Nigerian Football
NFF BOARD, FORMER EXCO MEMBER, DELE-AJAYI IN ALLEGATIONS AND COUNTER ALLEGATIONS
Following remarks by a former board member of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Otunba Sunday Dele-Ajayi that the current board’s chieftains lack integrity, the NFF has risen to counter the allegations.
In a press release on Friday, the NFF berated the Chairman of the Ondo State Football Association “for unguarded, misleading and deliberate falsehood, and out rightly libellous statements made in an interview published by a website on Thursday.”
Otunba Ajayi, had on Sunday Night Sports on Orange 94.5 FM Akure remarked that the current board of the NFF lacks transparency in its operation and that he would be presenting himself “as a crown witness in the EFCC investigation of the Amaju Pinnick administration of the football governing body.”
He was a member of the NFF board from September 30, 2014 till June 2015 when at first he shifted allegiance to the then Chris Giwa camp as a vice president and later lost at the September 20, 2018 election in the bid to become the first vice president of the current board.
The comments he made on Sunday were carried by a website four days later, on Thursday.
The NFF dismissed the allegations by the former member and remarked that Otunba Ajayi was fond of making allegations he could not substantiate.
Among other issues, the former NFF member said money from FIFA and CAF were not declared and that three states’ governments of Lagos, Rivers and Delta paid N100 million each to the NFF for the purpose of Russia 2018 World Cup, but such monies including another N200 million by the Senate President, were not declared to the board members.
The NFF has dismissed such claims and challenged Otunba Ajayi to provide his evidences. His allegations on the radio programme also indicted NFF auditors, PriceWaterCoop which he accused of ‘cooking books’ for the NFF.
The remarks: “We take very strong exceptions to the puerile allegation that one of the most reputable auditing firms in the world, PwC ‘cook books’ for the NFF. This issue would however, be properly addressed from other quarters, including but not limited to legal angles.”
The full text of the NFF reaction reads:
The attention of the NFF has been drawn to some statements made by Otunba Dele-Ajayi, a former Member of the NFF Executive Committee and Chairman of the Ondo State FA, in an interview originally granted a radio station in Ondo State but published by a website on Thursday, 24th January 2019.
In as much as the NFF is not interested in joining issues with such a man of shifty personality, granted his activities since the summer of last year, it is important we address some of his comments as they are already in the public space and can be accessed by persons in football and other sectors.
He grandly claimed there was mismanagement at the NFF without being able to substantiate any with documents. This is the same pattern that we have seen over the months with the mob action and media trial all over the place, especially from persons and groups who lost out in the NFF elections. We insist there is no mismanagement under the administration of Amaju Pinnick but absolute transparency in the way and manner it puts out all its activities in the open for the good of the game.
Dele-Ajayi claimed there were no approvals for three years while he was a Member of the NFF Executive Committee under the Pinnick presidency. Yet, he remained on the Board! For purpose of clarity, every financial expenditure was based on the NFF Budget as approved by the Congress and was brought to the Board for approval and it is on record that during the first term of Pinnick, there were 20 meetings of the Executive Committee. We doubt if any other Board in living memory had as many meetings. The NFF has kept accurate records of all finances as audited by PwC and approved by the Congress. Indeed, the NFF has for the first time, published its annual Audited Accounts in major national dailies to deepen its transparency mantra.
We take very strong exceptions to the puerile allegation that one of the most reputable auditing firms in the world, PwC ‘cook books’ for the NFF. This issue would however, be properly addressed from other quarters, including but not limited to legal angles.
With regards to money released to the NFF (not the person of Amaju Pinnick) by the Ministry of Youth and Sports from the funds approved and released by the Federal Government for the FIFA World Cup, we have done our retirement as required and these funds will be duly audited and reported in the NFF 2018 Accounts to be published soon. Perhaps, Otunba Dele-Ajayi expects the NFF to make the retirement of the funds to him?
