The Nigeria Football Federation has deferred to world football governing body FIFA over the number of caps held by Super Eagles captain Ahmed Musa.
It was earlier thought that Musa hit 100 caps for Nigeria in Tuesday’s 2022 World Cup qualifier against Cape Verde.
FIFA said he had 98 caps. The world body said that Musa’s appearances in the 3-0 defeat of Togo in a friendly match in Paris in June 2017 and the FIFA World Cup Russia 2018 qualifier against Algeria in Constantine in November 2017 did not count.
The match against Togo was struck off as both Nigeria and Togo made more than the regular number of changes in the game, while the encounter in Constantine, which ended 1-1, was deleted because Nigeria fielded an ineligible player and the result was overturned, with Algeria awarded the game, even as Nigeria had already picked the World Cup ticket before the tie.
In a statement on Wednesday, the NFF said FIFA was right in its count.
“We defer to FIFA in this regard, so Ahmed Musa has 98 caps. If he features, as expected, in the home-and-away matches against Central African Republic in October, he will clock the tally of 100 and the celebrations will follow in full flow,” NFF spokesman Ademola Olajire said on Wednesday.
