Nigerian Football: Time to Think Outside the Box
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By Frank Ofili
Modern football administration requires expertise in governance, finance, commercialization, sponsorship, media rights, infrastructure, player development, sports law, talent identification, competitions, women’s football and international relations.
The moment has come for Nigerians to ask a question that goes beyond the names currently being mentioned for the leadership of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF):
What kind of person should run Nigerian football?
That, in my view, is the most important question.
The resignation on August 27 of NFF President Ibrahim Musa Gusau, General Secretary Mohammed Sanusi and members of the NFF Executive Committee has opened another chapter in the long-running crisis of Nigerian football. The resignations followed intense criticism of the state of the game, including Nigeria’s failure to qualify for the 2026 FIFA World Cup and the Super Falcons’ failure to qualify for the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup—the first time Nigeria will miss the women’s tournament since it began in 1991.
The NFF has since suspended the electoral process that was scheduled for September and announced that a fresh process will follow a comprehensive reform program involving FIFA, CAF, government and other stakeholders.
That gives Nigeria an opportunity to do more than simply find another person to occupy the NFF presidency.
We have an opportunity to rethink what kind of leadership Nigerian football actually needs.
This should not be another contest of personalities
Not unexpectedly, several names have been mentioned in public discussions about the future leadership of Nigerian football. Names like Kunle Soname, Segun Odegbami, Michael Emenalo, Seyi Olofinjana, Amaju Pinnick, and funny as it sounds, even Seyi Tinubu (President Tinubu’s son) have been mentioned as potential president of the NFF.
That Mr. President’s son, Seyi, is being mentioned and being supported by no less a personality than former Super Eagles striker, Obafemi Martins, is a telling statement of how unserious some stakeholders are about the anticipated reform of NFF.
Beyond being Mr. President’s son, what qualifies Seyi Tinubu for NFF Presidency? What is his achievement in football either as a player, administrator or investor?
Anyway, as a Nigerian football enthusiast myself, I think I have earned the right to join the fray, not as an aspirant, but as a commentator on the matter.
But I would rather not begin with the question: Who wants the NFF presidency?
I would begin with a different question:
Who is best qualified to lead Nigerian football into its next phase?
The distinction is important.
A genuine reform of Nigerian football administration cannot simply mean replacing one set of familiar faces with another set of familiar faces. It requires a different mindset and, potentially, a different governance model.
Nigeria does not need another NFF leadership team that spends four years explaining why the country’s football problems are somebody else’s fault.
The next generation of football administrators should be judged by competence, integrity, vision, commercial intelligence, technical understanding, administrative capacity, developmental experience and international credibility.
Not by ethnicity.
Not by geopolitical calculations.
Not by political connections.
Not by the number of delegates a candidate can mobilize.
And certainly not simply by whether the person once wore the green-and-white jersey. Being a great footballer is not the same as being a great football administrator
This distinction needs to be made clearly.
Former internationals should have an important voice in football administration. Their knowledge of the game and experience at the highest level are valuable.
But playing football and running football are different professions.
A player could score 50 goals for Nigeria and still be completely unqualified to manage a national football federation.
Modern football administration requires expertise in governance, finance, commercialization, sponsorship, media rights, infrastructure, player development, sports law, talent identification, competitions, women’s football and international relations.
The relevant question should therefore not be:
“Did you play for Nigeria?”
It should be:
“What have you actually achieved in managing football?”
That is the standard by which I would assess the leading names being discussed.
Michael Emenalo: elite football-management experience
Michael Emenalo stands out because his post-playing career has taken him into the upper reaches of modern football management.
A former Nigeria international, Emenalo joined Chelsea in 2007 and worked in scouting and coaching before becoming the club’s technical director in 2011. He was closely involved in recruitment, scouting and the development of the club’s football structures. He later became sporting director at AS Monaco.
Nigeria routinely employs foreign coaches…. Why not foreign NFF president?
In 2023, he became the Saudi Pro League’s first Director of Football, where he was tasked with helping develop the league’s player-acquisition and youth-development strategy. His tenure ended in June 2026.
That is the kind of résumé Nigeria should be examining.
Not merely someone who once played at the highest level, but someone who has actually operated at the highest levels of football management.
Whether Emenalo would want the NFF job, and whether he would be willing to navigate Nigeria’s notoriously complicated football politics, are separate questions.
Personally, however, I think his greatest value to Nigerian football may be as a technical or football-development executive rather than as the political head of the federation.
Kunle Soname: the value of building something
Kunle Soname interests me for a different reason.
He has built something. His involvement in Nigerian football is not theoretical. He has invested substantially in club football and player development.
He is the proprietor of Remo Stars, Beyond Limits and Remo Stars Ladies, and has also been associated with Portuguese club CD Feirense. The NFF itself recognizes his ownership of these football properties.
