The Federal Government through its Minister of Sports, Solomon Dalung and Pinnick, the President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) fell out over disagreements on who to back ahead of the CAF presidential election which held on Thursday, March 16.

Pinnick ignored directives from the Federal Government and Dalung to back and vote for Ahmad Ahmad who eventually won the election to become the new CAF president.

Pinnick’s day got better as he won the election into the seat of the CAF Executive Committee.

The NFF boss got 32 votes to become the West Zone B representative at the CAF Executive beating long-standing member Anjorin Moucharafou who is also the head of Benin Republic Football Federation.

After his win, Dalung released a statement congratulated the Delta State born football administrator on his win.

The Sports Minister said he was partly responsible for the victory as he had encouraged Pinnick to run.

"When I became Minister I asked why there was no Nigerian representative in the executive committee of CAF,” Dalung said in a statement signed by his Special Assistant on Media, Nneka Ikem.

“With a population of over 170million people there was no way the CAF executive committee will be constituted without Nigerians as stakeholders. I encouraged the federation to try and ensure that they are represented hence our support for the president of the NFF.”

"This is a big achievement for Nigeria and our re-entry into African football politics,"Dalung further said.