The biggest shock was his claim that FIFA released the sum of three million dollars to the NFF and it did not get to the NFF account! That is a new one on us. We never knew that world football –ruling body, FIFA can pay even once cent (not to talk of three million dollars) meant for a Member Association to an individual’s private account. For a man who has spent so many years in Association Football, spent eight years as the Chairman of a State FA and four years as a Member of the NFF Board to make such a claim is beyond comprehension. What tenets of Association Football did he imbibe in all those years? Perhaps he was obsessed with other things?
There was another claim that CAF gave the NFF the sum of $1million before the World Cup. This is a man who claim to have documents? The whole world is aware that FIFA, on request by CAF, gave each of the five African representative MAs to the World Cup the sum of $2million to settle the entitlements of players in order to avoid rumpus/players’ protests at the finals, as had been the case at previous championships. This money was the bulk of the $2.8million the NFF utilized in settling our players and officials. CAF gave each of its five representative Member Associations the sum of $500,000, specifically for technical equipment and personnel to enhance performance at the World Cup. Any other funds NFF received from CAF are funds statutorily meant for the NFF.
Indeed, it is on record that all funds received from CAF and FIFA goes straight to NFF Accounts at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and neither Mr. Pinnick nor any Member of the Executive Committee for that matter is a signatory to those Accounts (or any NFF Accounts for that matter), but the NFF Finance Directorate headed by the NFF Finance Director who is an appointee of the FGN from the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation. Likewise, all releases by the FGN to the NFF goes to the NFF Account at the CBN. So, it is shocking and misleading in the first place for Otunba to allege that Mr. Pinnick collected monies from FGN and FIFA as if the monies were paid to Mr. Pinnick’s personal bank accounts. Perhaps, this is how Otunba runs his Ondo State FA?
In fact, in its transparency drive, the NFF has ensured over the years that every money received from FIFA, CAF or sponsors are detailed in a memo and sent to the Government through the Minister of Sports to inform Government of the money and what it would be utilized for. The records are there in this regard.
Otunba Dele-Ajayi made further wild allegations of some States giving the NFF N100million each for the World Cup! We express appreciation to the Executive Chairman of the Lagos State Sports Council, Dr. Kweku Tandoh, who swiftly denied such claim. He also claimed in his ranting that the Senate President gave the NFF N200million for the competition, when it was well –reported that the Senate President promised the players the sum of $50,000 for every goal, which was promptly redeemed right there in Russia for the two goals the team scored against Iceland. The money was handed over to the team captain, Mikel Obi, in the full glare of the entire team before it departed its hotel in Saint Petersburg for the match against Argentina.
We want to make it clear that no State donated any N100million to the NFF for the 2018 FIFA World Cup. Rather, the NFF received donations from few States, including Rivers State, which made payment in two tranches of N50million and N10million to the NFF Remita Account. Abia State, which Otunba did not even mention, donated N15million. The funds were paid to the NFF either through its funds manager or direct to the NFF’s CBN Account. The NFF submitted a detailed document to the Minister of Sports on all donations received and the Accounts through which they were received. A couple of companies, Sahara Energy and Prime Atlantic (whose CEOs are personal friends of Mr. Pinnick) donated $50,000 each and paid to the NFF through the same Accounts.
We also received the sum of N100million from the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) and the sum of N50million from the Central Bank of Nigeria. Indeed, the NFF Budget for the 2018 FIFA World Cup (for both preparation and tournament proper) approved by the Government included the sum of $1.5million and N300million to be the contribution of the NFF, before support from the Government. Thus, NFF utilized some of these donations as part of its contribution to the Budget.
Otunba Dele-Ajayi also made a wild allegation against Rivers State which hosted and co-sponsored the international friendy match between the Super Eagles and the Senior Team of DR Congo in Port Harcourt before the World Cup. Rivers State made cash available which was for the cost of charter flight that brought the Congolese delegation to and from Nigeria, as well as participation fees and allowances for both teams.
We know integrity, consistency and principled stand on any issue are alien words to Otunba Dele-Ajayi. He claimed to have kept away from the Board six months after it was sworn in, when in fact, he was part and parcel of all decisions and travelled to the FIFA World Cup in Russia with the Board, stayed in the same hotel with other Board Members, dined with them and received his entitlements like every other Board Member.
