African Football Discussion Thread: {Current Topic: 👉 NFF Incompetence}

[Ashawowo(OS)]

The money has always been there but we lack the leaders who we be wiling to put in more money to support the Nigerian Football Federation. Our President recently spent billions to  buy a private jet and to build a home worth over 15 billion naira that he isn't going to stay in. Meanwhile, we have a stadium that can't host the AFCON. Other African countries can co-host the World Cup. Our leaders are selfish. That has always been the problem that affects the Super Eagles. Our leaders don't see any value in football.

One big funny fact about it all is that not that Nigeria government doesn’t have money for football to them I just feel it not a priority to them just like you have labeled it as, just like they say money will appear anytime they want to buy presidential jets, new residence, convoys, But now let talk about the National Stadium in Abuja, Surulere look how bad it has become now….they are not just ready for football that just it….

The state of the Nigerian football under the bad leadership of NFF and the president has made the league very unattractive for foreign investors, if not there might be big businesses interested to buy some clubs and even build/renovate many stadiums for the business of football. You can see from Chelsea's Blueco, PSG owned by Qatar Sports Investments (QSI), and many other teams in countries where there is less greed among leaders of football association and whom treat Football as a business and not as Nigerian government project.

[Slow death]

I am aware that the current discussion in this thread concerns " NFF incompetence " a somewhat strange topic, in my view, because while it is certainly a subject worth discussing, only those living in Nigeria who follow local news could possibly have accurate information or the ability to influence the direction in which the Nigerian national football team is heading. How, then, could the Nigerian people change the current situation? In my opinion, the answer lies in the Nigerian public uniting taking to social media, television, radio, and even the streets to pressure both the politicians and the Nigeria Football Federation  to hire a foreign coach with a proven track record and a history of winning titles with a national team.

I have just read this news:

Hakimi, Mané, Semenyo and Brahim Diaz headline star-studded Men's nominations for CAF Awards 2026.

source: https://www.cafonline.com/news/hakimi-mane-semenyo-and-brahim-diaz-headline-star-studded-mens-nominations-for-caf-awards-2026/

There are no players from Nigeria; take a look at the players' names, their countries, and their current clubs:

·  Amad Diallo (Côte d'Ivoire/Manchester United)

·  Yoane Wissa (DR Congo/Newcastle United)

·  Antoine Semenyo (Ghana/Manchester City)

·  Ismael Saibari (Morocco/Bayern Munich)

·  Achraf Hakimi (Morocco/Paris Saint-Germain)

·  Brahim Diaz (Morocco/Real Madrid)

· Ismaila Sarr (Senegal/Crystal Palace)

·  Pape Gueye (Senegal/Villarreal)

·  Sadio Mané (Senegal/Al-Nassr)

·  Teboho Mokoena (South Africa/Mamelodi Sundowns)

source: https://www.cafonline.com/news/hakimi-mane-semenyo-and-brahim-diaz-headline-star-studded-mens-nominations-for-caf-awards-2026/

This shows that Nigerian players are not being highly valued on the international stage this season. Even though most people in this thread speak highly of Victor Osimhen, those outside of Nigeria are actually paying more attention to players from the South African league such as Teboho Mokoena, who plays for Mamelodi Sundowns than they are to a Nigerian player like Osimhen, who is currently with Galatasaray. In my opinion, there might be a reason for this: what significant contributions are Nigerian players actually making to their national team?

Even in the youth player category, Nigeria is nowhere to be found:

CAF nominees for African Young Player of the Year Award.

source: https://x.com/FabrizioRomano/status/2117958026611081339

This is a consequence of the bad decisions made by the Nigeria Football Federation. Nowadays, when a football federation makes sound decisions, its players tend to become the center of global attention. Because they failed to qualify for the World Cup, even though players like Victor Osimhen are performing well in the Turkish league, his name is still being overlooked in favor of players who compete in leagues with a lower level of competitiveness than the Turkish league.

