Sports
Nigeria Loses FIFA Exco Seat
Former Secretary-General of Nigeria Football Association (NFA), Alhaji Sani Toro, says all hopes are not lost with the failure of Nigeria to retain a place on the FIFA Executive Committee.
Tidesports source reports that Nigeria’s candidate, Alhaji Ibrahim Galadima, on Wednesday lost in the elections held at the CAF 33rd Ordinary General Assembly in Khartoum, Sudan.
Galadima had placed last with five votes in the five-man race to fill two of Africa’s four slots on the FIFA Executive Committee, after the seats became vacant following a four-year tenure.
Algeria’s Mohamed Raouraoua won the race with 39 votes, and he is joined on the committee by Ivorien Jacques Anouma who scored 35 votes and is returning to his seat.
Seychelles’ Suketu Patel secured 12 votes, just as South Africa’s Danny Jordann also lost out after he managed only 10 votes, while former Zambian national captain Kalusha Bwalya had earlier quit the race.
Nigeria’s Amos Adamu who had been on the FIFA seat was not up for re-election after his suspension from all football-related activities by FIFA following corruption allegations.
Toro, while reacting to the election results, said the outcome was not unexpected in view of the manner of events which preceded the elections.
“Those of us who know some of them at FIFA had expected it to go this way. I never even expected Galadima to get five votes, I was thinking of something like two or three votes.
“The situation was made bad by the confusion over whether Adamu would win his appeal, and the delay this brought about in campaigning for Galadima really affected us,’’ he said.
Toro who is a CAF Match Commissioner however refused to blame the Nigeria Football Association (NFA) for the situation that led to Galadima’s loss.
“I don’t think we should blame the NFA. The association had nominated Adamu before his problem with FIFA, and when this came up, it sent Galadima’s name as a replacement.
“There were several instructions here and there later, which created a confusion, and in that situation it was difficult to get Galadima’s campaign on the move,’’ he said.
The former Bauchi State Youths and Sports Commissioner however believes all hopes are not yet lost, saying the important issue now should be how to get the CAF hierarchy to do Nigeria’s bidding.
“There is still hope. We have always supported CAF in all its activities, and CAF President Issa Hayatou is fully aware of this. So, all of them there at CAF need to be told that Nigeria deserves the seat.
“Though CAF’s Article 22 Sub-Section 12 stipulate that if there is a vacancy on its Executive Committee, a replacement should come from the zone whose member is out, but we still needs to convince others that Nigeria deserves it first in view of its contributions,’’ he said.
Toro however urged suspended CAF Executive Committee member Amos Adamu to do a more careful study of his case against the world football governing body at the Court of Arbitration in Sports (CAS).
“We need to do a more careful study of the situation in order to move forward, and Adamu has to do a re-think on his stance.
“He should look again at his case, and if he knows he’s not going to win, he should just allow Galadima to go on to replace him so that Nigeria will not lose the CAF seat also.
“We have already lost one, we should not lose two, and Nigeria as a country is greater than any individual,’’ he said.
Among the new NBA draftees are Felix Okpara, Ebuka Okorie, Zubby Ejiofor, Otega Oweh, Tobi Lawal and Ugonna Onyenso.
Felix Okpara (selected 46th overall by the Orlando Magic) and Ugonna Onyenso (selected 53rd overall by the Houston Rockets) marked the second time that two players from Nigeria were selected in the same NBA Draft.
Onyenso is the third NBA Academy Africa alumnus and 15th NBA Academy alumnus overall to be drafted into the NBA.
Ebuka Okorie of Stanford University was the 17th overall pick by Oklahoma City Thunder as part of a planned trade.
In the arrangement, the Thunder will send the draft rights to Okorie to the Memphis Grizzlies who will send his draft rights to the Detroit Pistons).
Zuby Ejiofor was drafted from St John’s University as the 23rd overall by the Atlanta Hawks, just as Otega Oweh of the University of Kentucky was selected as the 41st overall pick by the Miami Heat, as part of a planned trade, which will see the Heat sending the draft rights to Oweh to the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Oweh was named to the All-SEC Second Team by the league’s coaches in both seasons at Kentucky (2024-25, 2025-26).
He led the Wildcats in scoring (18.6 ppg) and steals (1.8 spg) as a senior in 2025-26 and also scored a career-high 35 points vs. Santa Clara in the first round of the 2026 NCAA Tournament. He is also the brother of Washington Commanders defensive end Odafe Oweh, a first-round pick in the 2021 NFL Draft.
Felix Okpara of University of Tennessee, who was selected 46th overall by the Orlando Magic, earned 2025-26 SEC All-Defensive Team honors as a senior in his second season at the University of Tennessee.
