Sports
NFF Election, Its Implication On Nigerian Football
As the 2018 Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) election was conducted in Katsina, there is no doubt that it would only pave the way for further drama in the Nigeria football house.
The unfortunate leadership crisis in Nigerian football that has plagued the football body since 2014 has indeed been a big setback to the country in many ways.
The Glass House has been occupied at different times by both the Chris Giwa and Amaju Pinnick factions of the Federation’s Congress.
This occupation has, however, been with the aid of men of the Nigeria Police and the Department of State Services at such times.
The Tidesports source said, battle for the seat started shortly after Pinnick won a parallel election in Warri in 2014.
Giwa had dragged the Pinnick-led board to court over forceful takeover of the NFF secretariat following Pinnick’s emergence as President in an election conducted on September 30, 2014.
The election prevented Giwa, who emerged as NFF president at an earlier election held in Abuja on August 26, 2014, from assuming office.
The NFF Congress had disregarded the order of a Jos High Court to stay action on the Warri election until the determination of the suit brought before it by Giwa.
The matter eventually got to the Supreme Court which in April, set aside a 2016 judgment of the Appeal Court on the leadership tussle and sent the matter back to the Federal High Court sitting in Jos, Plateau State, which had earlier mandated Giwa to take over as president.
As part of the reconciliatory move to resolve the crisis, the Amaju-led faction of the NFF held an Extra-Ordinary General Assembly in Benin City on August 2.
The Benin congress had, among other issues, directed a review of the NFF election guidelines in a bid to accommodate all aggrieved parties.
The directive, which was part of the communique issued by the congress at the end of the meeting, also asked all parties to withdraw their court cases.
The congress also considered lifting the ban on Giwa and members of his faction.
The NFF Congress had at the assembly suspended the statutory provisions of the 2010 NFF Statutes, NFF Electoral Code 2009 and Guidelines for Elections into the NFF 2018.
However, Giwa, who spoke with journalists through Victor Iroele, his Senior Special Assistant (SSA) on Media, said the congress was not only illegal but inconsequential, adding that it was a mere gathering of Pinnick and his friends in Benin City.
He also rejected Pinnick’s advice to Giwa to withdraw the orders of court recognising him as the NFF president with a view to contesting in a fresh election.
“What he sees as a compensation is out of place and an outright injustice.
“A Federal High Court sitting in Jos has declared the elective Congress of 2014 that brought Pinnick as illegal, null, void and of no consequence in law.
“The court has also, through Justice Haruna Kurya, affirmed that Giwa shall hold office as NFF President pending when the suit before that court will be determined.
“The same orders have been re-affirmed by the Supreme Court. However, Pinnick continues to parade himself as the NFF president.
“The plea to reconcile with Giwa has indeed exposed his desperation to remain in office by having the court orders withdrawn,” he said.
Iroele also said the Benin congress had challenged the court’s competence and jurisdiction, adding that any reconciliatory move was supposed to be at the instance of Giwa and not Pinnick.
Report has it that as a fall out from the Amaju-Pinnick led Extraordinary Congress, the Electoral Committee announced an adjustment of the election time-table from September 30 to September 20.
Giwa, once again, reacted in a statement in Abuja, saying that his board would have nothing to do with the adjusted 2018 NFF Elective Congress time-table.
He said that the time-table must be disregarded, as “it has no place in law and was not sanctioned by our legally-recognised board”.
He warned those parading themselves as members of the electoral committee to desist from doing so as they were in breach of the laws of the land.
Giwa also told journalists that he would not relinquish his mandate, which was given to him in an earlier election by the NFF congress in Abuja and urged his supporters to be calm as the rule of law runs its course.
“By the grace of God, we employed patience to go through the judicial system of the land as guaranteed by Article 1.1 of the NFF Statute to reach where we are.
“Except if the law and the judiciary is no more significant can what happened on Monday be allowed. Evil will not thrive over good.
“I urge our friends, allies and supporters to remain calm. Truth shall return to the centre stage.
“What you have seen is like the different scenes in a Nollywood film. All I know is that the rule of law will not lie low against the rule of might and influence peddling,” he said.
Following a FIFA threat however, the Federal Government on August 20, chose to recognise Pinnick and his men as the authentic leadership of the NFF, to avoid the country being expelled by the world football governing body.
FIFA in turn sent a correspondence confirming the receipt of a letter from the Federal Government as tweeted by Laolu Akande, Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo’s Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity.
