Athletics
AFN denies knowledge of any PUMA contract that is terminated
Although sportswear manufacturers, PUMA has issued a press release announcing the termination of a contract with the Athletics Federation of Nigeria, AFN, the Nigerian sports body has claimed ignorance of any contract.
It is however of common knowledge that there are two factions laying claims to be the AFN – one headed by Ibrahim Gusau who was first elected in 2017 before running into troubled waters in 2019.
This year, he emerged as the factional head while Tonobok Okowa’s faction which is both recognised by the Nigerian Ministry of Sports and the Nigeria Olympic Committee is the one denying knowledge of any contract.
According to a statement issued the body remarked that it was not in possession of any contractual documents signed between and PUMA and cannot be liable for what it knows nothing about.
In a statement signed by Prince Adeniyi Adisa Beyioku, its Secretary General, the AFN revealed that it does not know anything about the contract outside what has been written in the media and, from the media reports had even made attempt to clarify from PUMA, pointing out breaches of the AFN constitution by Messrs Gusau and Adeleye who PUMA confirmed negotiated the deal.
”The attention of the AFN has been drawn to a media statement signed by Shehu Ibrahim Gusau confirming the termination of the agreement he and Mr Sunday Adeleye signed with sportswear and equipment company, PUMA purportedly on behalf of the AFN in July, 2019.
”The AFN wishes to state unequivocally that it is not aware of any contract as there was no document in the Secretariat of the federation pertaining to any contractual agreement with PUMA,’ the AFN said in the media statement.
Gusau had claimed the last board he was president of signed the deal with PUMA but majority of the board members some of whom are in the new board had denied any knowledge of the contract.
”Following media reports of the said contract especially in the lead up to the ongoing Tokyo 2020 Olympics and the inauguration of a new executive board of the federation, the Secretary General of the AFN Prince Adeniyi Beyioku, appointed pursuant to article 8.7.2 of the federation’s constitution (2017) and recognised by World Athletics had in a letter dated July 19, 2021 requested Mr. Gusau to avail the AFN of the contract details and return whatever had been collected from PUMA to the Secretariat of the federation at the Moshood Abiola stadium Abuja recognised by World Athletics.
”Mr Gusau refused to heed the advice and acted as if only two out of 13 members constituted the former board of the federation and must be the only ones allowed to know details of the contract, citing a non-disclosure agreement. Yet Mr Gusau and Mr Adeleye reportedly negotiated the deal on behalf of the same board.”
”The AFN also wishes to state that the constitution of the federation states in article 8.7.2, sections 4.4.2, 4.4.3 and 4.4.4 that the Secretary General must not only be privy to all decsions, contractual or otherwise entered into as its chief administrative and accounting officer but must also be the custodian of such documents, records and properties.
‘This constitutional provision was flagrantly violated by Mr Gusau, wielding the power of a emperor that the constitution did not give him.
”The AFN wishes to put on record that the new board did not see any documents indicating there was an agreement with PUMA and noted that majority of members of the previous board, acting on newspaper reports wrote PUMA through its lawyer, Oluwole Afolabi that they were not aware of the said contract but PUMA insisted it signed an agreement with the AFN despite glaring constitutional breaches which invalidated the said contract.
‘The board members, through Barrister Afolabi further wrote on January 30, 2020 to put PUMA on notice of renunciation of business relationship.”
Beyioku says the federation is saddened that two people have allowed their selfish interest to override their sense of patriotism and deprived hard working Nigerian athletes of the financial benefits in the said contract following the revelation (after the termination of the agreement by PUMA) that $15,000, $5,000, and $3000 will be earned by gold, silver and bronze medal winners respectively at the ongoing Olympics.
”From the media release signed by Mr Gusau, we know such a bonus structure would have been available at the 2019 World Athletics Championship and we want to ask why such was not disclosed to the athletes to serve as a source of motivation for them and why Ese Brume who won a bronze medal in the long jump event at the Championship has not been paid.”
Beyioku says with the reported termination, more revelations will come to the fore about other financial benefits to the team hitherto hidden under a bogus non-disclosure agreement and Nigerians will be left to decide how sincere Mr Gusau and Mr Adeleye whose company, Dynamic Sporting Solutions was used to warehouse the money meant for the federation in the purported contracted, as revealed in a letter from PUMA in February 2020.
