After a series of disastrous results, the Federal Government of Nigeria is now determined to effect drastic changes to how football is administered in the country with the ouster of the NFF executive committee and the total re-organisation of the secretariat.
As expected, there will be a push-back by the NFF henchmen, who will try to cling on to power with the help of world football governing body FIFA, who incidentally are also embroiled in their own crisis caused by a failed attempt to sell off shares of the World Cup to private investors.
FIFA frown against a direct interference of government in the governance of the sport.
However, the same organisation clearly gave in to such governmental pressure at the last World Cup, where US President Donald Trump got the suspension of a player of co-hosts USA, Folarin Balogun, to be overturned.
Officials told SCORENigeria that the National Sports Commission (NSC) has proposed a normalisation committee to take over the running of football for an initial three months during which time holistic changes will be carried out in the congress as well as the secretariat.
The now 52-member NFF congress remains dominated by state FA chairmen, while shutting out other critical stakeholders.
The NFF elections are therefore mere selection processes determined by these state FA chairmen and so their insistence that the polls slated for September 27 in Lafia holds.
These polls will again recycle those men who have overseen some of the most unacceptable setbacks Nigeria has suffered in recent times – non-qualifaction for both the 2026 World Cup and 2027 Women’s World Cup as well as poor showings in various age-grade tournaments.
The NFF secretariat that has been headed by Mohammed Sanusi for the past 11 years will also come under the surgical knife of the Normalisation committee.
Professionalism, accountability and the well being of players, the main actors of the sport, have been compromised despite the huge investments and interventions of the Federal Government.