[Mr Reporter]

The state of the Nigerian football under the bad leadership of NFF and the president has made the league very unattractive for foreign investors, if not there might be big businesses interested to buy some clubs and even build/renovate many stadiums for the business of football. You can see from Chelsea's Blueco, PSG owned by Qatar Sports Investments (QSI), and many other teams in countries where there is less greed among leaders of football association and whom treat Football as a business and not as Nigerian government project.

Nigerian football will not even kill me with laugh because how would they see good players in the street school, village, with talents and they are failing to use it as an opportunity to build up investments, and the people who are all the heads there are not even serious or ready to help the matters…

leadership turned it into a government sharing formula instead of a business and that Nigeria for you…

[abaeze]

Look how all our Nigerian superstars are having a good time at their clubs, but when they come for international duty, it will be a bad result.
Awoniyi scored for Coventry yesterday, Tolu also scored for Ajax, Osimhen as usual always scoring/ Josh Mbeumo scoring for Le Havre this week.
Nigeria have quality players. I don't know how they keep messing up when they come home.

Truth be told, our Nigerian Football Federation is poorly managed, and likewise they lack the substantial financial capabilities to be able to run its affairs without compromise. Because if I'm not mistaken, I could remember one time one of our Super Eagle players was complaining of he using his own money to book hotel when they were to play an away match in a different country, of which we all know that this would have been the responsibility of the Nigerian Football Federation. And we all know that things like this can demoralize players from giving their best when its not been appreciated by both the goverment and its organizing agencies.

The money has always been there but we lack the leaders who we be wiling to put in more money to support the Nigerian Football Federation. Our President recently spent billions to  buy a private jet and to build a home worth over 15 billion naira that he isn't going to stay in. Meanwhile, we have a stadium that can't host the AFCON. Other African countries can co-host the World Cup. Our leaders are selfish. That has always been the problem that affects the Super Eagles. Our leaders don't see any value in football.

Agreed, we need to look at the issues a little deeper. To those who identify all failures as the cause of financial problems only, I would say that failure to pay players' salaries is not just a financial problem but it is also directly related to the capacity and responsibility of management. Financial crisis may be a symptom of the problem but poor management is one of the main causes of that crisis. If there is no corruption and mismanagement then it is possible to win the World Cup by utilizing the skills and talents that our players have if there is proper coaching and management.

[Alvin_talk]

Look how all our Nigerian superstars are having a good time at their clubs, but when they come for international duty, it will be a bad result.
Awoniyi scored for Coventry yesterday, Tolu also scored for Ajax, Osimhen as usual always scoring/ Josh Mbeumo scoring for Le Havre this week.
Nigeria have quality players. I don't know how they keep messing up when they come home.

I don't blame the players so much. Almost every industry in Nigeria has been infected with corrupt practices. Currently, the corruption going on in NFF is not different from what our politicians are doing here in Nigeria. Players welfare is very important if we want the best from the boys but it's unfortunate they don't care. The money is there but they keep delaying the salary of the coach Eric Chile. As we speak, there are unpaid wages spanning multiple months and even players bonuses are still unpaid. How do you expect maximum output from these players including the coaching staff. Until these issues are fixed I can't fully blame the boys or the coach for their performance.

[Zigabel]

The state of the Nigerian football under the bad leadership of NFF and the president has made the league very unattractive for foreign investors, if not there might be big businesses interested to buy some clubs and even build/renovate many stadiums for the business of football. You can see from Chelsea's Blueco, PSG owned by Qatar Sports Investments (QSI), and many other teams in countries where there is less greed among leaders of football association and whom treat Football as a business and not as Nigerian government project.

This is actually the sad reality of Football in Nigeria today, it is very possible the league would have by now improved far beyond the level at which it is now but then they have influenced it politically so much so that some of the appointments aren't on merit but for political reasons and some out of favoritism based on tribe or other personal preferences. Before we will be able to attract foreign investors, we will first need to manage it well and make it attractive to these investors to see reasons to put their money in to it, and this can only be achieved when experienced professionals who are passionate about the sport are incharge of the management and understands the business of sports, not when some political appointees who has got little to no idea what sports management and business is all about are been allowed to take on the management of NFF.