After the World Cup, he gravitated to the opposition camp to work to bring down the NFF Board. When that venture caved in, he retraced his steps back to the Board to fill form to contest election as First Vice President, where he secured only two (2) of 44 votes. Thereafter, he disappeared for so many months, only to come out with these misleading and false statements.
We are not entirely surprised as Otunba Dele-Ajayi is one of those who have been going from one agency to the other recycling baseless petitions against the NFF. From EFCC to ICPC to SPIP, et cetera, they have been brandishing outlandish figures as funds mismanaged or stolen from the NFF. We wish to put on record that annual subvention from the FGN to the NFF has been on the average of N1.2billion (with perhaps 80% cash backing) in the last four years while sponsors’ income averaged between N900million and N1.9billion, with Development Funds of about N500million. These give the NFF a total of about N3.6billion average guaranteed revenue annually. It it thus shocking to see persons like Otunba Dele-Ajayi and his cohorts bandying figures of N3.4billion, N5.5billion, N6.7billion, N10.5billion, N16billion and $16million as funds misappropriated from the NFF. We wonder where these monies are coming from and from which sources. However, we understand these desperate and shameless persons do this to arouse the interest of the public and the security agencies to their claims.
Indeed, the NFF’s recently published Audited Account showed total gross revenue of N4.6billion, from all sources including special intervention funds.
Certainly, we will take this issue beyond merely responding to his statements. We have had enough of libellous and senseless comments and allegations by persons who are supposed to be stakeholders and elders but are rather consumed by envy, bitterness and animosity. We have briefed our lawyers and we will also use football processes to seek redress.
We use this opportunity to alert the general public to disregard these statements of Otunba Dele-Ajayi and his cohorts who, having lost out in the political processes of the NFF, have now resorted to mob action methods of spreading falsehood against the NFF and its leaders, with the objective of destroying the NFF brand since they feel they are no longer part of it.
We equally enjoin members of the media to weigh very critically information or statements they receive from the likes of Otunba Dele-Ajayi and his ilk at this period, in order to avoid unnecessary litigation that may impact negatively on their personal and corporate reputation.
Nigerian Football
NPFL at 36: Why Nigeria’s League Top Scorers Rarely Become Super Eagles Legends

By Kunle Solaja
As the Nigeria Premier Football League celebrates 36 years of professional football, one troubling pattern continues to define the competition — the inability of most league top scorers to evolve into enduring stars of the Nigeria national football team.
In more than three decades of professional football, only one league top scorer can truly claim to have successfully crossed the bridge from domestic hero to established Super Eagles icon: Ahmed Musa.
The former Kano Pillars F.C. striker remains the outstanding exception in a league littered with what many observers now describe as “one-season wonders.”
Musa announced himself to Nigerian football in the 2009/2010 season when he scored 18 goals to emerge as the league’s leading scorer, breaking the long-standing 17-goal record set by Ishaya Jatau in the inaugural professional season of 1990.
Unlike many before and after him, Musa successfully translated domestic brilliance into international relevance.
He went on to become Nigeria’s fastest-ever scorer and remains the only Nigerian player to score two braces at the FIFA World Cup — against Argentina national football team in 2014 and Iceland national football team in 2018.
Yet Musa’s success only magnifies the larger mystery surrounding the Nigerian league: why have so many prolific scorers failed to reproduce their domestic form at the national team level?
The list is remarkably long.
The first professional league top scorer, Ishaya Jatau of Heartland F.C. — then known as Iwuanyanwu Nationale — scored 17 goals in 1990 but managed only one goal in a handful of appearances for Nigeria.
Despite his reputation as a deadly finisher in the league, his wastefulness in national team colours reportedly left then-coach Clemens Westerhof unconvinced.
From there, a pattern emerged.
Players such as Olumide Harris, Ben Agadah, Paul Kpoughoul and Emmanuel Agbo dominated league scoring charts but disappeared almost as quickly as they arrived.
