By Kachi Okezie, Esq
For decades, Nigeria has treated football as if it were a government department with goalposts. We appoint (or “elect”) boards by fiat, dissolve them by press release, fund them through budget lines and interfere through ministries and political offices. Then we wonder why the Super Eagles struggle for consistency, why the domestic league cannot fully commercialise its rights and why FIFA periodically raises the spectre of suspension. We keep asking what is wrong with Nigerian football when the more fundamental question is: what is wrong with the institution that governs it?
The problem is not talent. Nigeria has never lacked footballers. It is not passion. Few countries can match the emotional investment Nigerians make in the game. And it is not simply a shortage of money. Public funds have flowed into football for decades. The problem is structure and, more bluntly, legality. During the development of the Nigerian Sports Industry Policy in 2021 (a process I participated in as a technical expert), a fundamental weakness became impossible to ignore: the only body recognised by Nigerian law to govern football is the Nigeria Football Association, created as a body corporate under Section 1 of the Nigeria Football Association Act, Decree 101 of 1990. The name “Nigeria Football Federation” is not known to that Act. In Dr. Sam Sam Jaja v. NFF & Ors (FHC/ABJ/CS/179/2010), Justice Donatus Okorowo held that the NFA is the only body recognised by law, that its self-styled Statute purporting to rename it NFF is not a codified law of the Federation, and that it is illegal for it to answer another name. That position was affirmed by the Federal Ministry of Justice in its letter of 2 June 2011 to the National Sports Commission, which stated that the NFA Act has neither been repealed nor amended and that NFF is unknown to the laws of Nigeria. We have therefore built stadiums, paid coaches and negotiated rights in the name of an institution whose legal personality remains dubious, unprotected by a dedicated statute and vulnerable to political interpretation.
Think about the implications. For decades, government has committed substantial taxpayer resources to Nigerian football while the institution at the centre of the system has operated without the legal architecture that investors, commercial partners and serious institutions take for granted. We have built stadiums, paid coaches, transported national teams and negotiated commercial relationships in the name of an institution whose legal and governance foundation remains dubious and vulnerable to political interpretation. Then we wonder why serious capital hesitates to enter the market. Passion can sustain a football culture. It cannot build a modern football economy.
Nigeria therefore needs a two-stage institutional reset. First, the NFF should be reconstituted immediately and incorporated as a Company Limited by Guarantee, with its governance framework firmly aligned with FIFA and CAF requirements. Second, the Nigerian Constitution should be amended to place sports and physical recreation on the Concurrent Legislative List, giving Nigeria the constitutional foundation for a coherent national sports framework.
The constitutional issue matters because the 1999 Constitution divides legislative authority between the Exclusive, Concurrent and residual spheres. Sport does not currently sit neatly within either the Exclusive or Concurrent Legislative Lists. That creates a structural problem for a federal government seeking to regulate and administer sport across the country. The result has been an awkward system in which government funds football and, through funding, acquires influence over its administration. It is governance by wallet rather than governance by law, meaning a clear legal framework. That blurs accountability, encourages interference and can bring Nigeria into tension with one of the fundamental principles of international football: the autonomy of national football associations.
The answer is not to abandon government oversight. It is to establish institutions that are simultaneously autonomous, transparent and legally accountable. Fortunately, Nigeria already has the legal vehicle to begin. The Companies and Allied Matters Act provides for the incorporation of a Company Limited by Guarantee. That structure is well suited to a national football federation because it provides corporate personality without conventional shareholders expecting dividends. It creates an institution capable of entering contracts, owning assets, managing intellectual property, employing people and being held legally accountable. That is what modern football requires.
Football is no longer merely a game. It is a global entertainment industry, a media property, a talent pipeline and a commercial ecosystem. Television rights, sponsorships, merchandising, player development and infrastructure all require enforceable contracts and institutional certainty. A Company Limited by Guarantee would give the NFF the legal identity necessary to operate in that environment. Its members, rather than political office-holders, would determine its governance. Its governing documents could establish transparent elections, financial controls, conflict-of-interest rules and a clear separation between government funding and football administration.
