Governing Bodies
NIGERIA FOOTBALL FEDERATION CLOCKS 23 AT ABUJA GLASS HOUSE
BY KUNLE SOLAJA
It is 23 years this Thursday since the secretariat of the Nigeria moved from its former headquarters at Ogunlana Drive, Lagos to a twin glass building in the Nigeria capital city of Abuja.
It was on Thursday January 2, 1997 that the football body relocated from Lagos since its establishment on August 21, 1933 at 42 Broad Street.
The Glass House, which the football governing body shares with the Federal Road Safety Corps, is the fifth headquarters of the football body.
On Wednesday August 20, 2014, the eve of the eve of the 81st anniversary of the founding of the football governing body, fire gutted part of the secretariat.
Sports Village Square has gathered that the NFF would be moving out of its present abode to another one later this year.
Originally, it was to have moved in March 2018 to a new facility that was commissioned seven years ago. According to the president, Amaju Pinnick, the movement is certain this year.
The new office is a 27-room facility with a penthouse. The Rotimi Amaechi-led Presidential Task Force executed it from the fund raised towards Nigeria’s participation in the 2010 World Cup.
Located inside the Package B of the MKO Abiola National Stadium, Abuja it is named Sunday Dankaro House.
Dankaro was a former chairman of the then Nigeria Football Association (NFA) and a younger brother to John Dankaro, a pioneer member of Nigeria national team in 1949.
The new NFF building is located just beside the FIFA Technical Centre and football turf. It was hurriedly commissioned on July 18, 2013, even though the previous administration of Aminu Maigari and the current one lay claim to some defects in the building that needed rectification apart from the need to get befitting furniture.
When the movement of the NFF secretariat is effected, Sports Village Square can authoritatively declare that the Dankaro House will be the fourth secretariat the football governing body would occupy since Nigeria’s independence in 1960
In the 1960s, the football governing body operated from the then Lagos City Stadium that changed name to Onikan Stadium but was late last year renamed as Mobolaji Johnson Arena.
By the 1970s, the secretariat moved to a prefabricated wooden complex under the eastern pavilion of the Lagos National Stadium terraces.
From there, the secretariat moved in 1991 to the twin duplex at Ogunlana Drive in Surulere Lagos which the then NFA had acquired as national team hostel in the 1963. It was commissioned on April 5, 1963.
The twin duplex now serves as the organization’s Lagos liaison office. On Thursday January 2, 1997, the body moved to its current location in Abuja.
The issue of an enduring secretariat for the NFF had been on long before the current administration.
The late Commodore Edwin Kentebe, as the chairman of the then NFA in 1973 claimed that his administration had plans to rebuild the two-storey block at Ogunlana Drive. The proposal remained on the drawing board till he left office that year.
Over a decade later, the then Group Captain Ikazoboh set a fund-raising committee in 1986 for a football house.
The project, a five-storey building, largely of concrete, was to be within the National Stadium complex in Lagos.
Chief Nathaniel Idowu headed the committee. But before it could begin work, the committee was sacked along with the Ikazoboh’s board that established it.
In 1989, when Ikazoboh was reappointed as NFA chairman, another committee was set up and headed by Alhaji Mohammed Grema. It suffered the same fate as its predecessor.
By the turn of the century, the idea of a football house seemed to have been abandoned. It never featured in the handover of succeeding administrators.
The regime of Alhaji Ibrahim Galadima on October 15, 2003 got the approval of The Goal Bureau of FIFA to build a technical centre in Abuja. The then NFA came up with an architectural design of a building tagged “The Eagle House”.
It was to incorporate a training camp. The project did not see the light of the day before the board was ousted.
In 2012, a third architectural design of a proposed headquarters for the football governing body was unveiled. Like the technical centre, which is part of the Abuja National Stadium complex, it is also part of the FIFA Goal Project in Nigeria as the approval for the construction of the federation headquarters was approved by FIFA on December 1, 2009.
According to FIFA, the project is estimated at $650,000 out of which the Goal Bureau of FIFA will pay $400,000 leaving the remaining $250,000 for the NFF to bear. But the NFF later sought for amendment to the original project and proposed a national technical centre in Bauchi.
So, in February 2012 when the foundation for the new secretariat was being laid, the credit was given to the National Sports Commission and the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on Nigeria’s participation at the World Cup 2010 as the financiers.
The project estimated at N350 million is named Sunday Dankaro House, after the man with the longest tenure as the head of the Nigerian football governing body. It was under him that the country first won the Africa Cup of Nations in 1980.
The edifice is built on a gross floor area of 2,000 square metres and boasts of a helipad, a courtyard, a penthouse and a manicured park
Governing Bodies
African football set to benefit from newly launched CAF VAR Academy Programme
![](https://sportsvillagesquare.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/var-academy.webp)
The Confédération Africaine de Football (CAF) is launching the CAF Video Assistant Referee (VAR) Academy for the 54 CAF Member Associations – a move that is aimed at elevating the standard of officiating in Africa.
Following CAF’s recent hosting of the most successful Africa Cup of Nations that saw the quality of officiating being singled out, CAF is building onto this success with the innovative academy set to be rolled out between September and October 2024.
The CAF VAR Academy will train Elite Referees across the continent for international competitions and national championships on the use of VAR and ensure that Africa continues to produce elite referees, as seen in recent times.
CAF Technical Development Director, Raul Chipenda said the VAR Academy Programme is a practical step by CAF to improve the standard of match officiating in Africa and ensure that African referees are equipped to compete against the best in the world.
