FIFA holds back approval of NFF normalisation committee pending visit to Nigeria
More details have emerged from the meeting between a Nigerian delegation led by Chairman of the National Sports Commission (NSC), Mallam Shehu Dikko, and the president of the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) at the body’s headquarters in Zurich on Tuesday.
After the mass resignation of the Ibrahim Gusau-led board of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), President Bola Ahmed Tinubu ordered a comprehensive reform of Nigerian football, describing the decline in form and structure as a national emergency.
The NSC, which supervises the NFF, proposed a normalisation committee to midwife that reform and organise a fresh election for a new board. That was the plan the delegation took to Zurich for FIFA’s ratification.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino and his team welcomed the visitors and held what were described as fruitful talks, but withheld outright approval of the committee pending a visit by a FIFA delegation to Nigeria. The world body is expected to be heavily involved in selecting members, who will undergo the same integrity and eligibility tests required of executive committee members of FIFA affiliates.
The vacuum left by the Gusau board is meant to be filled by a committee that could run Nigerian football for about three months, though sources say the term could stretch to six months or a year if the NSC wants the reforms carried through. Talks between the commission and FIFA continued after Tuesday’s meeting.
The leading candidate to head the committee is AbdulHakeem Uthman Mustapha, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN). Sports Village Square notes that he sits on FIFA’s Anti-Racism and Anti-Discrimination Committee, which gives him direct exposure to the governing body’s administrative framework. Presidency power brokers are said to favour him.
A normalisation committee is only as legitimate as FIFA’s blessing. Without that approval, any locally named panel risks a later dispute over recognition of competitions and elections. The Zurich trip therefore produced process, not a finished structure: a promised visit, a shared integrity test, and a name circulating at the top of the list. Until FIFA’s team lands in Nigeria and signs off, the NFF remains in an interim gap between a resigned board and a committee that does not yet exist.