[yixichloro2xx]

I am aware that the current discussion in this thread concerns " NFF incompetence " a somewhat strange topic, in my view, because while it is certainly a subject worth discussing, only those living in Nigeria who follow local news could possibly have accurate information or the ability to influence the direction in which the Nigerian national football team is heading. How, then, could the Nigerian people change the current situation? In my opinion, the answer lies in the Nigerian public uniting taking to social media, television, radio, and even the streets to pressure both the politicians and the Nigeria Football Federation  to hire a foreign coach with a proven track record and a history of winning titles with a national team.

I have just read this news:

Hakimi, Mané, Semenyo and Brahim Diaz headline star-studded Men's nominations for CAF Awards 2026.

source: https://www.cafonline.com/news/hakimi-mane-semenyo-and-brahim-diaz-headline-star-studded-mens-nominations-for-caf-awards-2026/

I feel they are using World cup metrics to nominate the best African players. Since Nigeria couldn't qualify, maybe that was why our players are not this list. Apart from osihmen every other players of ours kind under performed last season , the likes of Lookman , Chukwueze. They could still have added osihmen to the list he dropped 22 goals and 6 assist last season and also winning their league trophy. I don't understand how Sadio mane got nominated over Victor osihmen.

Like I said they only nominated players who participated in the FIFA world cup, which doesn't look fair. Osihmen performed far better than 60% of those players there.

[letteredhub]

I am aware that the current discussion in this thread concerns " NFF incompetence " a somewhat strange topic, in my view, because while it is certainly a subject worth discussing, only those living in Nigeria who follow local news could possibly have accurate information or the ability to influence the direction in which the Nigerian national football team is heading. How, then, could the Nigerian people change the current situation? In my opinion, the answer lies in the Nigerian public uniting taking to social media, television, radio, and even the streets to pressure both the politicians and the Nigeria Football Federation  to hire a foreign coach with a proven track record and a history of winning titles with a national team.

I have just read this news:

You are under estimating how bad Nigerian football has been in the past one year, that's why you think that victor osimhen deserve a spot among those that are nominated. You are saying that they use these world cup to nominate players, but you fail to talk about their last competitive game, in their African cup of nations qualifiers that they lost 3-0 to an inferior team. I know that since you are a Nigerian, you will want to be sentimental about it, but it's high time we start telling ourselves the truth, no Nigerian deserves a spot there if we are going by our national team performance.

