Not tackling the menace to its roots will take FIFA’s enquiry and a subsequently constituted NFF board to nowhere.
Nigeria’s football is now in a cauldron, resulting in the 13-member board of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) resigning their appointments late last month. Ibrahim Gusau was the chairman. The mass resignation came 34 days before the expiration of their tenure. It is a shake-up many football stakeholders had stridently called for, with the slippery slope the game got into on NFF’s watch.
In a letter dated 7th September, FIFA demanded a halt to the planned NFF Congress on 27th September for it and the regional body, Confederation of African Football (CAF) to “conduct a joint-assisted mission to Abuja, Nigeria.” According to it, “The assessment requires careful review of the relevant facts within the applicable NFF regulatory framework and the positions communicated by the various stakeholders concerned.”
Our football impasse was precipitated by the Super Falcons’ failure to qualify for the 2027 Women’s World Cup in Brazil, when they were knocked out in the quarter finals of the Women’s African Cup of Nations (WAFCON) held in August in Morocco, by Cameroon. The championship also served as qualifiers for the Brazil games. Four semi-finalists in the competition secured automatic tickets.
But a playoff opportunity to qualify was also squandered when they lost to South Africa. They were the defending champions for a diadem they had won for a record 10 times. Shortly after the WAFCON debacle, the NFF sacked the Super Falcons coach, Justin Madugu.
Again, the Super Eagles had earlier missed the 2026 World Cup, held in US, Canada and Mexico, even when Africa’s representations were doubled from five to 10 teams. That was the second miss in a row, having been absent from the 2022 Mundial. Football loving Nigerians did not take kindly to such retrogression. This bad run also extended to the age-grade teams, with the U-20 and U-17 teams missing out from their world cup tournaments.
Questions have been asked about NFF’s role in all of this. Specifically, how the body utilised the ₦12 billion intervention fund from the federal government, released in 2024 for the clearance of players’ allowances and bonuses, stretching over 15 months, is a sore issue.
Whether FIFA and CAF pay their visit to the NFF or not, people must be held to account for funds not utilised for their stated purposes. We, therefore, cannot wait for the granular details in the probe report of the anti-graft agencies.
Undoubtedly, football is one of the few glues that bind Nigerians together. It invokes the sorely needed sense of community, brotherhood and patriotism, without which nationhood is unattainable. Thus, it is a social cohesion project worthy of the embrace of political authorities, and all well-meaning citizens. Nigeria should maximise its talents in football.
As a result, we extol President Bola Tinubu’s recent demonstration of the desire for a comprehensive reform of our football, aimed at uprooting its weaknesses, towards its better administration and development. “Football, Nigeria’s most popular sport and the greatest beneficiary of public support, investment and national attention, has continued to struggle locally due to the structural deficits within the system,” the president lamented.
We welcome FIFA’s planned fact-finding mission to Nigeria over the state of flux in our football; and its halt of the Elective Congress of 27 September in Lafia, Nasarawa State. It is hoped that its interface with the erstwhile NFF board members, relevant stakeholders, government representatives and the National Sports Commission (NSC) would open a new vista for football in the country. This opportunity must not be mismanaged!
For too long, the country has been plagued by bickering, divisions in the NFF and litigation by individuals and groups whose only interest is what they can gain, at the expense of service delivery that would uplift our football. As a result, the potentials of hundreds of youths aiming for careers in the game have been crumbled by the mismanagement of football in the country.
Media reports of the torrential complaints of players over the non-receipt of their entitlements, despite a staggering total of ₦17 billion the NFF board received, has led the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and its sister agency, Independent Corrupt Practices and other offences-related Commission (ICPC), to investigate the matter.
Globally in football, protests by players over the non-payment of their allowances tend to affects their morale in tournaments. It gets even messier when the default stems from the misuse of the funds, leading to their non-availability. Last November, Super Eagles players were known to have boycotted training in Rabat, Morocco, ahead of a crucial world cup qualifier against Gabon.
An unpaid allowance dating back to 2019 was the issue. In April, the U-17 and U-20 players of the 2023 and 2025 cohorts decried the non-payment of arrears of their allowances and bonuses for six tournaments, totalling ₦1.5 billion, within the same period. For WAFCON, the story was the same.
The game is a huge youth development industry, capable of massive job creation and the burnishing of our national image. It will serve the cause of football if the EFCC investigation into how the ₦12 billion is completed, with the report made public, while those with questions to answer are made to do so.
There is really no need for a rush in holding a congress where new board members would emerge, without first clearing the binding constraints to our football.
Certainly, the allure of corruption is prominent in all this. Not tackling the menace to its roots will take FIFA’s enquiry and a subsequently constituted NFF board to nowhere.