But incorporation alone is not enough. The NFF’s articles and governance framework must be designed with care. FIFA and CAF statutes and applicable regulations should be properly encapsulated in its governing documents, alongside strong provisions on elections, financial accountability, disciplinary procedures, commercial rights and institutional independence.
Autonomy, however, must never mean impunity. An autonomous football federation should still publish audited accounts, comply with Nigerian law, protect athletes, safeguard minors and account transparently for public funds. That is not interference, but good governance. And it is something Nigeria can begin without waiting for constitutional reform.
Still, incorporation would solve only half the problem. The Sports Industry Policy process exposed a wider weakness: Nigeria lacks a sufficiently coherent legal framework for treating sport as an industry. That gap has commercial consequences. Consider the perspective of a broadcaster, sponsor or investor. They want to know who owns the rights, who can enter the contract, what happens when there is a dispute and whether the rules will remain stable. A broadcaster considering a multi-year football rights agreement needs confidence that its counterparty has a stable legal identity. A sponsor needs enforceable contractual protections. An investor considering a football club needs predictable rules on licensing, governance, infrastructure and dispute resolution.
The issue is not whether Nigeria has a market. It clearly does. The issue is whether Nigeria has built institutions capable of making that market investable. Markets do not reward potential indefinitely. At some point, potential must be converted into institutional certainty. That is why the second stage matters.
Nigeria should amend the Constitution to place sports and physical recreation on the Concurrent Legislative List. Such an amendment would provide a stronger constitutional foundation for national standards in areas such as club licensing, stadium safety, sports integrity, athlete welfare and anti-doping. It would also allow public funding to become more transparent and performance-based. Government should be able to support sport without using funding as a mechanism for political control. Public money should come with published conditions, measurable governance requirements and transparent reporting. Money with conditions, not money with commands.
The same principle applies to football. The NFF should govern football. Government should establish the legal environment, enforce national law, support infrastructure and protect the public interest. The private sector should provide capital and commercial expertise. Clubs should operate professionally, while athletes should have enforceable rights.
Some will argue that constitutional reform is too difficult or that football should fix its internal problems first. But Nigeria does not have to choose between immediate reform and long-term reform. We can incorporate the NFF now while kicking off the constitutional process. Waiting for constitutional perfection before fixing the federation would leave another generation trapped in the same cycle. Incorporating the NFF without addressing the wider constitutional position of sport would solve an important problem while leaving the industry exposed.
So let us do both, in sequence and without delay. First, establish the NFF as a genuine Company Limited by Guarantee, with robust governance provisions aligned with FIFA and CAF requirements and strong safeguards for financial transparency and accountability. Then begin the constitutional process required to place sports on the Concurrent Legislative List. Finally, build a modern national sports governance framework around that foundation.
Government’s role must evolve. It should stop trying to be the operator of Nigerian sport and become its regulator, enabler and strategic investor. Build and maintain infrastructure. Establish standards. Enforce integrity. Support excellence. Demand transparency. The government should build the roads and enforce the traffic laws. It should not insist on driving every vehicle.
The cost of refusing to make this transition is no longer abstract. It is reflected in underdeveloped competitions, weak commercial revenues, uncertain investment environments and opportunities that migrate to jurisdictions where institutions provide greater certainty. Nigeria already has the players. We have the supporters and fan-base, the population, the history and the commercial potential. What we have not built is the institutional machinery capable of converting those advantages into sustainable value. That is the task before us.
To the National Assembly, the Ministry responsible for sport, state governments, the NFF Congress, clubs, athletes, broadcasters, sponsors and investors, the message should be simple: do not wait for another crisis. Register the company now. Amend the Constitution next. Then build the legal framework around it.
Nigerian football does not need another saviour. It needs an institution: legally recognisable, commercially credible, operationally autonomous and transparently accountable. We have spent enough time trying to fix Nigerian football one crisis at a time. It is time to fix the institution. Let Nigerian football govern itself.
-Okezie is a sports lawyer, chartered mediator and consultant.
