–As FIFA backs NFF Sept elections’ cancellation

By Nick Ibe, Abuja

With the Ibrahim Gusau-led administration of Nigerian Football Federation, NFF, recording unpardonable failures since taking office, and one of the most painful being Nigeria’s failure to qualify for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. The failure was despite Nigeria having a large pool of established players and an expanded African allocation for the 2026 World Cup.

The Super Falcons’ elimination from the African playoff for the 2027 World Cup by the Banyana Banyana of South Africa, in Morocco,
the corruption among other ills associated with football administration forced the National Sports Commission to act, to redeem the game in Nigeria.

The National Sports Commission’s (NSC) immediate step was to cancell the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) electoral congress, which was scheduled to hold on September 27 in Lafia, Nasarawa State, to pave the way for a thorough reorganisation of the federation.

This move has severely jolted the Ibrahim Gusau-led executive committee, which was bidding for a second term in office, having taken the mantle four years ago.

In the interim, the NSC is set to name a “normalisation committee” to run the nation’s football affairs for three months.

The NSC was said to have got the permission of the World Football governing body (FIFA) after it assured the embattled President Gianni Infantino of Nigeria’s support in his re-election bid.

The NSC is said to have also reached out to the president of the Confederation of African Football (CAF), Patrice Motsepe.

With Gusau off the line, the NSC’s initial move to allegedly bring in the former President of the NFF, Amaju Pinnick, was said to be rejected by the Presidency.

Reports indicated that the Presidency has given the NSC the approval to announce the normalisation committee within 48 hours. It was not clear who the NSC will finally pick to head the committee.

The normalisation committee, which will be in charge of the nation’s football for three months, is expected to prepare the ground for a new NFF election, including taking care of the grey areas many stakeholders including, Chief Segun Odegbami, had complained about.

By Segun Odegbami

These are my modest solutions to Nigeria’s unending sports development challenge!.

Historically, on March 22, 1998, I was officially decorated with the honour and title of ‘Sports Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Nigeria’ in Abuja by the then Minister of Sports. It was in addition to a previous national honour of ‘Member of the Order of the Niger’, MON.

I take both honours very seriously. They are earned, the rewards for national duty through hard work, dedication, sacrifices, patriotism, discipline, and trophies.

They also come, of course, with additional demands and even more responsibility.

That’s why I try, always, to appreciate the country’s generosity by attempting to live a simple, decent life of exemplary good conduct to serve as a model for generations coming after me through the window of sports. How far I have fared with these unwritten expectations and standards I leave for Nigerians and posterity to judge.

Today, football in Nigeria is at a crossroads. The time comes to test my judgement and character, a burden that I must carry even in the evening of my life.

I find that there is really nothing for me to lose in standing by what I believe are the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth! To be silent now means to fail the government, the people and the game of football itself. So, I am raising my voice again.

Nigerians know me for my activities and contributions in sports and in football, in particular – playing the game, administering it, organising it, promoting it, deploying it as a tool to drive education, empowerment, health, patriotism, eradication of illiteracy, diplomacy and national orientation.

It all started in 1973. As an undergraduate student I was invited to the national football team of Nigeria, the Green Eagles, from the National Sports Festival, to start a relationship that has remained unbroken to this day.

In the 53 years since then, I played for the country; rose to be Captain of the national team and also of the national contingent to the Olympic Games; administered the game as a member of the board of the Nigerian Football Association and as Chairman of the Governing Council of the National Institute of Sports; single-handedly managed two Nigerian athletes (in a sport outside of football) to win Gold and Silver medals at the Olympic Games; served in several panels, commissions and committees promoting sports and seeking solutions to challenges in Nigerian sports; established an NGO/institution that has been promoting the combination of sports and scholarship; facilitating the migration of Nigerian student/athletes to Colleges and Universities in the USA and in India; and currently serving as head of a new and special unit developing a template and policies for sports diplomacy within Nigeria’s foreign affairs.

The measure of my work in all these national assignments are an open book for all Nigerians to see and determine.

