Reforms Needed in Nigerian Football, Say Stakeholders

Stakeholders are calling for reforms in Nigerian football. This comes as the country enters a new phase after the resignation of the Nigeria Football Federation board. President Bola Tinubu has also urged action to fix what he called “repeated failures”, according to The PUNCH.

An interim board has been set up to manage the NFF. This happened after president Ibrahim Gusau, general secretary Mohammed Sanusi, and 11 other members of the executive committee stepped down. Their resignations have created a leadership gap in Nigeria’s football management.

Emmanuel Ikpeme, who was the deputy general secretary, is now the interim general secretary. Ademola Olajire, who led the NFF’s media and communications, is the new interim deputy general secretary.

Gusau announced his resignation at a news conference in Abuja last Thursday. His term was supposed to end in September.

The NFF has been under fire for the poor performance of Nigeria’s national and youth teams. The men’s and women’s senior teams both failed to qualify for their World Cups.

Beyond the results on the field, there are also concerns about governance and financial management within the NFF.

In light of this, Yemi Idowu is advocating for reforms that begin at the grassroots level. Idowu was part of the 10-year Football Masterplan started by former President Muhammadu Buhari to improve Nigeria’s football development.

“The reform is there. They just have to follow what has been recommended,” Idowu told The PUNCH.

“If you can have your local football functioning, your state football will work well. If your state football is working well, your regional football will work well. If your regional football is working well, your national football will work well.

“How can we go to African U-17 competition and we don’t have Nigerian U-17 competition? How can you have Nigerian U-17 competition when you don’t have state U-17 competition? How can you have state U-17 competition when you don’t have local government U-17 competition?

“But if people want to sit down in Abuja and invite anybody from the Canary Islands that you don’t know who they are and gather them for four weeks to go and play in the U-17 Africa Cup and expect another result, it’s not possible.”

Harrison Jalla, a former international and chairman of the Advocacy for Nigeria Football Reform Initiative, also emphasized the need for democratic changes in football management.

“The struggle is not over until the right thing is done. The NFF Congress and its executive committee must be democratically elected on an equal representative basis by all federating units and open to private-sector participation,” Jalla said.

The National Sports Commission is reportedly in talks with FIFA. They are working on establishing a normalisation committee before new elections to form a new board.