Sadly enough, the crisis cannot be said to be completely over from all indications as the Minister of Sports, Solomon Dalung, only recently insisted that the forthcoming elections into the NFF board would be in futility if the court order was not obeyed.
The comments by Dalung were coming shortly after the Federal Government had assured FIFA that all was well with the country’s football and that Amaju Pinnick was recognised as NFF boss which allowed the country escape the FIFA hammer.
The Chris Giwa-led faction on the other hand staged a meeting in Abuja in spite of the Federal Government’s decision to back Pinnick and go in line with FIFA’s statutes as they await the verdict of the case which was adjourned till September 25.
With the September 20 elections in Katsina and the effects of the crisis, football lovers, stakeholders and administrators are however eager to see the seemingly intractable crisis rocking the football sector laid to rest.
Will the elections be the panacea to the crisis? Only time will unravel the facts.
It is, however, important to be focused on how the country’s football will be in the next four years.
Pinnick, who is now CAF’s Vice-President and committee member of FIFA, is eyeing a second term but there is a strong opposition from Aminu Maigari, a former NFF President and Chief Taiwo Ogunjobi, a former NFF Secretary-General.
Also, Ogunjobi, who lost at the last election in Warri is competing again this time.
The three football buffs are the gladiators of the election, while first Vice-President Seyi Akinwunmi is also seeking re-election.
It is expected that his love for the growth of the game will give him an edge over other contenders, however, you never know with football politics in Nigeria.
Interestingly, the football scene has been too calm about the election maybe due to the crisis.
It is normal that there will be intrigues and keen politicking in the next few days but truth is football politics is not like the conventional one.
All the aspirants into various positions are expected to plan well and play their games well respectively to win.
The leadership crisis of the last election lasted the whole tenure and it is important that we do not have a repeat of the same scenario.
The country’s domestic football league was on break during the crisis and after the escape of FIFA ban, it was also difficult to run the full course of the season.
The elite league was 14 weeks away from the end and there were only seven weeks before the deadline given to all countries by the Confederation of African Football to submit the names of representatives for African Championships.
For leading the table for most part of the 24 Match Day of the Nigeria Professional Football League 2017/2018 season, the League Management Company and the club owners decided to end the season with 14 games to go and announced Lobi Stars as the champions and the country’s representative for the CAF Champions League next season.
The decision generated so much negative reactions but the chieftains of the game in the country stood firm on the unpopular decision.
A former international, Victor Ikpeba, noted that it was a bad decision for the growth of the game in Nigeria.
A former English football superstar, John Fashanu, also criticised the decision to award the title to Lobi that were just two points above the second team, Akwa United, before the break.
Victor Okoye writes for News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)
There are other effects of the abrupt end to the league.
The match officials who make their living from officiating games will be counting their losses, while fans and the petty traders who make brisk business during league matches will also be lamenting over this development.
This, certainly is a bad precedent that could affect football development in the country.
It is left to see how football stakeholders will resolve the lingering crisis, while FIFA and the Executive arm of government continue to back Pinnick, even as the ruling by the Judiciary had favoured the Giwa-led board.
After all said and done, the truth is, we need peace in our football so that the players can flourish and the administrators will be in the right frame to take the right decisions and move the game to enviable heights in which all Nigerians can be proud of.
Victor Okoye writes from News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)
Victor Okoye
Nigerian football fans and former internationals may have finally joined the call on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to save Nigerian football from the grip of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), demanding a complete overhaul and the resignation of the board following a series of national-team heartbreaks, including the Super Eagles’ failure to qualify for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, their second consecutive absence and the Super Falcons’ recent loss of an automatic qualification spot for the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Brazil.
Until now, football legend Segun Odegbami has been a lone voice in the vanguard of those calling on the Ibrahim Gusau-led NFF board to step aside. However, many ex-internationals, angered that the national embarrassment has now spilled over to the women’s team, have joined the call to “save our football.”
“We are demanding a total systemic clear-out and consequences at every tier of Nigerian football,” one of the former players said yesterday, pleading to remain anonymous to avoid “arrows” from what he described as desperate officials holding Nigerian football by the jugular.
Ahead of the September 27, 2026 elective congress of the NFF, scheduled to hold in Lafia, Nasarawa State, Chairman of the Advocacy for Nigeria Football Reforms Initiative, Prince Harrison Jalla, has also painted a gloomy picture of the future of Nigerian football.
