Re-restructuring Nigerian football administration

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The State Football Associations are one member in the Nigeria Football Association structure, not 37 different members.

It is surely a bitter pill for these major actors currently dominating football administration in Nigeria to swallow, but they must do so in order for Nigerian football to lift off above the present plateau and make giant strides in development.

I plead with them to go through this carefully and without bias.

A little excursion into history will lubricate the issue once help to find the knot that must be untied for Nigerian football to resume its domestic development. pad[ The domestic game of football in Nigeria is the primary reason for which the Nigeria Football Association was formed and registered by interested persons and stakeholders.

The Association was formed and registered as a corporate body to carry out the business of football in the country. It also affiliated with CAF, WAFU, and FIFA to enable its club and national team representatives to participate in their competitions and programmes. Its primary responsibility, however, is domestic, to regulate and organize football amongst its registered members in Nigeria.

At inception, the members were clubs, referees, coaches, schools, the military/para-military, and so on, each a different organized body represented by one person on the board.

These representatives constituted the NFA board and from amongst themselves they elected the Chairman.

The NFA headquarters was in Lagos.

As the political/geographical regions increased, with formation of their own clubs, the regions became the sub-groups of each of the original members. They did not translate into an increase in the membership of the NFA but an increase in