Former Super Eagles coach, Samson Siasia, has lamented the continuous delay of his appeal by the Court of Arbitration for Sport over the life ban placed on him by FIFA.
The appeal hearing, which was scheduled for Tuesday, was shifted to February 3, 2021 due to COVID-19.
This is the second time the appeal hearing is being moved forward after it had earlier been shifted from March 19 – the period COVID-19 became prevalent across the world.
FIFA’s Ethics Committee had in August 2019 found Siasia guilty “of having accepted that he would receive bribes in relation to the manipulation of matches that Wilson Perumal (convicted Singaporean match-fixer) attempted to manipulate for betting purposes.”
The football governing body thereafter placed a life ban on the ex-Eagles coach, who has continued to claim innocence, saying FIFA failed to give him fair hearing.
In a chat with our correspondent on Tuesday, Siasia said the continuous delay of the hearing had made things difficult for him.
“They said the second phase of COVID-19 was coming in Europe and in America and everybody had to be in their houses. A lot of people are travelling, so I don’t know why they are saying that,” he told The PUNCH.
“But I really want the hearing to take place so that I can know my fate, it’s been over a year and it’s been dragging and dragging, nobody knows how I’m feeding and taking care of my family, so, I can’t wait for this thing to go away.
“It’s been very difficult without a job coupled with COVID-19, which makes it very difficult to get support from people who would have loved to support me. If they had given me a stay of execution, it would have been good, because I would have been doing something, but they don’t want to do that and that’s the dilemma I’m faced with now,” he added.
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