Nigeria’s Players’ Union Crisis Grow Stronger As Factional Group Emerges 

The crisis that has rocked Nigeria’s players’ union has taken on a new dimension as a coalition of active football players from the various ranks of the men’s and women’s leagues established a new group, the Concerned Group of Active Nigeria Professional Footballers (CGANPF), to handle their affairs.

In March, the intervention of the Nigeria Football Federation’s Reconciliation Committee halted the grievances between the Professional Footballers Association of Nigeria and the All Nigeria Football Players Union.

In a statement titled “Concerned Group of Active Nigerian Professional Footballers (CGANPF) to set up players body” signed by Sunday Abe, the group’s secretary and captain of Sunshine Stars FC, the group claimed it was founded after realizing how inadequately the current players unions were able to represent them.

Augustine Festus of Rivers United serves as the group’s chairman, with Golbe Elijah of Plateau United serving as vice chairman.

The other members are Joy Jerry of Changchun Dazhong Zhuoyue Women FC in China, Maurren Tovia Okpala of the Nasarawa Amazons, and Rabiu Ali, a seasoned league player and captain of the Kano Pillars.

The Group’s statement read in parts, “As serving football players, our decision to form the union is equally not out of place to mention the ongoing lingering crisis amongst the existing player’s unions dominated by former footballers, more enmeshed in the politics of the game than its professionalism, with its suffocating effect on the general wellbeing and welfare of players and especially that of the active professional footballers.

“The player’s body shall be strategically and deliberately fashioned after the governance and administrative structures of the foremost and most successful players body in the world, the Professional Footballers Association (PFA) in England with the player’s governance board made up of 100 percent current or active football players, while its operational board will be driven by a CEO who shall be an ex-footballer with the requisite knowledge and experience appointed by the board to promote more of players’ professionalism, development and welfare, above every other consideration.”