FIFA Endorses Nigeria’s Football Reform Plan, Shehu Dikko Says

National Sports Commission (NSC) Chairman Shehu Dikko says FIFA has endorsed Nigeria’s plan to comprehensively reform the country’s football administration following the mass resignation of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) board and General Secretary.

Shehu Dikko disclosed this in an interview with Arise News on Friday, September 25, after meeting FIFA and Confederation of African Football (CAF) officials in Switzerland.

Dikko said the resignations created a leadership vacuum because the NFF statutes did not provide a clear process for a situation in which the federation had no legally constituted leadership.

“After the resignation of the entire board of the NFF and the General Secretary, naturally we have a lacuna, because there was no provision in the rulebook for situations like that, where we have nobody now to run the NFF legally within the rulebook,” he said.

The NSC chairman said the government presented its reform proposals to FIFA, with the plans covering the wider structure and administration of Nigerian football.

“We told them, this is our position as a government. The government wants to undertake a comprehensive reform of the football structures in Nigeria, which is something that even FIFA knew has been on the cards for decades in Nigeria,” he noted.

“So we discussed comprehensive proposals from the government, which are the issues that we think should be reformed, based on the concerns of the stakeholders, and we all agreed on that.”

He added that FIFA endorsed the resignations and reform plans but insisted that the process must comply with the relevant statutes and regulations.

FIFA May Set Up Normalisation Committee – Shehu Dikko

Dikko said FIFA could establish an independent normalisation committee to oversee the reform process, with the committee expected to operate for between six months and one year depending on the scope of the reforms.

“That committee is not appointed by the Nigerian government alone. No, the committee is normally called a normalisation committee. It’s a FIFA committee,” he explained.

“It’s FIFA that looks at what is on the ground, and they appoint the committee with clear timelines, clear terms of reference and everything, and what they should deliver.”

He said members of the committee would have to remain independent and would not be allowed to contest future NFF elections for a specified period.

“The committee will be independent. That’s why it doesn’t have to be anybody who is involved within the system, or who has an interest in contesting the election.

“In fact, once you participate in that committee, you are barred from contesting the election or being part of the NFF for a certain amount of time, so that you can be neutral and just do the work that is supposed to be done.”

Dikko said the committee would report directly to FIFA while consulting with the Nigerian government, with FIFA responsible for funding its work.

“The committee is reporting directly to FIFA, in consultation with the government. And the committee is even being paid by FIFA when they are doing the work. That is how it is done,” Dikko said.

Stakeholder Consultations Underway

The NSC chairman said consultations with NFF Congress members had already begun ahead of a planned FIFA visit to Nigeria.

“The first thing is, let’s have some conversation with some of the stakeholders to discuss the blueprint of the comprehensive reform, which we started even yesterday [Thursday, September 24].

“I held a meeting with some of the Congress members. We have shared the document with them for them to provide input. And then FIFA will eventually come here to have an on-site visit, where we can eventually invite other stakeholders to come and have a conversation, so that we have perfected the document.”

Dikko said reforming the NFF electoral system would also form part of the process, with the government considering a system that would require presidential candidates to declare their teams before elections.

“Part of the reforms is also to rebuild the electoral code, to rebuild the electoral system and make it very transparent,” he noted.

He explained that candidates could be required to present their proposed vice-president, secretary and other officials as part of their election bid.

“So it’s a whole team that will contest the election. The other candidate will declare his own candidate. By the time people are voting, they know this is the person they are voting for, these are the people they are voting for, and they are all aligned in the same vision,” he noted.

Dikko said the reforms would be divided into immediate, medium-term and long-term measures because some changes could extend beyond the tenure of a normalisation committee.

“The reform we want to do is very, very comprehensive. It might not be able to be done within the framework of the NFF.

“So the NFF will divide the reforms into the immediate, medium and long term. We can see what we can be able to achieve during the normalisation committee’s engagement, and then what can be passed to the next NFF committee.”