‘It is clear that Mr Gusau and Mr Adeleye negotiated the said contract as President and Technical Director of the AFN respectively as the PUMA letter indicated and not Dynamic Sporting Solutions acting as the AFN consultant and which is owned by Mr Adeleye and which the duo nominated to warehouse payments from the said kits and equipments sponsor.
‘The AFN wishes to remind Nigerians that the criminal case arising from the PUMA deal the Inspector General of Police instituted against Mr Gusau and Mr Adeleye is still before the magistrate court in Abuja.’
The proposed switch of allegiance by Nigerian sprint star Favour Ofili to Türkiye has hit a major obstacle, with Nigerian sports authorities insisting that the 23-year-old remains eligible to compete for Nigeria.
Ofili announced in September on her Instagram account, followed by more than 40,000 people, that she was beginning “a new chapter representing Türkiye,” signalling her intention to change sporting nationality after years of representing the Nigeria national athletics team.
“I moved to Türkiye to save my career from officials,” the U.S.-based sprinter later wrote, explaining that her decision was influenced by frustrations with Nigeria’s sporting administration.
However, nearly six months after the announcement, Ofili has yet to compete for her new country, and the process appears stalled.
A senior official of the National Sports Commission told reporters in February that Ofili is still considered a Nigerian athlete and cannot immediately switch allegiance.
“She is still our athlete,” the official said, adding that Ofili was among the elite athletes who received training scholarships from the commission last year.
According to the official, if the sprinter intends to compete for another country, she may have to wait until September 2028, potentially ruling out a change before the 2028 Summer Olympics.
Career Frustrations
Ofili’s rapid rise in athletics has been accompanied by several controversies that have strained her relationship with Nigeria’s sporting authorities.
At the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, she was among Nigerian athletes barred from competing after failing to meet required out-of-competition doping control tests.
Ahead of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, she also revealed she had been excluded from the women’s 100-metre event despite qualifying.
“It is with great sadness that I have just been informed that I will not be competing in the 100-metre dash at these Games,” she wrote at the time. “I qualified, but those in charge did not register me. I have worked for four years to earn this opportunity.”
Debate Over Loyalty
The controversy has sparked debate within Nigeria’s athletics community.
Former African sprint queen Mary Onyali recently said she rejected offers from European countries to compete under their flags during her career because of her loyalty to Nigeria.
Ofili responded by suggesting the circumstances were different, noting that Onyali “was never denied the opportunity to compete in any competition after working hard to qualify.”
Speaking through her coach, Dennis Shaver, Ofili also dismissed speculation that financial incentives were the main motivation for her proposed move.
“I am a woman, and I have a short-term job,” she said. “This is the ideal time to make the most of the time I have left in my career.”
Türkiye’s Recruitment Drive
Ofili’s case comes amid an aggressive talent recruitment drive by Türkiye aimed at strengthening its athletics programme ahead of the Los Angeles Olympics.
Following a disappointing performance at the Paris Games, where the country finished 64th in the medal table without a gold medal, Turkish authorities launched a strategy to recruit top athletes from abroad.
According to athletics coordinator Önder Özbilen, several international athletes have already agreed to compete for Türkiye.
Among them are four Jamaican athletes, including Olympic discus champion Roje Stona, as well as five Kenyan runners, including former marathon world-record holder Brigid Kosgei.
Whether Ofili will ultimately join them remains uncertain.
For now, the Port Harcourt-born sprinter remains officially tied to Nigeria, leaving unresolved the question of which flag she might carry on the road to the Los Angeles Olympics.
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Athletics
World Athletics Nullifies Junior Records of Three Ethiopian Runners Over Age Irregularities
World Athletics has refused to ratify several junior world records set by three Ethiopian distance runners after an investigation uncovered irregularities in their dates of birth.
The decision follows a probe by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU), which determined that the real ages of Birke Haylom, Melknat Wudu and Medina Eisa could not be conclusively verified when the records were set between 2023 and 2024.
