Nigeria/Ethiopia: 2014 World Cup Play-Off - Abdullahi Warns Eagles to Be Wary Ethiopia 

Sports Minister, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, has warned the Super Eagles not to drop their guard in the final phase of the qualifying race to Brazil 2014 by erroneously regarding Ethiopia as an easy opposition.

The Super Eagles on Monday appeared to be accorded the luck of the draw in their bid to secure their fifth World Cup appearance next year in Brazil after they were handed Ethiopia at the draw held in Egypt.

Nigeria will travel to Addis Ababa on the weekend of October 11-15 for the first leg to set up the stage for the decider when the Walya Antelopes visit in November.

But while giving his opinion on the draw, Abdullahi admonished that Nigeria would not be caught off-guard by believing that the World Cup ticket will be earned on a platter of gold.

"We should not go to sleep and become complacent. The fact that we beat Ethiopia recently does not imply that they will be a raw meat. It is not going to be an easy tie," Abdullahi warned. The minister also promised that the code of conduct which a probe panel recommended last month, will be implemented if Nigeria qualified for the World Cup.

He said the deference till Next year is to avoid creating distractions. The code of conduct was mooted after the Eagles and their officials disagreed on match bonus during a World Cup qualifier against Namibia in Windhoek.

Meanwhile, the committee set up to curb the menace of match fixing in Nigerian football has requested the sports minister to push for anti- corruption law in football. The nine-man panel set up by the sports minister was headed by a member of the board of Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) Chris Green.

The commitee was set up on July 17. Green, who read the committee's report, itemised ten recommendations which will address the problem of referees' poor performance in the country.

Some of the recommendations include; reduction of number of referees in the league to 40 and assistants to 80. It also asked the inspector general of police to set up a special task for the remainder of the season to include the Nigerian Civil Defence Corps and Federal Road Safety Commission to monitor the centres. In addition, it proposed a 20 per cent increase in match indemnity while the NFF is to design a referee manual as required by FIFA as done in other countries.