Others, including Peter Ijeh, Victor Ezeji and Joseph Akpala, briefly tasted national team football but never secured lasting places in the Super Eagles.
The problem has persisted across generations.
Even players who set impressive scoring records in recent years struggled to establish themselves internationally.
Mfon Udoh set a league record of 23 goals in the 2013/14 season for Enyimba F.C., while Junior Lokosa, Anthony Okpotu and Godwin Obaje all enjoyed prolific domestic campaigns.
Yet none became long-term Super Eagles regulars.
The contrast with Nigeria’s greatest striker, Rashidi Yekini, remains striking.
Yekini’s 37 international goals still stand untouched decades after his retirement.
Observers believe several factors may explain the recurring failure of league top scorers to mature into elite internationals.
One issue is consistency.
Many players explode for a single season before suffering dramatic drops in form. Some quickly leave Nigeria in search of opportunities abroad, often joining lower-profile leagues where their development stagnates.
Others struggle with the tactical and physical demands of international football, where defenders are stronger, spaces are tighter, and opportunities are fewer.
There is also the quality question.
Critics argue that the Nigerian league’s inconsistent standards sometimes inflate the reputations of local strikers, making domestic scoring records misleading indicators of international readiness.
In several seasons, top scorers emerged with relatively modest tallies. Arthur Moses won the golden boot in 1992 with just 10 goals, while Peter Anyiolobi topped the 1996 chart with only nine.
The instability of clubs and coaching systems has equally affected player development.
Unlike elite leagues where strikers are nurtured within structured tactical environments, many NPFL forwards operate in unstable teams with limited sports science support, inconsistent officiating and poor playing conditions.
Still, the league continues to produce raw attacking talent.
What remains missing is a system capable of transforming prolific domestic scorers into complete international forwards capable of sustaining excellence over many years.
As the NPFL clocks 36, the enduring question remains unanswered: why does Nigeria consistently produce league top scorers, yet so rarely produce strikers capable of dominating African and world football the way Yekini once did?
Top scorers who failed to make an impact in the Super Eagles
- 1990-Ishaya Jatau (Iwuanyanwu Nationale), 17 goals
- 1991-Richard Ojomo (Bendel United), 12 goals
- 1992-Arthur Moses (Super Stores), 10 goals
- 1993-Tony Nwigwe (Iwuanyanwu Nationale), 13 goals
- 1994-Olumide Harris (Shooting Stars), 14 goals
- 1995-Ben Agadah (Gombe United), 12 goals
- 1996-Peter Anyiolobi (Enyimba), 9 goals
- 1997-Paul Kpoughoul (Jasper United/BCC Lions), 16 goals
- 1998-Hassan Minda (Gombe United), 14goals
- 1999-Emmanuel Agbo (Iwuanyanwu Nationale), 14 goals
- 2000-Peter Ijeh (Julius Berger), 14 goals
- 2001-Uche Okereke (Enugu Rangers), 13 goals
- 2002-Joetex Frimpong (El-Kanemi), Victor Ezeji (Dolphins), 16 goals
- 2003-Chibuzor Ozurumba (Iwuanyanwu), Endurance Idahor (Julius Berger), 12 goals each
- 2004-Kabiru Alausa (Berger), 13 goals
- 2005-Timothy Anjembe (Lobi Stars), Joseph Akpala (Insurance), Charles Omokaro (Sharks), 12 goals each 2006 -Ibenebu Ikechukwu (El Kanemi), 10 goals
- 2007 – Ameh Aruwa (Kaduna United), 10 goals
- 2007/2008 – Abubakar Babale (Wikki Tourist/Sunshine Stars), 14 goals
- 2008/2009 – Akarandut Orok (Akwa United), 17 goals
- 2009/2010 – Ahmed Musa (Kano Pillars), 18 goals. (The only one established in the Super Eagles)
- 2010/2011 – Jude Aneke (Kaduna United) 20 Goals
- 2011/2012 – Sibi Gwar (Niger Tornadoes) 17 goals
- 2012/213 – Victor Namo (Nasarawa United) 18 goals
- 2013/2014 – Mfon Udoh (Enyimba) 23 goals
- 2014/2015 – Gbolahan Salami (Warri Wolves) 17 goals
- 2015/2016 – Godwin Obaje (Wikki Tourists) 18 goals
- 2016/2017 – Anthony Okpotu (Lobi Stars) 19 goals
- 2017/2018 – Junior Lokosa (Kano Pillars) 19
- 2018/2019 – Mfon Udoh (Akwa Utd) & Ibrahim Sunusi (Nasarawa Utd) 10 goals