[Princess Leah]

~~~

You are under estimating how bad Nigerian football has been in the past one year, that's why you think that victor osimhen deserve a spot among those that are nominated. You are saying that they use these world cup to nominate players, but you fail to talk about their last competitive game, in their African cup of nations qualifiers that they lost 3-0 to an inferior team. I know that since you are a Nigerian, you will want to be sentimental about it, but it's high time we start telling ourselves the truth, no Nigerian deserves a spot there if we are going by our national team performance.

He shouldn't be saying that cause Senegal won the AFCON and Mane played a big role to them winning, i think he also won a trophy with his present club and they qualified for the world cup too but Nigeria didn’t, why shouldn't he be nominated over Osimhen? It's shameful though based how bad Nigerian players are affect by the teams poor performance.

 Things like these should serve as a wake up call to NFF but they’ll overlook it and continue with their incompetency what a non chalant organization, shame on them.

[Sobz]

Look how all our Nigerian superstars are having a good time at their clubs, but when they come for international duty, it will be a bad result.
Awoniyi scored for Coventry yesterday, Tolu also scored for Ajax, Osimhen as usual always scoring/ Josh Mbeumo scoring for Le Havre this week.
Nigeria have quality players. I don't know how they keep messing up when they come home.

I don't blame the players so much. Almost every industry in Nigeria has been infected with corrupt practices. Currently, the corruption going on in NFF is not different from what our politicians are doing here in Nigeria. Players welfare is very important if we want the best from the boys but it's unfortunate they don't care. The money is there but they keep delaying the salary of the coach Eric Chile. As we speak, there are unpaid wages spanning multiple months and even players bonuses are still unpaid. How do you expect maximum output from these players including the coaching staff. Until these issues are fixed I can't fully blame the boys or the coach for their performance.

If we should be talking about delaying of allowances it is possible NFF may not even be responsible. We never can tell if wven the goverments they are paying a good attention to the NFF,  if the goverments is doing well to the NFF then it can been seen but if the government is not giving the support to NFF their is nothing they can do. They cant not do more if not having a good support. The only area i will blame the NFF is the performance of the players, bringing players that are not talented but because of connections and signing coach that is not fit for the job.

[Fiatless]

This is a consequence of the bad decisions made by the Nigeria Football Federation. Nowadays, when a football federation makes sound decisions, its players tend to become the center of global attention. Because they failed to qualify for the World Cup, even though players like Victor Osimhen are performing well in the Turkish league, his name is still being overlooked in favor of players who compete in leagues with a lower level of competitiveness than the Turkish league.

I might be wrong, but I think Victor Osimhen should have been on this list. Did CAF base the selection only on performance in the recent World Cup? I thought players could be selected based on club football. Victor had an outstanding season where he led Galatasaray to win the Turkish League. As you said, it might be because the Turkish League is not highly rated.

Achraf Hakimi deserves to win it for the second time. He won Ligue 1 and the Champions League with his club, PSG, and Morocco made it to the quarter-finals in the World Cup.

I wouldn't blame the Nigeria Football Federation for the absence of Nigerian players. Most Nigerian players are not performing well even in their clubs.

[Abu-Naim]

I am aware that the current discussion in this thread concerns " NFF incompetence " a somewhat strange topic, in my view, because while it is certainly a subject worth discussing, only those living in Nigeria who follow local news could possibly have accurate information or the ability to influence the direction in which the Nigerian national football team is heading. How, then, could the Nigerian people change the current situation? In my opinion, the answer lies in the Nigerian public uniting taking to social media, television, radio, and even the streets to pressure both the politicians and the Nigeria Football Federation  to hire a foreign coach with a proven track record and a history of winning titles with a national team.

Did you think hiring a foreign coach will solve the problem?
I think we had a foreign coach before and he did very well, but he got sacked after leading the Super Eagle to an AFCON semifinals, he did his best to make sure he unite the players and give the fans the best football, but the NFF sacked him for reasons being known to them and since then, no good manager was signed.
Until NFF realize their mistake and stop corruption and do the right thing the national team will be better again, but if corruptions keeps happening, we will hardly see changes.

Hakimi, Mané, Semenyo and Brahim Diaz headline star-studded Men's nominations for CAF Awards 2026.

source: https://www.cafonline.com/news/hakimi-mane-semenyo-and-brahim-diaz-headline-star-studded-mens-nominations-for-caf-awards-2026/

There are no players from Nigeria; take a look at the players' names, their countries, and their current clubs:

·  Amad Diallo (Côte d'Ivoire/Manchester United)

·  Yoane Wissa (DR Congo/Newcastle United)

·  Antoine Semenyo (Ghana/Manchester City)

·  Ismael Saibari (Morocco/Bayern Munich)

·  Achraf Hakimi (Morocco/Paris Saint-Germain)

·  Brahim Diaz (Morocco/Real Madrid)

· Ismaila Sarr (Senegal/Crystal Palace)

·  Pape Gueye (Senegal/Villarreal)

·  Sadio Mané (Senegal/Al-Nassr)

·  Teboho Mokoena (South Africa/Mamelodi Sundowns)

