NAN-S-17
Teams
By Dorcas Jonah
Abuja, July 25, 2017 (NAN) The Minister of Youths and Sports, Solomon Dalung on Tuesday described the increased 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.
“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 existing in the global governance of sports,’’ Dalung said.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that FIFA and CAF have expanded the number of teams’ participation from 32 to 48 and 16 to 24 respectively.(NAN)
DE/YAZ
====