Governing Bodies
PHOTOS: UNVEILING THE FOUNDERS OF NFA/NFF ON AUGUST 21, 1933
BY KUNLE SOLAJA
In 2012, The FA in England decided to trace and honour the living descendants of the eight founding fathers that created the body 150 years earlier.
At the end of the exercise, a total of 16 relatives of the Founding Fathers of football were invited to a special ceremony at Wembley Stadium, where a Blue Plaque was unveiled that pays tribute to the historical significance of their work in creating the game of football and the first football association in the world. What a lasting tribute those pioneers got.
Here in Nigeria, the labour of our heroes past must not be in vain. Sports Village Square also salutes the founders of the Nigeria Football Association whose efforts many Nigerians are benefiting from today.
• HENRY A. PORTER ESQ., F.R.I.BA, THE PRESIDENT
Henry A. Porter was the founding president of the Nigerian FA. He was also the founding chairman of the Lagos Amateur Football Association in 1932. He was a Scot and the Senior Architect at the Public Works Department.
He designed the Centenary Hall, Abeokuta, which was opened on 28 October 1930. When the Nigerian Football Association was founded in Broad Street, Lagos on 21 August 1933, Porter was appointed the pioneer president.
But so far, it has proved impossible to get his image. Only documents signed by him were obtained from the National Archives, Ibadan.
From his signatures, ‘H’ could be deciphered as Henry, which was later corroborated by information supplied by Peter Kent who responded to enquiry sent to the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA).
But his middle name has a little controversy. While RIBA gave it as Arthur, another source, the book “RIBA Directory of British Architects 1834-1914” gives the middle name as ‘Augustus’.
Upon further enquiry from RIBA’s Peter Kent, he affirmed the middle name was ‘Arthur’ “All references to him in our members directories (50 plus years worth) and the nomination papers refer to him as ‘Henry Arthur Porter’. The only source which calls him ‘Augustus’ is the RIBA Directory of British Architects 1834-1914 – usually super-reliable – but in this case I am sure it has made a mistake”.
Porter was elected a fellow of RIBA in 1927. His registration number was 2498. The Directory of British Architects also noted that Porter was elected to RIBA as an Associate with number 1827 in 1907.
The Dictionary of Scottish Architects adds that Porter was the one that trained and proposed Thomas Scott his deputy at PWD in Lagos to be licensed by the Royal Institute of British Architects after 12 years of licentiateship. Porter also proposed Thomas Scott as a fellow of RIBA but the latter was only admitted into the institute on February 13, 1940 after Porter had returned to Britain.
At the time of this publication, the Dictionary of Scottish Architects also had no more information on Porter. The information released had been from the British Architectural Library/Royal RIBA Dictionary British Architects 1834-1914.
His date of birth in 1885 is also unknown. But Peter Kent of RIBA informed that Porter described himself as 42 on 14 March 1927.
While in Nigeria, he wrote an application on 1 December 1933 to the Chief Secretary to the colonial government of Nigeria for a £300 loan to develop a playing ground for the 13 clubs playing in the Lagos Amateur League.
The 13 clubs were: three teams belonging to UAC, two owned by Africs, Muslims, Spadlings, Post & Telegraphs, Medical & Health, Lagos Athletic, French Club and two teams of Olympic.
From the records obtained on UK citizens travelling overseas from the National Archives, London, Porter apparently left for Nigeria aboard “Olenda”, a ship operated by British and African Steam Navigation Company Limited on 21 March 1900 from Liverpool to Forçados, a small town in Burutu LGA of Delta State.
In 1934, he was unanimously re-elected as president. He was believed to be the brain behind the PWD, which was the oldest-organised football club, especially in Lagos area.
The PWD was formed in 1929. His name suddenly disappeared from Nigerian newspapers after 1934. He may have left Nigeria in 1936 as passengers’ manifest of the ship: “Accra” operated by Elder Dempster Lines Limited, listed him among the passengers that arrived at Liverpool from Port Harcourt on 3 March 1936.
Also, all his addresses offered by RIBA from 1936 were in the United Kingdom. According to Peter Kent, Porter died aged 75 on 11 April 1960.
He may have died in Tonbridge District of Kent in UK if the report concerning one Henry A. Porter in www.findmypast.com has anything to do with him.
• FREDERICK BARON MULFORD, VICE PRESIDENT
Fondly called “Baba Eko”, Frederick Baron Mulford was often referred to as father of Nigerian football. He died in Lagos on 3 September 3, 1949, four days after the very first set of Nigerian-selected team, the famed UK Tourists, sailed to England.
According to a family tree constructed by John Bird Monk, Mulford was born in January 1881 in Southampton, Hampshire in England.
He came to Nigeria having sailed aboard “Aro” an Elder-Dempster and Company Limited ship that departed Liverpool for Lagos on 7 April 1906. He came to Nigeria as a junior assistant in the firm, Lagos Stores, which was later absorbed by UAC in 1929. While at the Lagos Stores, Mulford rose to the position of deputy to the head agent, Hon. A.M. Harvey who was also a member of Legislative Council then tagged LEGICO.
