By Ayomide Otitoju
Former Nigeria international and football administrator Segun Odegbami has warned that changing the leadership of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) will not resolve the deep-rooted challenges facing Nigerian football.
Odegbami made the remarks while reacting to the resignation of NFF President Ibrahim Gusau and the federation’s General Secretary, describing the development as a “small issue” within a much broader crisis that has affected Nigerian football for nearly three decades.
Speaking on Channels Television’s breakfast programme on Friday, the former Green Eagles captain said Nigerian football had become entangled in complex administrative, legal and structural problems that cannot be solved simply by replacing officials.
“In the past almost 30 years or so, we have tied ourselves into a knot,” Odegbami said.
He argued that removing members of the NFF board and replacing them with new administrators could produce the same outcomes if the underlying problems remain unresolved.
“We have removed, one way or the other, the people on the board and we might as well just say, ‘Look, let’s get a new set to go on,’ but we’ll get the same results,” he said.
Odegbami also noted that football attracts strong opinions from a wide range of stakeholders, many of whom believe they have the solution to the country’s problems.
“Football is a sport that everybody is an expert. Everybody has an answer, and everybody is right,” he said.
He maintained that the priority should be to address the underlying issues and create a clearer structure for the development of Nigerian football.
“The answer lies in unknotting this complicated situation that we have, that is not making things clear, so that everybody can have a clear idea of what we need to do to move forward,” he said.
Reacting to claims by the outgoing NFF president that his administration was leaving Nigerian football better than it found it, Odegbami acknowledged that the leadership may have recorded some achievements.
However, he said such accomplishments would have limited meaning for ordinary Nigerians if they did not translate into success on the football pitch.
“I’m sure he believes what he says and if you look at the issues that he’s talking about, yes, he has achieved some level of success,” Odegbami said.
“But as far as the man on the street is concerned, if your team does not win on the field of football, you have lost. That is the only measure for success or failure of a sport like football.”
Odegbami said Nigeria needs a sustainable football system capable of producing consistent success rather than relying on periodic changes in leadership.
He cited Brazil and England as examples of countries that have developed football structures around continuity and sustained player development.
“You have to have a production line, a seamless production line, so that every year, as Brazil has done, they have always gone to the World Cup,” he said.
The former Nigeria captain also raised concerns over what he described as a fundamental legal issue involving the identity and status of the country’s football governing body.
According to Odegbami, the NFF is not recognised under Nigerian law and there is a subsisting court judgment concerning the legality of the federation which, he said, has not been vacated.
“There’s a subsisting court judgment that has not been vacated up till now,” he said, adding that the judgment had been in place for almost a decade.
Odegbami therefore urged stakeholders to view the resignation of the NFF leadership as an opportunity to address the deeper problems affecting Nigerian football rather than simply filling vacant positions.
He said the focus should be on building a system capable of delivering stability, accountability and sustained sporting success.
While acknowledging the outgoing administration’s reported achievements, Odegbami maintained that Nigerians would ultimately judge its performance by results on the pitch.
