NFF Holds Executive Meeting, Discusses Super Eagles AFCON Participation

The Executive Committee of the Nigeria Football Federation held a meeting at the NFF Secretariat, Abuja, on Wednesday, 10th December 2025, to deliberate on important issues in the National Football teams ahead of the Super Eagles’ participation in the African Cup of Nations.

In a communique made available to TVC on Wednesday, the NFF executives discussed the future of the Super Eagles, Super Falcons and the National Youth teams.

According to the statement, the meeting was attended by the NFF President Ibrahim Musa Gusau, the NFF Secretary Mohammed Sanusi and other members, including Yusuf Ahmed, Sharif Rabiu Inuwa, Babagana Kalli, Sunday Dele-Ajayi, Aisha Falode, Ganiyu Majekodunmi, Margaret Icheen, Timothy Heman Magaji, and George Aluo.

Those absent but tendered an apology were the Vice President 1, Felix Anyansi-Agwu, the Vice President 2, Gbenga Elegbeleye,  and other members, including Nse Udofot Essien, and H.E. Silas Agara.

NFF resolved as follows:

1) The Executive Committee thoroughly appraised the preparations of the Senior Men National Team, Super Eagles, for their participation in the 35th Africa Cup of Nations finals scheduled for Morocco, 21st December 2025 – 18th January 2026, and mandated the Secretariat to ensure a hitch-free run-in to the championship for the three-time African champions. The Committee also charged the players to completely forget the unfortunate ending to the FIFA World Cup playoffs and use the same North African kingdom as the arena to write a new story about themselves and their abilities.

2) In the same vein, the Executive Committee equally mandated the NFF Secretariat to commit efforts, energy and critical thinking to securing quality friendly matches for the Senior Women National Team, Super Falcons, in the February 2026 FIFA window, as the 10-time African champions gun for an 11th title and a 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup ticket, at the 14th Women Africa Cup of Nations scheduled for Morocco, 17th March – 3rd April 2026.

3) Following an exhaustive evaluation of the poor run of the country’s youth teams in international competitions in recent years, the Executive Committee mandated the Technical and Legal departments to come up with fresh guidelines for the establishment of Football Academies in the country, and advise on new frameworks that will enable true development of Nigeria Football from the grassroots, while enforcing rules, regulations and provisions that are consistent with those of world football-governing body, FIFA.

4) The Executive Committee thumbed up the process that has been put in place for the appointment of an Independent Auditor for the Federation, with the public notice for reputable, competent and highly qualified Chartered Accountants to apply for the position already out. This followed the successful completion of the two tenures of PriceWaterhouseCoopers, and with the gazetted provision that no firm can serve for more than two terms in such capacity.

5) The Executive Committee expressed satisfaction with the pace of work at the ongoing construction of NFF-FIFA Players’ Hostel and New Training Pitches, which constitute Nigeria’s FIFA Forward 3.0 project, and which are located opposite the NFF Secretariat in the Package B of the MKO Abiola National Stadium, Abuja. There is high optimism that the contractor is in good pace to meet the 24-month deadline for handing over the project.

6) Following an assessment of the performance of referees handling matches in all the Leagues (Nigeria Premier Football League; Nigeria National League, Nigeria Women Football League and the Nationwide League One), the Executive Committee expressed deep-seated disappointment with the scorecard of a great number of the officials, and warned that even sterner measures are on the way to curb the incidence of poor officiating, incompetence, collusion with Club officials and bare-faced manipulation of matches to favour certain teams and interests.