Connection pass connection…
The heart and soul of Nigerian football is up for grabs and it is now a straight shootout between the NFF and the National Sports Commission (NSC).
It was learnt that Thursday afternoon seven members of the executive committee made their way to the Aso Rock Presidential Villa for a meeting with the Chief of Staff to President Bola Tinubu, Femi Gbajamila.
They were to tender their resignation on the back of a series of heart-breaking results under their watch – the failure of the Super Eagles to qualify for the 2026 World Cup and the historic non-qualification of the Super Falcons to next year’s Women’s World Cup in Brazil.
It was not to be as a higher authority reportedly ordered that the Presidency ought not to have anything to do with the crisis that has engulfed Nigerian football in recent days.
The visitors to the Aso Rock Villa were therefore directed to go back and resolve their differences and not incur the wrath of world football governing body.
A Normalisation Committee was the first kite flown, but the proposed leadership and its composition were met with a strong push-back.
The resignation option was then rolled out, just as the anti-corruption agencies EFCC and ICPC have begun probing a 12 Billion Naira bailout fund granted the NFF by the Federal Government to offset outstanding allowances and bonuses of various national teams including the Super Eagles and Super Falcons.
“It’s 50-50, a very fluid situation that could go either the way of the NFF or the NSC,” a top official told SCORENigeria
“But clearly there is a long-standing aggro between the leadership of both the NFF and NSC, and it will be the man with the most powerful connection that finally takes full charge of Nigerian football.”
The NFF have been working overtime playing the “Northern card” by getting Emirs in the North to put pressure on top officials at the Presidency for them to keep their plum positions.
The other divide is also pressing their own buttons as they say in Nigerian parlance, and in the end it will who has the most powerful “connect” that will come out tops in this brutal power tussle.