All those experiences count in the position I have now chosen to take in the unfortunate present situation the country finds itself. With all the talented footballers that the country parades all over the world, it is a sad commentary that at international level, achievements have reached a plateau, and even started to decline. This is easily measured in the successes, or lack of them, that the country’s football has achieved in recent times. Some of the results are totally unacceptable, needless to mention them here.

The reality is that football administration in the past two decades, in particular, has not matched or complimented the level of talent and possible achievements.

The growth of our football industry has been stunted by faulty decisions taken more in ignorance than by any malicious intentions since the early part of the 1990s. These have grown, sustained and become the norm in our football, a monster that now needs the creators of it to rid it of its venom. They won’t do it because they are also the beneficiaries of the faulty architecture!

Next month, an election into the board of the Nigerian Football Association will take place. I am deliberately using the word ‘association’ because that is the starting point of all the anomalies in the present administrative architecture. This takes careful understanding that I cannot explain here , but that will make sense when the matter is tabled before a civil court for interrogation, and where a subsisting judgment to amend it has been treated with levity for almost 8 years. In law, the Nigerian Football Federation does not even exist!

As for the elections the way things are now, they have been held and sewn up already, the results determined even before a vote has been cast. The persons that can contest and will, know themselves already. Those to be deprived of the opportunity to even contest have been isolated and sent on a wild goose chase, to go around Nigeria furtively searching for endorsements they will not get in a rushed and harried election. The winners of elections have already been determined by the same group of people in office now.

The elections will also be conducted away from any prying eyes to avoid any chances of transparency, and where bribery and corrupt practices can be conducted without consequence, far from the headquarters of the federation and the supervising National Sports Commission that would have ensured neutrality.

The issues are long and endless that need the supervising ministry’s intervention. The NSC cannot do anything with their hands tied by ‘fictitious’ threats by ‘FIFA’ that have no substance in any statutes anywhere in the world.

In short, history, documents, facts and figures are essential ingredients that will illuminate the clouded areas of our football structures in order for the ship of our football to be steadied for future development.

My experiences cannot be bought in the market place or discountenanced. My current works speak for themselves. My suggestions for the future should at least be given some attention.

Therefore, I am writing this publicly with some concern but a deep sense of responsibility and sincerity. Elections into the board of the NFF have become a four-yearly ritual of crisis. The process used in conducting them have always been contentious, and were always challenged as a result of perceived irregularities and manipulation.

All of these to the detriment of the country that loves its football with passion but can only look on helplessly as football continues to suffer and fails to achieve its full potentials, fails to boost the country’s economy, and fails to empower the country’s gifted youths with the best opportunities that are available all over the world.

In the next few days, I shall be taking documents that are currently used in the administration of Nigerian football to the Nigerian civil courts for interrogation and interpretation, to explain to Nigerians documented facts about the real power and roles of FIFA in our country’s internal football affairs; the status, interpretation, role and place of State Football Associations; the equity in unequal and lopsided representation by members; the place and role of government as the biggest funder of football in the country; the justification for the convoluted, politicized, expensive conduct of ordinary football elections in Nigeria, and so on!

The next few weeks will be very interesting.

I hope all Nigerians, including the members of the Nigerian Football Association will understand why these elections should be temporarily halted for Nigerian football to find its feet again!

Olusegun Odegbami, MON, OLY, MON, AFNIIA, FNIS

Sports Ambassador, Federal Republic of Nigeria; Grand Sports Ambassador of Ogun State.

By Son Tertsegha, Abuja

FIFA, world soccer’s governing body, before deeply reveling in the euphoria of its successful, unprecedented dollar haul from the 2026 world cup, has launched itself into an avoidable controversy called FIFA Forward Enterprise, or FFE, that would have changed world cup history and financing, by allowing billions of dollars in private commercial investment in the mundial.