He ranks second in programme history in blocks per game at 1.6 and is one of four Tennessee players to record multiple 50-block seasons.
Okpara finished third in the SEC in blocks during the 2024-25 season, averaging 1.7 per game, and ranked seventh in 2025-26 at 1.5 per game.
Prior to Tennessee, Okpara played two seasons at Ohio State and was in 2023-24, ranked 11th nationally in blocks, averaging 2.4 per game.
Okpara grew up playing football in Nigeria and picked up basketball shortly before moving to the U.S. in August 2018.
Tobi Lawal of Virginia Tech, who was selected 48th overall by the Dallas Mavericks, did not pick up a basketball until he was 16, growing up in London and starring for the City of London Academy before crossing the Atlantic.
At Lee Academy Prep, he was dominant, averaging 14.5 points, 11.4 rebounds, 3.0 blocks and 2.0 steals while shooting 67 per cent from the floor.
Ugonna Onyenso of the University of Virginia was selected 53rd overall by the Houston Rockets, but the Rockets will send his draft rights to the New York Knicks, who will then send his draft rights to the Detroit Pistons, marking the second time that two players from Nigeria were selected in the same NBA Draft.
Onyenso spent three years at NBA Academy Africa in Saly, Senegal, making him the third NBA Academy Africa alumnus and 15th NBA Academy alumnus overall to be drafted into the NBA.
At 17 years old, Onyenso became the youngest player ever to suit up for the Nigerian senior national team. The Owerri-born center first picked up basketball after a local coach pulled him away from soccer, then attended NBA Academy Africa before relocating to Putnam Science Academy in Connecticut.
Also in the latest NBA draft are AJ Dybantsa, who has ties to the Republic of the Congo and Jamaica, Nate Ament of Rwanda, who is the second player of Rwandan heritage to be drafted into the NBA after Frank Ntilikina, selected eighth overall by the New York Knicks in 2017.
Ghana’s Jack Kayil and Narcisse Ngoy of the Central African Republic are also among the new NBA intakes.
The Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL), on Friday, warned newly promoted clubs that failure to meet the league’s licensing and infrastructure requirements could bar them from playing at home or even jeopardize their participation in the top flight.
The NPFL recalled that some clubs were relocated from their home venues last season after failing to meet the required standards.
The Chief Operating Officer of the NPFL, Davidson Owumi, disclosed this in Abuja, during an orientation and induction programme organised for the owners and general managers of the four newly promoted clubs ahead of the 2026/27 NPFL season.
He said the programme was designed to acquaint the clubs with the league’s operational procedures and club licensing requirements before the new season begins.
According to him, the early engagement provides clubs with enough time to address any shortcomings before the commencement of the season.
“The purpose is orientation and induction, to ensure they are acquainted with the basics of what we do in the NPFL and to break down the club licensing process so everyone understands what is expected.
“We still have plenty of time before the league starts. This is the appropriate time to acquaint them with what they will be facing. Those who cannot meet the requirements will know early enough.”
Owumi added that the league had yet to assess the newly promoted clubs for specific deficiencies, explaining that the current exercise was focused on education rather than evaluation.
“We are just interacting with them for the first time. We have not tested them in any way. After this education, if they are unable to meet the requirements in the coming weeks, then we will know those that are deficient.”
The NPFL chief stressed that the league would continue to enforce strict compliance with infrastructure standards, including stadium, security and medical requirements.
“Any club that does not meet the standard requirements will be moved from its home ground. We have always enforced these rules because professional football demands the right infrastructure.” Owumi said.
Speaking on behalf of one of the promoted clubs, Chairman of Sporting Lagos, Godwin Enakhena, described the orientation as timely and beneficial, saying it exposed participants to important aspects of the league’s operations that many may not have been aware of.
He said while some club officials had previous experience in the NPFL, the seminar remained valuable because learning in football administration is continuous.
Expressing confidence in the readiness of the promoted clubs, he noted that Sporting Lagos, Wikki Tourists, Barau FC and Doma United were not newcomers to the top flight and understood the demands of competing in the NPFL.
Enakhena said: “The day you stop learning and reading, then there’s a big problem. Even for me, there were issues discussed today that opened my mind. I would have been ignorant of those things if I wasn’t at this seminar.
“You don’t struggle to gain promotion and then you’re not ready for the battle. Based on my conversations with the other club managers, I can assure you the four teams are ready.”
Enakhena also welcomed the increasing number of privately owned clubs in the NPFL, describing it as a positive development for Nigerian football.
He said the success of privately run clubs would encourage more investors to enter the game and expressed hope that they would eventually make up the majority of clubs in the top division.
“I’m seeing more private clubs getting to the Premier League. Let’s have 70 per cent privately owned clubs and 30 per cent government clubs. That would be a fantastic development for Nigerian football.”