“In the last few months, CAF has had a strong bias in upskilling match officials on the usage of VAR that is why at the AFCON in Cote d’Ivoire, our officials were rated amongst the best. But it does not help having a small group, we need a big pool.
“Officiating plays a critical role in the development of African football, as evidently seen in the success of the recent AFCON. CAF actively oversees and supports a number of football development programmes and competitions across Africa and with that said, it is equally vital that match officials across Africa are adequately equipped with the latest officiating technology, means and education in order to remain on par with the existing pool of officials on the continent”, said Chipenda.
The CAF VAR Academy, which will be attended by elite referees across CAF’s 54 Member Associations will also be the first step in introducing VAR across the continent.
As part of its roll out programme, CAF will be embarking on a continental drive of conducting CAF VAR Academy workshops across its Zonal Unions in the next few months where 180 referees are expected to be reached.
CAF VAR ACADEMY 2024 WORKSHOP DATES:
ZONAL UNION DATE HOST NATION WAFU B 01 – 08 September Cote d’Ivoire COSAFA 11 – 19 September South Africa UNAF 22 – 27 September Egypt CECAFA 30 September – 05 October Tanzania WAFU A 12 – 17 October Senegal
-CAF
Governing Bodies
Nigeria Football Federation clocks 91 today, but they don’t believe in their age
![](https://sportsvillagesquare.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/gusau-and-NFF-logo.png)
BY KUNLE SOLAJA.
Nigeria football governing body, the NFF is 91 years today and just nine years to clock a century. Unfortunately, the body does not believe in its age, but hold on to a faulty belief that it is 79 years old, but with no actual birthday.
Founded 1945 is gleefully displayed on the crest of the NFF. Yet, it is not possible to pin point which date in 1945 the body was founded in 1945. Sports Village Square’s research unveils documented as well as verifiable evidences that what is today’s NFF was founded in Lagos as NFA on 21 August 1933.
No official of the NFF has come forward to defend their claim of the body being ‘founded in 1945’.
Their assumption emanates from the fact that the national cup competition, now called President Federation Cup, began in 1945 as ‘Governor’s Cup’.
This itself is a distortion of historical fact on Nigerian football as the first three editions of the competition was not even organised by the then NFA but by the Lagos and Districts Amateur Football Association (LDAFA) which is now Lagos Football Association.
Verified archival materials have confirmed that the Nigerian football governing body was founded on Monday 21 August 1933 at house number 42, Broad Street Lagos. The building still exist, even with the same address.
Also, all the facts on the actual foundation date of the football governing body still exist and verifiable at the Nigeria National Archives at the University of Ibadan and also at The FA offices in London.
Despite overwhelming and documented evidences, it has been very hard, if not impossible, to get official recognition for the foundation date of the NFF.
The foundation meeting was held that day at the 42 Broad Street, in Lagos. The building which still exists today was then known as Health Office.
The founding officials were: Henry A. Porter as President while three Vice Presidents were appointed.
They were: Frederick Baron Mulford, Sir Adeyemo Alakija and Dr. Isaac Oluwole. The Secretary/Treasurer was James Mead who worked at UAC in Lagos.
The report of the foundation was published in the 25 August 1933 edition of the Daily Times.
Their first Annual General Meeting, as reported by the Daily Times of February 22 1934, took place in Lagos on Monday 19 February 1934.
The meeting decided to seek affiliation with The FA in England. A check by the Sports Village Square at the offices of The FA in London was very revealing. The minutes of meeting of The FA on 4 June 1934 shows under item 10 that: “The Nigeria Football Association was admitted to membership under Rule 5 of the Rules of Association.”
The affiliation was also reported in the Nigerian Daily Times edition of 14 September 1934. Reputable FA in England could not have registered a non-existing body.
The various regimes of the NFA/NFF since 2003 have found it difficult to accept and effect the actual foundation date of the body. They are more concerned about a perceived global backlash they could receive for just realising the actual birth date of the Nigerian football governing body.
Regarding the assumption that the national competition started in 1945 and linking that to the foundation of the football governing body is an assumption based on fallacy.
Documented evidences discovered by Sports Village Square point to the fact that the Governor’s Cup was not a product of the then NFA but that of the Lagos and Districts Amateur Football Association (LDAFA) which is today known as the Lagos FA, the oldest football association in Nigeria having been established in 1932 by Henry A. Potter, the same man who founded the NFA the following year.
One day, it shall come to pass when the true foundation date will be acknowledged.
Governing Bodies
CAF’s sole surviving former president, Ahmad attending Hayatou’s funeral
![](https://sportsvillagesquare.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/ahmad.jpg)
There have been seven presidents of CAF since the continental body was created in 1957. Of the six former heads of the confederation, only Ahmad of Madagascar is alive.
As the sixth and just one-term president, Ahmad who recently completed his reduced ban of two years by FIFA/CAS is one of the dignitaries attending the funeral of Issa Hayatou in Cameroon this Friday.
Arrival of Issa Hayatou’s body from France
Funeral service for Hayatou at the Yaounde airport when the body arrived from Paris on Thursday
Long-time friend, Constant Omari arriving Yaounde for Hayatou’s funeral
Apart from other football chiefs – FIFA president Gianni Infantino and his CAF counterpart, Patrice Motsepe, also in attendance is Congolese Constant Omari who had been a long term ally of Hayatou.
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