The battle over the proposed restructuring of Nigerian football administration is intensifying, with the State Football Associations (FAs) digging in against what they consider a unilateral attempt to dismantle existing Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) structures, Savid News can exclusively report.
The development has prompted the National Sports Commission (NSC) to summon representatives of the State FAs to a crucial meeting scheduled for 3:00pm today, in a fresh attempt to harmonise positions and prevent the widening disagreement from plunging Nigerian football into a deeper governance crisis.
The move followed a virtual meeting of the State FAs on Friday last week and Wednesday, where the associations reportedly maintained a firm position that the NFF Congress cannot simply be dissolved or sidelined by the interim administration without recourse to the federation’s established statutes and decision-making structures.
The State FAs, which form a substantial part of the NFF Congress, are understood to have communicated their concerns to FIFA over the reform process and questioned the sweeping suspension of the electoral process and the treatment of the Congress and Electoral Committee.
More significantly, sources within the associations insist that the NFF Congress, the federation’s supreme decision-making body, has yet to officially receive and formally deal with the resignation notices of former President Ibrahim Musa Gusau, General Secretary Mohammed Sanusi and the members of the Executive Committee.
The resignations were publicly announced by the NFF on August 27, with the federation stating that Gusau and Sanusi had resigned and that all members of the Executive Committee had also thrown in the towel. The NSC subsequently endorsed Emmanuel Ikpeme to oversee the NFF Secretariat as interim General Secretary and suspended processes leading to the September elective congress.
The State FAs are reportedly not opposed to the Federal Government’s reform agenda. Rather, their objection centres on the manner in which the proposed restructuring is being pursued and the possibility of altering the composition or powers of Congress without its participation.
A source within the State FAs said the associations respected President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s position on football reform and were prepared to work with the NSC, but would not accept a process that relegated the grassroots football structures to the background.
“We respect the position of the President, His Excellency Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and we’re ready to work with the NSC to reposition football but we will not take a back stage because we’re the grassroots body responsible for the development of the game in the country.”
The source also rejected any attempt to reduce the State FAs’ representation within Congress, arguing that reform should broaden stakeholder participation rather than diminish the influence of existing statutory members.
“We’re also not going to concede to the plan to reduce our membership of the Congress. Instead, the NSC should be ready to accommodate as much as other bodies like the lawyers, the engineers and the marketers who are also important stakeholders in the football ecosystem.”
At the centre of the disagreement is the interpretation of FIFA’s position following the high-level meeting between Nigerian officials and FIFA President Gianni Infantino in Zurich.
FIFA has accepted the resignations of the NFF’s former principal officers and Executive Committee members, but its public position does not expressly announce or approve the establishment of a Normalisation Committee for Nigeria.
Instead, FIFA said it would continue engaging with the Nigerian Government, the NFF administration and CAF on a roadmap for comprehensive reforms. According to the NFF’s account of the Zurich meeting, the parties agreed to continue engagements and interactions to fine-tune a roadmap covering short-, medium- and long-term reforms, with the objective of producing an inclusive new NFF and ensuring a peaceful and stable environment for Nigerian football. This distinction is crucial to the current debate.
While FIFA’s position clearly indicates support for reform, the public statement does not amount to an express FIFA directive authorising the immediate establishment of a Normalisation Committee or the wholesale replacement of the existing NFF governance architecture.
Rather, the language emerging from the Zurich engagement points towards continued consultation, the development of a reform roadmap and the emergence of an inclusive new NFF.
That interpretation strengthens the argument of the State FAs that the NFF Congress should form part of the process, particularly on matters affecting the federation’s statutory structure and the composition of its decision-making organs.
The State FAs are therefore expected to press the NSC at today’s meeting on whether the proposed reforms can be implemented while respecting the existing NFF statutes and the constitutional role of Congress.
The NSC, on its part, is expected to use the 3pm meeting to explain the Federal Government’s reform agenda and seek common ground with the State FAs, whose cooperation could prove essential to achieving a smooth transition.
The immediate question now is whether both sides can agree on a process that accommodates the Federal Government’s demand for fundamental reform while preserving the statutory role of the NFF Congress and other established football structures.
With FIFA yet to publicly give an express green light for a Normalisation Committee, and the State FAs insisting that Congress must not be bypassed, today’s 3pm meeting could determine whether Nigeria’s football reset becomes a negotiated reform, or the beginning of a fresh battle over the control and constitutional future of the NFF.
