Former presidents and general secretaries of the NFF will ask FIFA to set up a Normalisation Committee to move Nigerian football forward.
Ahead of today’s meeting with FIFA and CAF officials in Abuja, the past NFF bosses demanded for the immediate installation of a six-month Normalisation Committee to overhaul the nation’s football architecture.
According to a document sighted by Daily Trust, the proposal is endorsed by former NFF presidents Sani Lulu Abdullahi and Aminu Maigari, former first vice president Obinna Ogba, and former general secretaries Fanny Amun, Sani Toro, Bolaji Ojo-Oba, and Musa Amadu.
The former football administrators argued that recurring sporting stagnation, administrative bottlenecks, and a severe loss of public trust stem from deep-seated structural flaws rather than mere administrative missteps.
Core demands and proposed reforms
Six-month roadmap: A structured transition starting with stakeholder consultations, leading sequentially through local football council elections, state FA elections, an expanded NFF congress, and culminating in national NFF elections.
Voting rebalance:
Overhauling an existing congress structure where State FAs hold roughly 84% of the voting power, ensuring fairer representation for leagues, players, coaches, referees, and grassroots bodies.
Expanded eligibility: Lowering restrictive entry barriers to allow qualified, competent candidates outside traditional power blocs to contest national leadership positions.
Professionalised governance:
Separating the legal and administrative duties of State FAs, ensuring independent oversight committees, and empowering a professional secretariat distinct from the Executive Integration of past reports: Leveraging previous frameworks from the NFF Reform Committee Final Report and the Nigeria Football 10-Year Development Masterplan (2022-2032).
Consequently, the signatories emphasised that changing personnel alone is no longer enough to fix the game, urging global football authorities to use the assessment mission to establish a binding, transparent governance framework for the future of Nigerian football.
