The Minister of Youths and Sports, Solomon Dalung, on Tuesday described the increase in the number of teams to participate in World Cup and Africa Cup of Nations as a “healthy development”.
Speaking to newsmen in Abuja, Dalung said the football world governing body, FIFA, wanted to do justice to Africa.
He said: “The increased in the numbers of teams by CAF and FIFA is a ‘healthy development’ because it is opening up the sport for participation.
“Some of us have always accused FIFA that the numbers of teams from Africa participating in the world cup is not up to the numbers of the teams from Europe.
“But if you count the numbers of countries in Africa you can see that they are more than Europe but yet more teams come from Europe compared to Africa.
“I think FIFA and CAF are beginning to do justice, Africa has always been under represented and short changed even in Olympics.
“The increase is a response to the injustice that has been prevalent in the global governance of sports.”
FIFA and CAF have expanded the number of teams’ participation from 32 to 48 and 16 to 24 respectively.