an annoyingly irretrievable level.

Enforcement of an arbitral award is an issue of utmost sensitivity and importance especially in football owing to the fact that Article 68 (2) of the FIFA Statute provides extensively that ‘recourse

to ordinary courts of law is prohibited unless specifically provided for in the FIFA regulations. Recourse to ordinary courts of law for all types of provisional measures is also prohibited’. Impliedly, if the Statute of FIFA prohibits one from seeking relief in the ordinary courts of the land, then the machinery put in place i.e. the Player’s Status Committee is expected to live up to its billings. Generally, arbitral awards shall be recognised and enforced. An arbitral award is statutorily recognised as binding on parties to the arbitration immediately after the award is made, such that if a party against whom the award is made complies with the award, then no further steps need to be taken.

Since recourse to the ordinary courts of law is generally prohibited, national associations are required to establish their own arbitration tribunals for the resolution of such disputes. The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) is the member association recognised by CAF and FIFA as being responsible for the organization and supervision of football in Nigeria. It is for the purpose of meeting the obligation to establish a domestic dispute resolution tribunal that Articles 4(3), 53, 68 and 69 of the NFF Statutes provide as follows:

“ARTICLE 4:

3. NFF shall provide the necessary institutional means to resolve any internal dispute that may arise between Members, Clubs, Officials and Players of NFF.

ARTICLE 53

1. The Players’ Status Committee shall set up and monitor compliance with transfer regulations in accordance with the FIFA Regulations for the Status and Transfer of Players and determine the status of Players for various competition of NFF. The Executive Committee may draw up special regulations governing the Players’ Status Committee’s powers of jurisdiction. The Players’ Status Committee shall consist of a Chairman, a deputy Chairman and three members.

2. Players’ status disputes involving NFF, its Members, and Players, Officials and match and players’ agents shall be settled by an Arbitration Tribunal in accordance with these Statutes.

ARTICLE 68

NFF shall create an Arbitration Tribunal, which shall deal with all internal national disputes between NFF, its members, players, officials, match and players agent that do not fall under jurisdiction of its judicial bodies. The executive committee shall draw up special regulations regarding the composition, jurisdiction, procedural rules of this Arbitration Tribunal.

ARTICLE 69

1. NFF, its Members, Players, Officials and match and player’s agents will not take any dispute to Ordinary Courts unless specifically provided for in these Statutes and FIFA regulations. Any disagreement shall be submitted to the jurisdiction of FIFA, CAF, WAFU or NFF.

2. NFF shall have jurisdiction on internal national disputes i.e. disputes between parties belonging to NFF. FIFA shall have jurisdiction on international disputes i.e. disputes between parties belonging to different Associations and/or Confederations.”

The above provisions of the NFF Statute have been painstakingly engraved herein to establish that indeed there is an instrument for the ‘amicable’ resolution of internal disputes especially disputes arising between Football players and clubs. The bitter drama and truth however is the undeniable fact that notwithstanding the instrument put in place for the resolution of disputes, the conclusions arrived at and the subsequent awards given by the Tribunal are hardly and rarelyenforced, that is if they are enforced at all.

It is ironic to state that when disputes are referred to the NFF Arbitration Committee for resolution, such disputes are heard and resolved speedily and efficiently but they are never enforced.  The sad reality which one cannot shy away from is that while many more cases remain unresolved, these awards have neither been complied with nor appealed against by parties, clubs especially, neither have they been enforced by football authorities. If this dispute resolution mechanism meets the need for speed and efficiency, what then is the value of a tribunal’s decisions if it is not complied with and cannot be enforced or enjoyed by the party who obtained it? Indeed, the value of such could best be described as a pile of chunk.

It is quite alarming that the Nigeria Football Federation which set up this committee has continuously paid deaf ears towards the plights of footballers and coaches whom the arbitral awards made in their favours have been unenforced. The means of enforcement of decisions as established by the Rules of the Federation of International Football Association (FIFA) is purely the institution of disciplinary proceedings against the defaulting party. Disciplinary proceedings in this case may include the exclusion from competition.