Jalla’s position is in tandem with that of some aspirants who are also crying blue murder, alleging that the electoral procedure is skewed in favour of incumbent NFF President Ibrahim Musa Gusau to secure a smooth passage to a second term unopposed.
Jalla insisted that “all indicators are pointing to a gloomy picture for the future of Nigerian football, mainly due to administrative ineptitude, while the gladiators remain engrossed and fixated on the election.”
“The major crux of the election is the guidelines, which make it very difficult for other candidates to secure endorsements from across the six geopolitical zones to challenge Gusau.
“The NFF elective congress creates a skewed voting structure because [certain blocs] hold an overwhelming majority of the voting power, which critics argue marginalises key football stakeholders such as club owners, players, coaches, referees and sports writers.
“Out of the total delegates and voting structure, the 37 State FA chairmen form the primary voting bloc, making it difficult for independent candidates to win.
“This is so because of the marriage between the FA chairmen and the NFF. Most FA chairmen depend solely on the Federation for favours. Over time, during national and international engagements, the NFF uses such opportunities to reward the FA chairmen with trips and estacodes.
“They have been so compromised that no Jupiter would make them see reasons for a change. The system, therefore, heavily favours the incumbent leadership seeking re-election. That explains why they were in a hurry to pass a vote of confidence in the NFF leadership even when Nigerian football became topsy-turvy.
“As desperation has beclouded their reasoning, they have forgotten how low they have dragged Nigerian football.”
A cursory look at the catalogue of failures by Nigeria’s national teams will reveal this;
Super Eagles (Senior Men): Failed to qualify for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Their campaign ended in agonising fashion in November 2025 during the CAF playoff final, when they lost 4–3 on penalties to DR Congo. This marked the second consecutive World Cup missed by the senior national team. Earlier, in January 2026, they were also eliminated from the 2025 AFCON via a penalty shootout.
Super Falcons (Senior Women): Suffered an early continental exit by losing 1–0 to Cameroon in the 2026 WAFCON quarter-finals. The defeat stripped them of an automatic ticket to the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Brazil, forcing them into an inter-confederation playoff route. Worse still, Banyana Banyana of South Africa stopped the Super Falcons with a 2-1 defeat in Morocco, marking Nigeria’s worst outing in the history of WAFCON.
Golden Eaglets (Men’s U-17): Failed to qualify for the U-17 AFCON and subsequently missed out on three consecutive FIFA U-17 World Cups — 2023, 2025 and 2026.
Flying Eagles (Men’s U-20): Missed both the 2026 U-20 AFCON and the FIFA U-20 World Cup.
Olympic Team (Men’s U-23): Failed to qualify for the 2023 U-23 AFCON, which directly resulted in their failure to qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
An official NFF apology to the government and Nigerians was met with backlash, with fans dismissing it as “too little, too late” and “one apology too many”, while demanding actual resignations.
The current frustration among fans stems from what they regard as an unprecedented catalogue of systemic failures across all tiers of Nigeria’s national teams.
Segun Odegbami said the failures had become one too many.
“If you fail to take your team to the World Cup, you find out that more often than not, they vote you out or sack you.
“That’s the measure. If you have a coach who doesn’t do well, they sack him. If you have a player who is doing badly, you remove him.”
“These guys have not succeeded. They’re our friends; that’s the painful thing. We know ourselves. We are all in the business and, when we champion the fact that they should go, they make you an enemy.
“It’s not a personalised thing. They have failed and, if we go back to that route, we are going to fail as we have failed before,” he said.
The financial damage from missing recent major tournaments is equally devastating, with total losses estimated at between ?150 billion and ?300 billion in direct payouts and broader economic partnerships.
This continuous string of qualification failures has effectively choked off the federation’s primary revenue pipelines and left its local development initiatives starved of funds.
The economic wreckage breaks down across several critical areas. By failing to reach the expanded World Cup, the NFF forfeited a guaranteed baseline participation fee of $10.5 million, reportedly worth roughly ?15.5 billion.
This single tournament loss wiped out an amount equivalent to roughly 87 per cent of the NFF’s projected annual operational budget. Had the Super Eagles advanced beyond the group stage, the rewards would have risen above $12 million, while reaching the quarter-finals could have yielded up to $20 million in performance-related payments.
Early exits by the Super Falcons and the qualification failures of the youth teams, U-17, U-20 and U-23, mean the NFF has also missed out on vital developmental subsidies and travel grants normally provided by continental governing bodies.