Mulford left the Lagos Stores when it merged with UAC. He was appointed as the Business Manager of the Nigerian Daily Times in 1933. Mulford was also a sports editor of the publication.
Mulford was also the games master at CMS Grammar School, Nigeria’s premier high school. He later moved to Kings College and by 1914, he was already organising weekly matches with European teams in Lagos.
His greatest legacy was the presentation of a trophy to LDAFA for a knockout competition: The Lagos War Memorial Cup which later became Mulford Memorial Cup and got rechristened as Oba Cup, following Stores FC’s eternal win of the trophy in 1965.
Mulford was buried in Lagos at the Ikoyi Cemetery on 4 September 1949, the day after his death at Creek Hospital. According to a tribute by Ernest Ikoli published in the Daily Times edition of 5 September 1949, Mulford was never married.
• SIR ADEYEMO ALAKIJA, VICE PRESIDENT
Alakija was a Nigerian of Brazilian origin. His original name was Placido Adeyemo Assumpcao. He was born to Ribeiro and Maximiliana Assumpcao in 1884, the son of the Brazilian families of Lagos and one of the black repatriates from Brazil. He was able to trace his roots to Abeokuta.
He was one of the founding directors of Daily Times of Nigeria, which had its offices on the same Broad Street where the NFA was founded. Daily Times was perhaps the only source of information on the early days of the Nigeria Football association.
The newspaper was thanked for the assistance offered at the first Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the association in 1934.
The newspaper’s link with the foundation of NFA probably had to do with the involvement of Alakija, a prominent figure in the foundation of both organisations.
He was the founding chairman of board of Nigerian Printing and Publishing Company, publishers of Daily Times in June 1926 and also founding father of the NFA. Alakija was re-elected vice president at the 1934 A G M. He died on 10 May 1952.
• DR ISAAC LADIPO OLUWOLE, VICE PRESIDENT
Dr. Isaac Ladipo Oluwole was a medical doctor and the son of the Anglican Bishop, Isaac Oluwole.
A pioneer student of King’s College and the school’s first senior prefect he trained at the University of Glasgow and made important improvements to public health in Nigeria.
In 1925 he was appointed the first African assistant Medical Officer of Health in Lagos and also founded the first school of Hygiene in Nigeria to train sanitary inspectors. In 1940, he was awarded the Order of the British Empire (OBE)
He was the General Secretary of Lagos Amateur Football Association, LAFA (later LDAFA) for 17 years. He made the facilities of the health office available to the association and the NFA in which he was deeply involved till his death at age 61 on 4 May 1953, a year after Alakija passed on.
When in 1934, the Lagos Amateur Football Association approached the government for a £300 loan to construct a football ground for Lagos clubs to play their league matches; Dr. Oluwole stood surety for £15.
The government approved the loan, which initially was to be repaid in five years. But on 21 December 1933, Dr. Oluwole wrote to the government to ask for extension of the repayment to eight or 10 years.
The government granted the request and extended the loan repayment to eight years. He was recognized as the father of public health in Nigeria.
• JOSEPH MEAD, HONORARY SECRETARY/TREASURER

Mr. Joseph Mead was the first secretary of the NFA in 1933. His identity was a mystery until the Unilever Archives in London provided photograph of him and his full name.
The meaning of the initial “J” which appeared in all newspaper references to him was later given as Joseph.
According to the Daily Times accounts, he worked with the firm – UAC at Martins Street, Lagos. Checks at Unilever in UK revealed that he joined the company in February 1929.
Great thanks to Helen Onsworth, the archivist at Unilever UK Central Resources Limited who assisted in unveiling the convener of the meeting that led to the foundation of a central football body in Nigeria.
From the information on Mead, he became the first secretary of the NFA at age 26. On leaving Nigeria after working with UAC in Lagos and Ibadan, he was transferred to the then Gold Coast (now Ghana) where he worked in Kumasi and Takoradi. According to information from Unilever in UK, Mead married on 23 January 1939 before resigning from the firm in 1949.
The checks by www.sportsvillagesquare.com at the National Archives of the United Kingdom revealed that Mead must have arrived Nigeria in 1929 having left Liverpool for Lagos on 26 February. His occupation in the manifest of the ship was given as “assistant”. He was part of the European football league in Lagos, playing for UAC team.
Shortly before the 21 August 1933 meeting which Mead called, he was involved in an accident. Unilever Archives disclosed that their records showed his date of birth as 22 March 1907.
He would therefore have been 73 years; the day Nigeria beat Algeria to win the Africa Cup of Nations for the first time in 1980. Joseph Mead left for Sekondi-Takoradi in Gold Coast (now Ghana) as District Manager of UAC in March 1946.
Governing Bodies
Ex-FIFA Council member and Mali football chief released from jail

A former member of the FIFA Council, Mamoutou Toure, has been released from jail in Mali after almost two years in detention for alleged corruption, Malian media reports said on Wednesday.
Toure, president of the Malian Football Federation since 2019, was released after 622 days in prison on Tuesday.
He served on the FIFA Council, world football’s all-powerful decision-making body, for four years until last month when he lost his seat after failing to contest new elections.
