Chris Green slams Pinnick for revealing CAF presidency vote

Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) Executive Committee member, Chris Green, has criticized the federation’s president, Amaju Pinnick, for revealing who he will vote for in the Confederation of African Football (CAF) presidential election.

Green says it should have been kept secret until the March 16 election.

“I think we should conduct ourselves in a decent manner and let our votes count on the day,” Green told BBC Sport.

“This is democracy and it’s going to be a secret ballot – we have not to talk.”

Earlier this week, Pinnick confirmed the NFF would be giving its vote to Ahmad Ahmad, the Madagascar FA president who is the sole challenger to long-standing CAF president Issa Haytou.

“That’s really not the position (of the NFF),” Green argued.

“Do not think the board sat, deliberated and decided that we should go for a particular candidate – no, we’ve not got there yet.”

Hayatou has been CAF president for nearly three decades and Green added: “I know of Hayatou, I don’t know of Ahmad – I don’t know his pedigree nor what he stands for.

“Hayatou has not done badly. He’s not been against us from 1988 until today. In his own way, he has assisted football to grow in Nigeria.

“He’s brought two international tournaments to Nigeria – the under-20 World Championship in 1999 and the under-17 World Cup (in 2009). We’ve also hosted the Africa Cup of Nations (in 2000).”