Former Super Eagles Assistant Coach, Sylvanus Okpala, has won a major victory over the Nigeria Football Federation at the Lausanne, Switzerland-based Court of Arbitration for Sports.
The Eagle Online gathered that the court ordered the NFF to immediately reinstate Okpala as the Super Eagles assistant coach and pay him all his entitlements since he was wrongly sacked after the Eagles AFCON 2013 victory.
A very close pal of the coach told The Eagle Online that CAS gave its ruling early this week, even as he said Okpala will be back from Lausanne any moment from now to give details of what transpired in Lausanne and how he won the long drawn out legal battle.
“Just wait for Okpala to return and give you the details, but one thing I can tell you is that he won the battle,” our source said.
It would be noted that the no nonsense former Green Eagles captain had in September rejected an offer by the NFF to return to the Eagles on the condition that he withdraws the case from CAS.
NFF’s offer came when CAS was on the verge of delivering judgment after hearing from both parties.
It is recalled that the Aminu Maigari-led board of the NFF sacked Okpala after the Eagles won AFCON 2013, alleging that the highly knowledgeable coach was unruly to the board. The NFF in the sack letter however claimed that Okpala was sacked because there was need to downsize the Eagles back room staff.
Many Nigerian soccer pundits berated the NFF for sacking the coach, even as they pleaded for his recall.