Remo Stars won their first NPFL title in the 2024/25 season, a significant achievement after years of development under Soname’s ownership. CAF described it as the club’s maiden league title.
Soname has also had experience in European club football. Contemporary reporting says he acquired a 70 per cent stake in Portuguese club CD Feirense in 2015.
That matters.
Nigeria has no shortage of people who can explain what is wrong with Nigerian football. We have commentators, analysts, former players, administrators and politicians who can diagnose the disease.
What we have fewer of, are people who can say:
“Here is what I built. Here is what I invested. Here is what I achieved. Here is the evidence that my model works.”
Soname can make that argument.
That does not automatically make him the right person to lead the NFF. Ownership of a successful football club is not the same thing as running a national federation.
But it gives him something many potential candidates do not possess: a demonstrable record of investment, execution and football development.
Segun Odegbami: football knowledge and institution-building
Odegbami presents a different proposition.
He is not simply a former footballer. He is an important figure in Nigerian sports—a former international, administrator, commentator, writer and persistent advocate for reform.
More importantly, his contribution extends beyond his playing career.
His most tangible developmental investment is the Segun Odegbami International College and Sports Academy (SOCA), established in 2007. The institution combines education with structured sporting development.
There is also a well-documented story of Chioma Ajunwa.
Ajunwa, who went on to win Nigeria’s first individual Olympic gold medal at Atlanta 1996, has publicly credited Odegbami with helping her access training abroad.
That is significant.
Football leadership should not be measured only by trophies won during one’s playing career. It should also be measured by the people one helps discover, develop and elevate.
Odegbami’s strengths are his institutional knowledge, passion for development, long experience in Nigerian football and willingness to challenge the status quo.
The question, however, is whether those qualities can be translated into a modern governance and management structure capable of running a national football federation as a professional organization.
Seyi Olofinjana: impressive experience, but not my preferred model
Seyi Olofinjana deserves serious recognition for what he has achieved since retiring as a player.
His transition from playing into football management has been impressive.
He worked with Wolverhampton Wanderers in coaching, loan-management and player-development roles before becoming technical director at Grasshopper Club Zürich in Switzerland. In 2024, Chelsea appointed him to a role focused on talent management and recruitment in Africa.
That is considerable experience.
Nevertheless, Nigerian football needs, in my view, something more disruptive.
I have argued elsewhere that Nigerian football needs a maverick at the helm—a leader prepared to challenge entrenched practices and rethink the system rather than merely operate within it.
For that reason, despite Olofinjana’s laudable achievements and considerable technical and talent-development experience, I would not make him my preferred candidate for the political leadership of the NFF.
I would, however, regard his expertise as potentially valuable in the technical and development architecture of a reformed federation.
Godwin Dudu-Orumen: perhaps a Secretary-General rather than president
Godwin Dudu-Orumen presents another interesting proposition.
His career spans football administration, youth development, sports promotion, media and governance. His experience includes involvement with youth football development and sports administration.
For those reasons, I consider him a credible candidate for a senior position within a reformed NFF.
If I were assembling the management structure, I would seriously consider him for the position of Secretary-General.
Why?
Because a football federation needs more than a public face.
It needs someone who understands process, administration, law, institutional memory, governance and the mechanics of running a complex organization.
The president may provide the vision and political leadership. The Secretary-General must help turn that vision into an effective administrative machine.
That distinction is important.
And what about Amaju Pinnick?
I would not favour a return of Amaju Pinnick to the NFF presidency.
That is not because Pinnick lacks experience. Quite the opposite.
He understands the corridors of African and world football better than most Nigerians. He served two terms as NFF president and became a member of the FIFA Council.
His tenure also produced notable achievements, including Nigeria’s bronze medal at the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations. But it also included the failure of the Super Eagles to qualify for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, alongside periods of considerable controversy around the administration.
My objection, therefore, is not to Pinnick’s experience.
It is to the broader principle of recycling former occupants of the system when the system itself is what Nigerians are demanding should change.
If the country wants a genuine reset, we should be prepared to consider people with different backgrounds, different ideas and different management experience.
Perhaps Nigeria needs a football CEO, not a political president
This may be the most important question of all.
For decades, the NFF presidency has often been treated almost like a political office.
Lobbying.
Alliances.
Blocks.
Delegates.
Endorsements.
Geopolitical calculations.
Political influence.
And somewhere in all of that, football gets lost.
I would prefer the NFF to move progressively towards a more professional governance model.
That does not mean abandoning the NFF Congress or the Executive Committee. The federation must continue to operate within its statutes and the applicable FIFA framework.
But the day-to-day administration of Nigerian football should increasingly resemble the management of a modern professional organization.
We need people who understand football as an industry.
People who can negotiate television and media rights.
People who can build sponsorship portfolios.
People who understand commercialization.
People who can develop academies.
People who can strengthen women’s football.
