FIFA has rejected Zambia’s protest against Nigeria for the 2018 World Cup Qualifier. Following their loss to Nigeria in Uyo at the Godswill Akpabio Stadium on October 7, the Chipolopolo have protested that FIFA looks back into the game due to a disallowed Zambian goal.
During the matchup, the Zambian side put in a goal just after one of the assistant referees raised the offside flag, this goal was disallowed. The Super Eagles won the match 1-0 and qualified for their third straight World Cup, with a match to spare come November in the African Qualifying Group B.
But the Football Association of Zambia were aggrieved stating that the referee, Joshua Bondo, was not entirely fair in his verdict during the match-up, so they filed a formal protest to the Fédération Internationale de Football Association against Nigeria.
However, in a letter addressed to the Football Association of Zambia, signed by Julien Deux of the FIFA Disciplinary Committee, the world football governing body has thrown the case under the carpet for lacking cardinal virtue; “no evidence of any infringement of the regulations by the referees”. In the letter, FIFA advised the Zambians to accept the result of the match-up as fair, referring them to Article 15, Paragraph 6 of the World Cup regulations.
