The NFF Congress isn't waiting for FIFA to come in and fix Nigerian football. It's drawing a clear line: reform, yes — but on its own constitutional terms.
In a proposal dated September 2026, the Congress laid out a structured alternative to the Normalisation Committee model that's been floated in the wake of the NFF Executive Committee and General Secretary's resignations. The vacancy at the top is real. The Congress just doesn't think outsiders — or emergency committees — should be the answer.
What the Congress is actually proposing
The centrepiece of the proposal is a Caretaker Committee with a mandate of three to six months. Its job: stabilise the Federation and get the statutory process toward elections moving. The proposed members include Christopher Green, Esq., Hon. Abubakar Ladan, Mr. L. A. Haruna SAN, Engineer Waheed Akanni, Rukayat Segilola Alaya, Coach Oko Victor Ndubuisi, and Professor Tor Iorapuu.
After that, the Congress wants a clear sequence: convene an Extraordinary Congress, review and amend the NFF Statutes and Electoral Code, subject reforms to FIFA and CAF technical review, verify electoral constituencies, then hold credible elections. The whole thing — from the first Extraordinary Congress to new leadership being installed — is targeted to land around month five or six.
A Normalisation Committee only enters the picture, according to the Congress, if FIFA formally concludes that the existing statutory framework cannot function. That's a high bar, deliberately set.
The bigger reforms aren't being buried
This isn't just about who sits in the chair. The Congress is pushing a broad structural overhaul: professionalised leagues, stronger club licensing, a three-term tenure limit for the NFF President and Executive Committee, broader Congress representation expanding from 53 to a proposed 146 members holding 73 voting mandates, and improved player welfare.
On the financial side, the proposed ₦2 million monthly minimum salary for players, ₦2.5 billion in prize-money funding, and a ₦15 billion media-production allocation are all flagged for feasibility assessments before any commitments are locked in. That's a more measured position than the original proposals suggest — and probably the right one.
- Governance and institutional reform
- League development and commercialisation
- Sports funding and infrastructure
- Elections and leadership handover
- Player welfare and women's football investment
- Youth, grassroots and beach soccer development
The Congress is also clear that government money is welcome, but government control is not. Financial or legislative support, it argues, should not translate into influence over internal NFF administration — a distinction that's been blurred before in Nigerian football.
The full reform roadmap runs six to 24 months, with structural implementation, commercial development and an independent evaluation all sitting in phases that follow the new leadership taking office. The Congress's central argument is straightforward: reform should strengthen Nigerian football's autonomy, not hollow it out in the name of fixing it.
