FIFA is considering whether to recommend the establishment of a normalisation committee for Nigerian football or allow the existing Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) Congress to oversee reforms following the resignation of the federation’s leadership.
The issue is expected to become clearer in the coming days after a FIFA-led delegation completed two days of consultations with Nigerian football stakeholders in Abuja.
The meetings, held on Monday and Tuesday, examined the NFF’s legal and governance framework following the mass resignation of president Ibrahim Gusau, general secretary Mohammed Sanusi and several other board members on 27 August.
The leadership changes came amid criticism of the performance of Nigeria’s national and youth teams, including the failure of the senior men’s and women’s sides to qualify for their respective World Cups.
The FIFA delegation included Ahmed Harraz, team lead of FIFA’s Member Association Governance Services; Rolf Tanner, FIFA’s head of Member Association Governance; El Hadj Wack Diop, head of the FIFA Regional Office for West Africa; and Nnaemeka Olu, CAF’s legal manager.
Following the consultations, the National Sports Commission (NSC) said FIFA and the Confederation of African Football (CAF) would review the submissions before deciding on the next phase of the reform process.
In a statement on Wednesday, the NSC said the delegation would take the findings back to FIFA’s headquarters in Zurich as part of its assessment of the situation and would determine an appropriate roadmap for implementing reforms.
The commission said stakeholders had broadly agreed that comprehensive reforms were necessary and reaffirmed its commitment to working with FIFA, CAF, NFF members and other interested parties.
However, there were differences over how the reforms should be carried out.
The players’ union, coaches and referees’ association reportedly backed a normalisation process and called for wider representation within the NFF Congress, board, standing committees and voting arrangements.
One participant at the consultations said the three groups had agreed that representation and voting rights should be more evenly distributed under a new governance structure.
State Football Association chairmen, however, argued that the existing NFF Congress should remain in charge of the transition.
Yakubu Sarma, chairman of the Gombe State Football Association and leader of the state FA delegation, told FIFA that Nigerian football did not require an external intervention.
He pointed to the continued operation of the domestic leagues, Nigerian clubs’ participation in continental competitions, the involvement of the women’s teams in international football and the functioning of the NFF secretariat as evidence that the federation remained operational.
Former NFF officials have taken a different position.
Former 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 have jointly called for a six-month normalisation committee.
Their proposal envisages a transitional process beginning with consultations among stakeholders, followed by elections at local football councils and State Football Associations. They also proposed an expanded NFF Congress before eventual national elections.
The former officials further called for changes to the composition of the NFF Congress. State FAs currently account for about 84 per cent of voting power, and the group wants greater representation for leagues, players, coaches, referees and grassroots football organisations.
They argued that replacing individuals within the existing structure would not, by itself, resolve the federation’s governance problems.
The former officials urged FIFA and CAF to use the current assessment to establish a transparent and binding framework for the administration of Nigerian football.
FIFA and CAF are expected to announce their next steps after completing their review of the submissions from the various stakeholder groups.