- 2019/2020 – Cancelled owing to Covid-19
- 2020/21: Silas Nwankwo (Nasawara United) & Charles Atshimene (Akwa United) – 19 goals
- 2021/22: Chijioke Akuneto (Rivers United) – 19 goals
- 2022/23: Chukwuemeka Obioma (Enyimba) – 16 goals
- 2023/24: Chijioke Mbaoma (Enyimba) – 17 goals
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Nigerian Football
NPFL at 36: Between Proud History and Lingering Questions Over Quality

By Kunle Solaja
As the Nigeria Premier League marks 36 years since the advent of professional football in Nigeria, a familiar debate has resurfaced: just how good is the Nigerian league?
The answer depends largely on the yardsticks applied. In football, the quality of a domestic league is often measured not merely by local excitement, but by the strength of its clubs in continental competitions, the calibre of players it supplies to the national team, its commercial appeal and the emotional grip it holds on supporters.
Additionally, at least in Africa, the performance of the national teams at the African Nations Championship (CHAN) is solely for citizens who are nationals of the domestic leagues.
Possibly, too, the number of foreign players attracted to the league could also be a yardstick.
By those standards, the Nigerian league presents a paradox — rich in history and passion, yet struggling to keep pace with Africa’s elite competitions.
When professional football kicked off in Nigeria on May 12, 1990, expectations were enormous. The transition from amateurism was expected to modernise the game, improve club structures and strengthen Nigeria’s competitiveness internationally.
Instead, while professionalism brought organisation and structure, the domestic league gradually lost one of its greatest strengths: mass appeal.
Before professionalism, local football rivalries routinely packed stadiums across the country. Matches involving Shooting Stars SC, Enugu Rangers, Stationery Stores F.C. and Bendel Insurance F.C. attracted overflowing crowds and intense regional loyalty.
Today, many NPFL venues struggle to attract significant attendance, while European football — especially the Premier League — dominates television screens, conversations and sponsorship attention across Nigeria.
The contrast is stark.
While European clubs attract billion-dollar investments and global commercial partnerships, most Nigerian clubs remain heavily dependent on government funding, with limited private-sector participation.
The imbalance is also reflected in player development and national team representation.
Since the introduction of professional football, the overwhelming majority of players who shaped the fortunes of the Nigeria national football team have emerged from European leagues rather than the domestic competition.
Even competitions specifically designed for home-based players exposed the league’s limitations. Nigeria failed to qualify for the first two editions of the African Nations Championship (CHAN), losing to the Ghana national football team in 2009 and to the Niger national football team in the qualifiers for the 2011 edition.
On the continental club scene, Nigeria’s achievements remain modest when compared to Africa’s leading leagues.
Enyimba F.C. remain the only Nigerian club to win the CAF Champions League in the professional era, triumphing back-to-back in 2003 and 2004.
Since then, Nigerian clubs have struggled to make deep runs in continental competitions, while the CAF Confederation Cup has remained elusive.
The statistics reveal the gulf.
In the first 20 years of Nigeria’s professional league, Nigerian clubs won the CAF Champions League only twice. During the same period, Egyptian clubs claimed the title nine times.
Overall, clubs from Egypt have won Africa’s premier club competition 18 times in 59 editions, while Nigerian clubs have managed just two triumphs.
The dominance of North African leagues extends beyond the Champions League.
Egyptian clubs won the now-defunct African Cup Winners’ Cup eight times, compared to Nigeria’s three victories. Tunisian clubs dominated the CAF Cup with four titles in 12 editions, while Nigerian clubs managed two.