Corporate organisations and major sports betting companies are scaling back their sponsorship valuations. Without global television exposure, the NFF cannot command premium rates for brand placement.
The federation also misses out on potential revenue from global jersey sales, training gear and licensed supporter memorabilia that normally spike around major tournaments.
By missing out on tournament participation, Nigeria also loses leverage to draw heavily from FIFA’s financial programmes aimed at upgrading domestic training academies and pitches.
Consecutive missed World Cups have further lowered the market value of the national team brand, making future broadcast and marketing rights significantly harder to sell at a premium.
Former Ajax midfielder Hedwiges Maduro has praised Nigerian striker Tolu Arokodare, highlighting the forward’s strength and power and suggesting that he could prove valuable to Ajax in the Eredivisie.
Arokodare joined Ajax from Wolverhampton Wanderers on a season-long loan in July, with the Dutch club holding an option to make the move permanent.
He has already made an impact for his new side, providing an assist in Ajax’s 2-0 victory over PEC Zwolle in their opening Eredivisie fixture.
Maduro discussed Arokodare’s qualities during an appearance on ESPN’s Voetbalpraat, where he assessed how the Nigerian could complement Ajax’s attacking options.
He sees Arokodare as offering a different profile to Marcos Leonardo, particularly against opponents who defend deep and limit the space available for attacking runs.
Speaking about the Nigerian striker, Maduro highlighted his physical qualities and explained why he believes they could make him a valuable option for Ajax in the Dutch top flight.
“I think Tolu has something special, in terms of strength and power. I think he can be of real value in the Eredivisie,” Maduro said, as quoted by Ajax Showtime.
According to Maduro, the tactical demands of certain matches could make Arokodare’s physical presence an important option for Ajax, especially when opponents retreat towards their own penalty area.
He contrasted the situation with Leonardo, who he believes benefits from having space to make attacking runs. Maduro explained that when teams defend deep, those spaces become more difficult to find.
“Leonardo needs space. If teams drop back completely, where are you going to make those runs?
Then you get more use out of Tolu as a focal point to drop the ball,” he added.
The Chairman of the Local Organizing Committee, LOC, of the Arsenal Nigeria Converge 2026, Ugochukwu Oputa, has said that over 25 states across Nigeria were involved in the second edition of the Arsenal Converge scheduled for Port Harcourt from August 14 to 16, 2026.
Oputa disclosed this on Sunday after the Converge meeting at the Ediz Wine Bar in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
According to him, Arsenal’s popularity cuts across the nation, and the Converge is organized to provide a period for supporters to network, interact, and harmonize.
“Knowing how Arsenal’s popularity is spread across the nation, it became necessary that all the different supporters of Arsenal club across the country harmonize and create a particular period where we can meet, network and interact,” Oputa said.
He outlined the five-day schedule of activities to include
Press conference,
Environmental sanitation and community service at Mile 1 Market, Diobu, involving both visitors and residents, arrival, welcome and cocktail party. Others included Games Day, football competition and other fun activities at the Rivers State University football pitch, Community Shield watch party yesterday, where all Arsenal supporters’ groups met, interacted, and discussed the future of Arsenal, including plans for the 2027 hosting rights of the Converge.
Oputa added that this year’s Converge which was in Port Harcourt, had over 3,000 fans registered.
“Port Harcourt Arsenal Community is a recognized supporters’ club of Arsenal in London and we have over 25 states that participated in the Arsenal Nigeria Converge 2026,” he said.
Also speaking, a member of the Nigeria Arsenal Supporters Working Committee, Nsikak Ntia, said that what distinguishes Arsenal supporters is their offline community impact.
“What we are doing here in Port Harcourt is beyond football. It’s a family that is growing. We had over 3,000 to 4,000 people on Saturday at the Rivers State University that shared the confidence that Arsenal represents,” Ntia said.
He noted that the club’s motto, ‘Victoria Concordia Crescit’ – ‘Victory Through Harmony’ – is the bedrock of the group.
“The work that we do at Mile 1 Market is to help with environmental protection and increase what we do in society.
“We also have future plans to promote environmental protection and better ways to handle waste.
“These are things that are germane for our future, the future of our young people and generations unborn.
” It goes beyond football, it goes beyond banter, it goes beyond yapping at each other.
“That is what Arsenal Football Club is all about. Arsenal has the most well-organized supporters’ club in Nigeria and Africa’ he sated.
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