The 67-year-old was arrested in August 2023 on allegations of embezzling $28 million of public funds but was granted a provisional release order by the Malian courts, reports said.
He was accused of misconduct during his time as the National Assembly’s financial and administrative director from 2013-2019.
Toure denied all charges and, during his time in jail, was last August re-elected as Malian Football Federation president for a second consecutive term, with his supporters claiming he was a victim of a conspiracy fuelled by detractors.
While in jail, he received a letter of support from FIFA president Gianni Infantino. However, as of last month, Toure is no longer a member of the FIFA Council or the Confederation of African Football’s executive committee.
-Reuters
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Governing Bodies
Nigeria Football Federation denies owing late national captain and coach, Chukwu

The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has denied reports of an outstanding debt to former captain Christian Chukwu and has challenged anyone with verifiable documents to prove otherwise.
Chukwu, a former national team captain and chief coach, died last Saturday.
The Nigeria Football Federation decried statements in a section of social media that the football-ruling body was indebted to the deceased.
Reacting to one statement on social media that claimed NFF owed the 1980 Africa Cup of Nations-winning team captain the sum of $128,000, NFF General Secretary, Dr Mohammed Sanusi, said: “There is no record in the NFF of any outstanding indebtedness to ‘Chairman’ Christian Chukwu.
“During the first term of the Board headed by Amaju Pinnick, a committee was set up to diligently peruse the papers of coaches who were being owed, even from previous NFF administrations.
“That committee was given the clear mandate to verify all debts and ensure that the coaches being owed were paid immediately. I am aware that the ‘Chairman’ was in the employ of the NFF between 2002 and 2005, before he was relieved of the post following the 1-1 draw with Angola in a FIFA World Cup qualifying match in Kano in August 2005. There is certainly no record of indebtedness to him in the NFF.”
Sanusi challenged anyone with genuine and verifiable documents of NFF indebtedness to any coach, who has worked with any of the National Teams over the past two decades, to come forward and tender those documents.
“As a credible organization that is very much alive to its responsibilities, if we are confronted with any genuine document of indebtedness to any coach, we will offset the debt immediately.”
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Governing Bodies
Ex-FIFA chief Blatter and Platini cleared in corruption case

Former FIFA President Sepp Blatter and France soccer great Michel Platini were both cleared of corruption charges by a Swiss court on Tuesday, two and a half years after they were first acquitted of the offences.
The pair, once among the most powerful figures in global soccer, were cleared of fraud at the Extraordinary Appeals Chamber of the Swiss Criminal Court in the town of Muttenz, near Basel.
The hearing came about after Swiss federal prosecutors appealed against their 2022 acquittal at a lower court.
Both men had denied the charge which related to a 2 million Swiss franc ($2.26 million) payment Blatter authorised for Platini in 2011.
The court said there were doubts about the prosecution’s allegation the payment for Platini, a former captain and manager of the French national team, was fraudulent.
The 2022 indictment had accused Blatter and Platini of deceiving FIFA staff in 2010 and 2011 about an obligation for world soccer’s ruling body to pay Platini.
“They falsely claimed that FIFA owed Platini, or that Platini was entitled to, the sum of 2 million Swiss francs for advisory work. This deception was achieved through repeated untruthful claims made by both accused parties,” the indictment said.
But the court cleared the pair, saying their account of an oral agreement for the payment could not be ruled out.
Platini had argued that the payment had been partly deferred until 2011 because FIFA lacked the funds to pay him in full immediately.
The court said the pair had both been consistent in their accounts of the payment, which covered consultancy work carried out by Platini for Blatter between 1998 and 2002.
Platini’s experience as a top footballer and coach, explained the size of the payment, said the court, which followed the legal principle that in cases of doubt, favour the accused.
“It can not be assumed that the defendants acted with the intention of enriching themselves in the sense of the charged offences,” the court said.
The scandal, which emerged in 2015 when Platini was president of European soccer’s ruling body UEFA, ended his hopes of succeeding Blatter, who was forced out of FIFA over the affair.
Blatter and Platini were suspended from football in 2015 by FIFA for ethics breaches, originally for eight years, although their exclusions were later reduced.
Platini said he was relieved the case was over, and he had received messages of support from 10,000 people.
“The persecution of FIFA and some Swiss federal prosecutors for 10 years is now over,” Platini told reporters. “It is now totally over. And for me, today, my honour has returned and I am very happy.”
The 69-year-old said he thought the case had been intended to prevent him becoming FIFA president, but he was now too old to return to football.
The money, which had been confiscated and held by the Swiss authorities, can now be returned to him.
A frail-looking Blatter hugged his daughter Corinne after the judgement and said he was relieved with the decision.
“It is a great relief for me because it’s been going on for ten years. It’s like a sword of Damocles hanging over my head,” he told reporters.
“And now it’s over and I can breathe,” the 89-year-old said.
Prosecutors had sought a sentence of 20 months in jail, suspended for two years for both Blatter and Platini.
The Swiss attorney general’s office said it would review the written judgement, before deciding whether to appeal again to the Swiss Federal Court, the country’s highest legal authority.
-Reuters
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