The ruling means several outstanding under-20 performances by the trio will no longer stand as official world junior records.
Among the affected marks are Haylom’s world under-20 bests in the mile (4:17.13), indoor 1,500 metres (3:58.43) and outdoor 5,000 metres (14:23.71). Wudu’s junior indoor 3,000 metres record of 8:32.34 has also been invalidated, while Eisa’s 5,000 metres time of 14:21.89—previously recognised as the world junior best—has been struck from the record books.
Investigators confirmed that Eisa’s actual birth date is 17 October 2002, rather than 3 January 2005 as previously documented. The finding means she was 22 when she won gold in the 5,000 metres at the 2024 World Under-20 Championships, well above the age limit for the junior category.
The AIU also concluded that Haylom was older than indicated in her official documents, although details of the discrepancy were not publicly disclosed. In Wudu’s case, unresolved doubts about her birth date prevented the ratification of her record.
Under championship rules, athletes competing in under-20 events must be 19 or younger during the competition year and must provide verifiable documentation confirming their eligibility.
While the athletes’ performances remain valid as competition results, they cannot be recognised as junior records.
The investigation forms part of a wider age-verification campaign by the AIU in East African athletics ahead of the next 2026 World Under-20 Championships in the United States.
So far, World Athletics has not announced disciplinary sanctions against the athletes, although AIU regulations allow bans of between two and four years in proven cases of age manipulation.
The removal of the five records marks a significant setback for performances that had previously placed the runners among the most promising young talents in global distance running.
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The Future Olympian Athletics Classic has been rescheduled from the first quarter of 2026 to the last quarter of the year, as organisers move to transform the meet into a truly national developmental programme spanning Nigeria’s six geopolitical zones.
In a statement signed by Bruce Ijirigho, a former quarter-miler and Team Nigeria captain to the 1976 Summer Olympics, the postponement was described as a strategic decision aimed at broadening participation and ensuring that young talents across the country are discovered and nurtured systematically.
The competition is being organised by the Youth Sports Renaissance Foundation (YSRF), a non-profit organisation registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission by Ijirigho, Godwin Obasogie and Charlton Ehizuelen. The foundation’s primary objective is to revive athletics, particularly at the secondary school level, and rebuild Nigeria’s once-thriving grassroots sports culture.
Ijirigho, who serves as Project Lead, explained that the initiative is not about creating something entirely new but about restoring a proven system that once produced champions.
“This competition is not about reinventing the wheel,” he said. “It is about bringing back the culture that ensured that my contemporaries and I were discovered early in secondary school, received the right coaching and academic support, and went on to earn scholarships while combining sports with education. Many of us later became national, continental and global champions.”
He identified early exposure and modern, age-appropriate coaching as the missing links in youth development across Nigeria and much of Africa.
“The bane of sports in Nigeria and many African countries is that our youth don’t get opportunities early enough and lack modern coaching techniques that accelerate their development,” Ijirigho stated.
According to him, the Future Olympian Athletics Classic will go beyond competition by incorporating international coaching clinics designed to transfer contemporary skills and knowledge to Games masters and grassroots coaches nationwide.
“The Classic will not only discover talents in their early teens but also upgrade the capacity of our coaches. That way, we will nurture them properly to become Olympians and world beaters in their late teens and early twenties. This programme is strictly for high school students because it is developmental.”
The decision to expand the event to all six geopolitical zones, he noted, reflects a commitment to inclusivity and equal opportunity.
“Talents abound in every nook and cranny of the country. There are middle- and long-distance runners, sprinters, quarter-milers, jumpers and hurdlers who were either not discovered at all or discovered too late. With this postponement, we can widen the tent and give every Nigerian child a fair chance.”
Ijirigho expressed confidence that with proper planning and sustained grassroots investment, Nigeria can reclaim its place at the summit of global athletics.
“We have what it takes to dominate athletics worldwide. All we need is to get our development programme right. The Future Olympian Athletics Classic will lay that foundation for our youth and for the country when it begins in the last quarter of 2026.”
With its expanded national scope and emphasis on structured youth development, the initiative signals a renewed push to reposition Nigerian athletics for long-term global success.
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