People who can professionalize domestic competitions.
People who understand sports science and player development.
People who can attract and integrate diaspora talent.
People who can negotiate with FIFA, CAF and global football institutions from a position of competence.
Football is no longer merely 22 men chasing a ball.
It is a global multibillion-dollar industry.
Nigeria should start managing it accordingly.
Must the NFF president necessarily be Nigerian?
Now comes my most uncomfortable question of all.
Why should nationality automatically be regarded as the most important qualification for running Nigerian football?
I am not arguing that a foreigner should automatically become NFF president.
I am asking whether we should be willing to consider the possibility.
Nigeria routinely employs foreign coaches when it believes that particular expertise is required. We have brought in coaches from Europe, Africa and elsewhere because we recognize that football expertise is not confined by nationality.
Why should the principle of merit suddenly disappear when we get to football administration?
Of course, there are legal and statutory considerations.
The NFF’s March 2026 Statutes and Electoral Code govern eligibility and the electoral process, and those rules were formally amended by Congress in March.
So, this is not simply a matter of announcing that a foreigner should take over the NFF.
But the broader policy question remains valid:
If our rules unnecessarily prevent us from accessing world-class expertise, should the rules themselves be examined?
The question should not simply be:
“Is he Nigerian?”
It should be:
“Can he make Nigerian football work?”
What We can learn from the English FA
I would like Nigeria to examine the governance structures of successful football organizations, including The Football Association in England—not necessarily to copy them, but to learn from them.
The governance structures are not identical, and the comparison should not be overstated.
But the English model demonstrates that football leadership can place considerable emphasis on professional governance, independent expertise and accountability.
Debbie Hewitt, for example, was selected through a seven-member selection panel before her appointment as FA Chair was ratified by the FA Council. Her second term was subsequently approved by the FA Board, subject to shareholder ratification.
Nigeria should consider temporarily pulling out of all international competitions, at least for the next 5 years, to give us the breathing space needed for a fundamental reconstruction of our football system.
The lesson for Nigeria is not that we should simply copy England.
The lesson is that football governance can be designed to emphasize competence and professional accountability rather than making political mobilization the dominant qualification.
Imagine an internationally respected football executive whose primary constituency is football rather than a geopolitical bloc.
He or she would not have to satisfy demands that appointments be balanced between North and South.
The person would not have to defend every appointment through ethnic or religious arithmetic.
The person’s constituency would be football.
Performance would be the defense.
Results would be the report card.
That could be liberating.
A radical reset
I propose that Nigeria should consider temporarily pulling out of all international competitions, at least for the next 5 years, to give us the breathing space needed for a fundamental reconstruction of our football system.
A five-year withdrawal from international competition could, in theory, give the country time to rebuild its football administration, domestic competitions, infrastructure, academies, coaching systems and talent-development structures.
I recognize how radical this sounds, but that is exactly what our football needs.
It would also come with enormous sporting, financial and developmental costs. It would have to be examined against FIFA and CAF rules and the interests of players, clubs and other stakeholders.
I am not presenting it as an immediate policy prescription; I am presenting it as something we should at least have a national conversation about.
The real issue is bigger than Soname, Odegbami, Emenalo or Dudu-Orumen. The present crisis should not simply produce another name at the top of the NFF. It should produce a new philosophy.
If Soname is considered, judge him by what he can bring to the federation—not merely by his ownership of Remo Stars.
If Odegbami is considered, judge him by his ability to translate his enormous football knowledge and developmental experience into modern governance.
If Emenalo is considered, judge him by the extraordinary football-management experience he has accumulated at Chelsea, Monaco and the Saudi Pro League.
If Olofinjana is considered, judge him by his experience in technical management, talent development and international football structures.
If Dudu-Orumen is considered, judge him by his administrative, developmental and institutional experience.
And if Pinnick or any other former administrator is considered, judge that person not simply by experience, but by what he or she represents for the future.
And if another candidate emerges—Nigerian or otherwise—let that person be judged by exactly the same criteria.
Competence.
Integrity.
Vision.
International reach.
Administrative capacity.
Technical understanding.
Commercial intelligence.
Developmental credibility.
And, above all:
measurable results.
Nigeria does not need another NFF leadership team that spends four years explaining why the country’s football problems are somebody else’s fault.
It needs builders.
It needs reformers.
It needs football professionals.
It needs people prepared to dismantle a culture of mediocrity and replace it with a culture of excellence.
The NFF’s current transition, following the resignation of Gusau, Sanusi and the Executive Committee, presents a rare opportunity. The federation itself says the next stage is intended to involve comprehensive reforms in consultation with FIFA, CAF, government and stakeholders.
We should therefore resist the temptation to reduce the moment to a contest between personalities.
Nigeria has spent far too long asking:
Who should control Nigerian football?
Perhaps the question we should finally ask is:
Who can make Nigerian football work?