The failure to respect decisions made by the Nigeria Football Federation Players’ Status/Arbitration Committee call for great worry and serious concern because of the harsh economic threat it poses to players, coaches and the league in general. It follows that where decisions and arbitral awards made by the Committee are not enforced; most players naturally lose interest and faith in the system. The situation is even worsened where it is clearly known that resort to regular civil courts is prohibited.

The provisions of the FIFA Disciplinary Code becomes handy in this instance, as we hereunder rely on the extant provisions to request the NFF, LMC and all the necessary machineries put in place to toe the righteous path by adhering strictly to the provisions of the code.

“SECTION 8 (FIFA DISCIPLINARY CODE 2011). FAILURE TO RESPECT DECISIONS

ARTICLE 64

1. Anyone who fails to pay another person (such as a player, a coach or a club) or FIFA a sum of money in full or part, even though instructed to do so by a body, a committee or an instance of FIFA or a subsequent CAS appeal decision (financial decision), or anyone who fails to comply with another decision (nonfinancial decision) passed by a body, a committee or an instance of FIFA, or by CAS (subsequent appeal decision):

a. Will be fined for failing to comply with a decision;

b. Will be granted a final deadline by the judicial bodies of FIFA in which to pay the amount due or to comply with the (nonfinancial) decision;

c. (Only for clubs :) will be warned and notified that, in the case of default or failure to comply with a decision within the period stipulated, points will be deducted or relegation to a lower division ordered. A transfer ban may also be pronounced;

d. (only for associations) will be warned and notified that, in the case of default or failure to comply with a decision within the period stipulated, further disciplinary measures will be imposed. An expulsion from a FIFA competition may also be pronounced.

2. If a club disregards the final time limit, the relevant association shall be requested to implement the sanctions threatened.

3. If points are deducted, they shall be proportionate to the amount owed.

4. A ban on any football-related activity may also be imposed against natural persons.

5. Any appeal against a decision passed in accordance with this article shall be lodged with CAS directly.

6. Any financial or non-financial decision that has been pronounced against a club by a court of arbitration within the relevant association or National Dispute Resolution Chamber (NDRC), both duly recognised by FIFA, shall be enforced by the association of the deciding body that has pronounced the decision in accordance with the principles established in this article and in compliance with the applicable disciplinary regulations.

7. Any financial or non-financial decision that has been pronounced against a natural person by a court of arbitration within the relevant association or NDRC, both duly recognised by FIFA, shall be enforced by the association of the deciding body that has pronounced the decision or by the natural person’s new association if the natural person has in the meantime registered (or otherwise signed a contract in the case of a coach) with a club affiliated to another association, in accordance with the principles established in this article and in compliance with the applicable disciplinary regulations.”

If football clubs in the Nigeria Professional Football League and all stakeholders in the football family in Nigeria refuse to abide by the decisions and awards of the Arbitration Committee in the football regime of Nigeria, one expects that the necessary penal and disciplinary swords be wielded by the authorities against such clubs or erring party. It is surprising that the above provisions of the Code seem to be in ghostly form and non-existent in the minds and eyes of members of the Arbitration Committee and the Nigeria Football Federation in general. 

We humbly charge the NFF and the Arbitration Committee to gird up her loins and mandate that unless clubs abide by the decisions of the Committee, the law as it is would follow its course. We are not unaware of the fact that practically it is rare for the unsuccessful party to an arbitral proceeding to comply with an arbitral award made against her. Hence recourse is often had to the enforcement procedure under the Arbitration and Conciliation Act of Nigeria. However, this will entail resorting to the courts because to enforce and award under the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, the successful party makes an application to the appropriate court for leave to enforce the award, attaching the authenticated original award and the original arbitration agreement, or a certified copy of either. Where the court grants leave to the applicant, the award then becomes enforceable in the same manner as a judgment or order of the court.

It is never the wish of FIFA or any football association or entity to be found in the walls of a courtroom on matters which ordinarily should be thrashed out by the Arbitration Committee. We hope that this little piece would give great idea and insight to the NFF Arbitration Committee as well as all stakeholders in the football industry on the need to ensure that decisions and awards are ultimately enforced in the Nigeria Football regime, if not the question, is the Nigeria Football Federation Players’ Status/Arbitration Committee a toothless bulldog may be affirmatively answered.

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