State Football Association chairmen in Nigeria have pushed back against calls for an external takeover of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), insisting that the existing NFF Congress has the full capacity to resolve the current leadership vacuum internally.
Speaking on Monday evening in Abuja, Gombe State FA Chairman and leader of the state FA delegation, Yakubu Sarma, addressed reporters after a closed-door meeting with visiting officials from FIFA and the Confederation of African Football (CAF).
The high-stakes consultations were triggered by the leadership vacancy following the resignation of former NFF President Ibrahim Gusau and other board members.
However, Sarma maintained that domestic football operations remain active and the situation does not constitute a full-scale crisis.
He noted that leagues are ongoing, clubs are playing continental matches, international fixtures are active, and the NFF secretariat continues to function.
‘First and foremost, we appreciate CAF and FIFA for finding it worthwhile to come and assess what is actually happening in Nigerian football,’ said Sarma.
The key issue we presented before FIFA as Congress members representing the FAs is that Nigerian football is not in crisis. Nigerian football is not in any way in crisis because our leagues are on, our clubs are playing their continental matches, our girls are playing international football and the NFF Secretariat is functioning.
‘So, there is no crisis in Nigerian football. That is number one.’
While acknowledging the leadership vacancy, the FA chairmen asserted that NFF, FIFA, and CAF statutes already provide clear internal mechanisms to address the gap without resorting to external intervention.
Sarma clarified that the Congress is not opposed to the reform agenda championed by the National Sports Commission (NSC), pointing out that the NFF had already incorporated roughly 67% of the 54 proposed NSC reform frameworks through recent statute amendments.
Instead, Sarma identified the core disagreement as a debate over the reform vehicle itself, rejecting a FIFA-appointed Normalisation Committee in favor of a Congress-appointed caretaker or interim committee.
‘We don’t need to go outside the established framework to start bringing about a solution,’ he insisted.
The meetings in Abuja are part of FIFA and CAF’s ongoing engagements with various Nigerian football stakeholders-including state FA representatives, players, and the electoral committee-to evaluate governance structures and determine the definitive path forward for the federation.