Gusau, Sanusi, Others Step Down from NFF Board

*Nigeria dumps NIKE, seals $4.5m per year partnership with Adidas

Olawale Ajimotokan in Abuja

The embattled Ibrahim Gusau yesterday confirmed his resignation as the President of Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), three years and 11 months after he was elected to lead the country’s football.

General Secretary of the federation, Dr Mohammed Sanusi, along with the other 11 members have also been confirmed to have stepped down from the NFF board after weeks of national disenchantment over strings of embarrassing outings of the national teams.

Gusau’s resignation at a press conference inside the NFF Secretariat in Abuja yesterday has now put paid to his bid for a second-term as NFF president.

The now immediate past president of the NFF who doubles as President of WAFU B, was elected at the Annual General Assembly of Nigeria Football held in Benin City, Edo State on 30th September 2022.

Gusau, who spoke for nearly 22 minutes, and in company with the NFF Deputy General Secretary, Emmanuel Ikpeme, who stood in place of the Dr Sanusi, the FA Chairman of Gombe State, Philibus Yakubu Sarma, President, Nigeria Beach Soccer Federation, Mahmoud Hadejia , the FA Chairman of Benue State, Paul Ede and FA Chairman of Kaduna State, Faisal Abdullahi, said he decided to resign from his position in the interest of the country.

“My resignation is intended to give way to a comprehensive and orderly reform process aimed at addressing the longstanding institutional, governance and developmental challenges confronting Nigerian football.”

Gusau said he was leaving office with a sense of satisfaction over what his administration had been able to achieve during his tenure.

He highlighted the renewed and vigorous focus on coaching education, noting that coaching courses have been organised in virtually all the license categories, with the long-awaited CAF A-License course set to commence on 13th September.

Gusau also pointed to the improved stability in the domestic league calendar, progress in the refereeing sector and infrastructure in the form of a 68-room Players’ Hostel and new training pitches at the MKO Abiola National Stadium, not forgetting silver- -and-bronze medal earnings of the Super Eagles from the past two Africa Cup of Nations tournaments, and the Super Falcons’ WAFCON triumph in Morocco in 2025.

The Zamfara State-born administrator had to bow out following new lows in the results of some of the National Teams, the most recent and poignant being the failure of the senior women national team, Super Falcons, to reach the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup finals.

This, a first absence for Nigeria since the competition was launched in China 35 years ago, was preceded by the failure of the Super Eagles to reach the 48-team FIFA World Cup finals held in the United States, Canada and Mexico in the summer, and on the margin of the U20 boys’ failure to qualify for next year’s Africa U20 Cup of Nations.

He ascribed the misfortune of Nigeria’s football to underfunding, particularly the disparity in the exchange rate between the Naira and the US Dollar as well as the lopsided sponsorship deal with NIKE, which he said hindered the funding of the national teams.

Gusau said when his board was elected in 2022, one Dollar was trading at around N400, while suddenly in early January, 2024, the exchange rate ballooned to about N1,400 to one Dollar. This development he said made it difficult for some of the funding challenges that Nigeria football faced under his watch.

On the NIKE contract, which he said his board inherited and was signed to run for 11 consecutive years, Gusau revealed that the value of the deal which had been running since 2015, to be a measly $500,000 in cash per year and $1million in kits.

“So, if somebody was giving you $500,000 in 2015 and is still giving you $500,000 in 2026 what do you say about it? It’s like you have nothing. And then, if somebody was giving you kits of $1 million in 2015, now you are still relying on him to give you kits of $1 million. As I’m talking to you, even the girls (National U-20 Female team) that traveled to Poland and the girls that are here, we will have to buy jerseys for them because $1 million cannot even service Super Eagles qualifiers for World Cup and Nations Cup as well as the Super Falcons”.

However, he disclosed that after a back and forth, the NFF board and NIKE finally agreed last year to severe the relationship which ultimately opened the door for Nigeria to negotiate a new contract with Adidas.