Why I advised Galadima not to contest- Toro

Galadima sought to replace former FIFA executive committee member Dr. Amos Adamu who has been banned for three years from participating in all football related activities following his role in the bribe for vote scandal that rocked the world football government body. In a chat with Trustsports yesterday, Toro said based on his experience on […]

Galadima sought to replace former FIFA executive committee member Dr. Amos Adamu who has been banned for three years from participating in all football related activities following his role in the bribe for vote scandal that rocked the world football government body.

In a chat with Trustsports yesterday, Toro said based on his experience on the workings in CAF, he was so certain that Galadima would not succeed in his bid to be elected FIFA executive committee member.

The CAF match commissioner said because he was sure of what would be the outcome of the election; he personally advised Galadima not to contest but was rather surprised that he went into the race despite the odds against him.

Toro explained further that he did not stop at Galadima but called on the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF and the minister of sports to shelve the idea of presenting the former NFA Chairman for the election which he (Toro) knew Galadima was going to lose.

He said he wanted Nigeria to lobby CAF through its president Isa Hayatou for another Nigerian to replace Adamu whenever he had exhaustively settled his bribery case with FIFA.

“I actually advised Alhaji Ibrahim Galadima against contesting the election. Based on my knowledge of the workings in CAF, I knew that it would be practically impossible for Galadima to win and that is why I advised him against joining the race. I knew he would not win.

“I also advised the NFF and the minister of sports to put on hold Galadima’s candidature because he would not win. Unfortunately, my advice fell on deaf ears but the result is what I saw long ago. I wonder why Galadima went into the race”, he said.

Toro reiterated that with Aadamu’s shadow hovering around the election, there was no way Galadima would have won the contest.

He said Galadima is a indeed a good material but a lot of odds were against him and so Nigeria should go back to the drawing board to see how the country will have a seat on the continental body as he said going by Nigeria’s huge influence, it would be a shame if she is not represented at least in CAF.

“If Adamu can get his ban reduced to either one or two years, Nigeria will still be part of the continental football governing body. It is better for the country to be represented than not to be represented at all”.