Diamond Academy Umuahia have threatened to take the Nigeria Football Federation to the civil court for tampering with the passport details of Arsenal midfielder Kelechi Nwakali.

As earlier reported by this website (Not NFC) , the Gunners have agreed to pay ASJ Academy Owerri a figure of £21,335.61 being their share of solidarity payment after NFF’s TMS Manager, Nasiru Jibril sent an amended player passport in relation to Kelechi Nwakali.

But Diamond Academy have cried foul, stating that they have documentary evidence that Nwakali was already on the books of the academy during the disputed period claimed by ASJ.

“We’ve never heard about ASJ until early 2015. Kelechi Nwakali came to us in 2012/2013 through one Monday Ogbemudia who works for Amunike Sports Academy in Lagos, ” Diamond Academy said in a statement.  

“Thereafter, we trained the boy and took him with us to Spain for IBERCUP Youth Soccer Tournament held in Estoril in June 2013. 

“The boy went to National U17 Camp from Diamond Academy and Diamond sustained him all through his stay there. As our player, he played 2014 Challenge Cup for us. ”

Diamond Academy have claimed that they were generous in the disbursement of Nwakali’s transfer fee and ASJ chiefs used their funds to buy houses in Owerri and state-of-the-art cars. 

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-Ifeanyi Emmanuel