These performances are reflected in rankings by the International Federation of Football History & Statistics (IFFHS), which has consistently rated the Egyptian league as Africa’s strongest, usually followed by Tunisia, with Nigeria often trailing behind.
Perhaps the clearest evidence of the disparity lies in national team composition.
At the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations, Egypt’s 23-man squad included 19 home-based players, highlighting the strength and competitiveness of its domestic league.
Nigeria, by contrast, fielded an entirely foreign-based squad.
Indeed, only two players from the Nigerian league featured among the 368 footballers registered for the 2010 AFCON: goalkeeper Chitou Rachad of Wikki Tourists F.C. and Akinsola Boussari of Rangers, who was named in Togo’s squad before the country’s withdrawal.
The financial implications are equally significant.
Under FIFA’s Club Benefits Programme, clubs receive compensation for releasing players to the World Cup. Yet Nigerian clubs have barely profited because the country’s World Cup players are almost entirely based abroad.
Following the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, African clubs collectively earned about $4.57 million through the programme, with Moroccan giants Wydad AC receiving more than $1.4 million alone.
No Nigerian club came close.
Still, despite the criticisms, the Nigerian league retains enormous potential.
The country remains one of Africa’s richest reservoirs of football talent, while the emotional attachment many Nigerians still have to domestic football suggests the decline may not be irreversible.
What the NPFL lacks is not history or talent, but structure, commercial vision, stable administration and sustained investment.
Thirty-six years after professionalism arrived, the Nigerian league remains suspended between glorious memories and unrealised possibilities, a competition still searching for the consistency and quality required to reclaim its place among Africa’s elite.
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Nigerian Football
Thirty-Six Years After Professionalism, NPFL Still Battles Old Challenges

By Kunle Solaja.
Thirty-six years after professional football was introduced in Nigeria, the country’s top-flight league continues to grapple with many of the same structural problems critics warned about decades before the professional era began.
The Nigerian Professional Football League officially commenced on May 12, 1990, following nearly 40 years of debate over whether the country was prepared for the financial realities of professional sports.
When professionalism was first proposed in the 1950s, opponents questioned whether Nigerian clubs could survive the burden of player salaries, stadium maintenance and administrative costs.
Former football administrator Derby Allen warned in 1953 that most clubs lacked suitable stadiums and sustainable revenue streams to operate professionally.
More than seven decades later, many NPFL clubs are still heavily dependent on state government funding, while issues such as poor infrastructure, irregular player welfare, low commercial returns and weak marketing continue to limit the league’s growth.
Despite these challenges, the league has survived political transitions, administrative crises and financial instability to become one of Africa’s longest-running domestic competitions.
The league’s history has featured remarkable moments and strange twists.
Kwara United F.C. endured a 14-match losing streak in 2000, while Udoji United F.C. controversially emerged champions in 1996 following boardroom decisions.
Traditional giants have also suffered dramatic declines. Bendel Insurance F.C., one of the pioneer clubs of the 1972 National League, were relegated for the first time in 1995 and later spent a decade outside the top division after another relegation in 2008.
Defending champions Shooting Stars SC suffered relegation in 1999, becoming the first title holders to fall out of the top flight, while Bayelsa United F.C. repeated the unwanted feat in 2010 and has now suffered another drop.
Even continental giants, Enyimba F.C., once experienced relegation in 1991. Another relegation looms large at the end of this season.
Only Enugu Rangers have maintained an unbroken stay in the top division since the National League era began in 1972.
Administrative instability has equally shaped the NPFL’s story. In 2005, the league left direct NFA control with the establishment of the Nigeria Premier League. The League Management Company later emerged after a court ruling declared the NPL illegal in 2012/13.
Today, the Nigeria Premier Football League board oversees the competition, which continues to seek improved television coverage, sponsorship and stronger club structures.
As the league celebrates its 36th anniversary, many observers believe its future success will depend on finally resolving the same financial and organisational issues identified long before professionalism arrived in 1990.
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