Following the predictable turn of dangerous signals from soccer bodies against his plans, FIFA President, Gianni Infantino, caved in. He reversed himself with the statement Friday evening that:
“Having listened carefully to all the views, it has become clear that the project has created divisions of a nature that, regardless of the level of support, are no longer in the interest of the objective set out in the first place.”

First to spill the beans earlier this week, was the British newspaper, The Times, which exposed the secret FIFA Forward Enterprise, or FFE, deal under which FIFA would have created a commercial rights and event operations company, 20% of which was to be sold to private investors with FIFA retaining ownership of 80%

The next pain in FIFA’s, precisely Infantino’s, neck was the prompt, fierce opposition from UEFA’s reaction, calling the proposal “irresponsible and indefensible.” It stated further that:
“The World Cup cannot be treated as an investment product,” stressing, “It is one of football’s greatest sporting legacies,” and that “the World Cup is not for sale.”

Coming out next was North America’s soccer governing body, the 41-member Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) which rejected the plan, questioning “the need for private equity investment to fund new and existing FIFA Forward programs following the most profitable FIFA World Cup in history.”

CONCACAF, however, stopped short of making a boycott threat.

Then, on Friday, the Asian Football Confederation followed without clearly rejecting the plan, only to say that it stood “in solidarity with UEFA and CONCACAF in expressing serious concerns over FIFA’s proposal to introduce private investment into FIFA’s flagship competitions and the decision-making process around FFE.”

Further harm came on Friday, when Carlos Cordeiro, one of Infantino’s senior advisers, threw in the towel, saying in a statement that he could not “stand by while FIFA considers selling a stake in the World Cup.”

But Infantino’s defence that “The FIFA Forward Enterprise project was intended to provide a basis for further strengthening our FIFA Member Associations and our sport worldwide, especially in those countries where support is most needed,” in the morning of Friday, fell flat with Cordeiro’s resignation in the day.

Consequently, Infantino had to drop the idea in the evening of the same day.

Importantly, the FFE saga has the image of President Trump and his son-in -law’s Kushner family somewhere in the dark.

Infantino has received mounting criticism in recent months over his close relationship with Mr. Trump leading up to the 2026 World Cup, which the U.S. hosted with Mexico and Canada. Last year, Infantino awarded Mr. Trump the inaugural FIFA Peace Prize.

Earlier this month, during the World Cup tournament, Mr. Trump said he pressed Infantino to review the red card that was given to U.S. striker Folarin Balogun during a knockout game against Bosnia and Herzegovina. Under FIFA rules, the red card required that Balogun be suspended for the team’s next match against Belgium.

“All I did, I asked for a review because I didn’t think it was a foul,” Mr. Trump said at the time. “… If they wouldn’t allow, you know, a top player, maybe the best, maybe among the best players on the team, I think it would have had a big stain. And I related, just that, I didn’t tell him what to do, I can’t tell him what to do.”

Curiously, in an unprecedented move, FIFA overturned Balogun’s suspension one day before the Belgium match, and without a detailed explanation.

FIFA confirmed in an earlier statement that Thrive Eternal, a venture spearheaded by Joshua Kushner, the brother of President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, was “expected to lead the proposed investor group.” Thrive Eternal is a subsidiary of Thrive Capital, an investment firm owned by Joshua Kushner.
FIFA had estimated that under the deal, the 211 member associations of FIFA would see their so-called FIFA Forward Funding rise from $8 million per four-year cycle to approximately $20 million.
On Tuesday, a source close to Thrive Capital told CBS News that criticism of the firm’s involvement was unjustified.
“I think the first assumption is that Trump was involved in FFE in any capacity, which is just not accurate,” the source told CBS News. “Josh himself does not have any links with the administration, he does not have any political roles, he has not donated to them, he is not involved in any capacity. If you look at his donation record, all of the causes he has donated to are Democrat … it’s kind of unfair to assume a lot about somebody just because of what their brother does.”

Asked by reporters during a Cabinet meeting Friday if FIFA officials or Infantino had spoken to him about Infantino’s plan, Mr. Trump responded, “No, I never spoke to him.”