source: https://www.cafonline.com/news/hakimi-mane-semenyo-and-brahim-diaz-headline-star-studded-mens-nominations-for-caf-awards-2026/

This shows that Nigerian players are not being highly valued on the international stage this season. Even though most people in this thread speak highly of Victor Osimhen, those outside of Nigeria are actually paying more attention to players from the South African league such as Teboho Mokoena, who plays for Mamelodi Sundowns than they are to a Nigerian player like Osimhen, who is currently with Galatasaray. In my opinion, there might be a reason for this: what significant contributions are Nigerian players actually making to their national team?

At least Victor Osimhen should have made the list because he performed well in the international duty, but I don't blame them for not including anyone because they used form and international football for the ranking and if we can be honest, the Super Eagles didn't have outstanding performance so they can be exempted.

[Agbe]

At least Victor Osimhen should have made the list because he performed well in the international duty, but I don't blame them for not including anyone because they used form and international football for the ranking and if we can be honest, the Super Eagles didn't have outstanding performance so they can be exempted.

How come that people are surprised that there is no player from Nigeria on the CAF men's player of the year catei. There is no sentiment here I support the list, let be realistic here now on the year in review how many Nigerian player's has been spectacular both in the club and in international duty. Ask yourself the type of club that our top player's are currently playing, it seems that the Turkish league is now the new destination of Nigerian player's as Nigerian player's are moving to the Turkish league, which is a league that is not too value when it comes to Europe.

This should be a wake-up call to Nigeria players that, there is work to do because, they are not meeting up with the type of game that they play. Hakimi is likely to win it again because he deserves it.

[Alvin_talk]

If we should be talking about delaying of allowances it is possible NFF may not even be responsible. We never can tell if wven the goverments they are paying a good attention to the NFF,  if the goverments is doing well to the NFF then it can been seen but if the government is not giving the support to NFF their is nothing they can do. They cant not do more if not having a good support. The only area i will blame the NFF is the performance of the players, bringing players that are not talented but because of connections and signing coach that is not fit for the job.

I know that the government also contributes to these things but don't forget that FIFA and CAF also funds NFF. What have they done with the funding. Last time I checked,  they were funded over 1.2 million dollars from FIFA forward programme grants, and they went ahead to embezzle the money. They ended up building a substandard mini stadium in Birnin Kebbi and they also left many other projects in other states abandoned. That simply shows that even if the government does their own part we won't even still experience any positive change from the NFF because they as corrupt as hell.

[CryptopreneurBrainboss]

This should be a wake-up call to Nigeria players that, there is work to do because, they are not meeting up with the type of game that they play. Hakimi is likely to win it again because he deserves it.

I blame Osimhen and his agent because assuming they went to a berter European team then he should be winning this over Hakimi but no he had to go to a club that none of his achievements are worthy of celebrating because nobody cares what's happening over there. Osimhrn had been declining while his former team mate is excelling at PSG which could've been his club if his agent knew what he was doing. Hakimi is going to win it, winning champions league back to black and also having the AFCON trophy and the federation all trying to lick the ass of Morocco, sure they'll give him but that doesn't mean he doesn't deserve it because he actually do. Gone are the days when the AFCON player of the year used to be as debated as the Ballon d'or because of the players competing but nowadays, the winter is always clear which takes out the fun in it.

[Spaceman1000$]

At least Victor Osimhen should have made the list because he performed well in the international duty, but I don't blame them for not including anyone because they used form and international football for the ranking and if we can be honest, the Super Eagles didn't have outstanding performance so they can be exempted.

How come that people are surprised that there is no player from Nigeria on the CAF men's player of the year catei. There is no sentiment here I support the list, let be realistic here now on the year in review how many Nigerian player's has been spectacular both in the club and in international duty. Ask yourself the type of club that our top player's are currently playing, it seems that the Turkish league is now the new destination of Nigerian player's as Nigerian player's are moving to the Turkish league, which is a league that is not too value when it comes to Europe.

This should be a wake-up call to Nigeria players that, there is work to do because, they are not meeting up with the type of game that they play. Hakimi is likely to win it again because he deserves it.

The Turkish league is not too much of a bad league, they are well represented in the Champions League and the are competing favorably, with the players I saw there, Victor Osimhen would have been among those players because he was one of the highest goal scorers in the Turkish league last season, and he also helped his team Galatasaray so win the Turkish premier League, so in as much as Nigeria did not have much presence with CAF competitions, Victor would have been at least added among the finalist, in the past European League performance is also used as a criteria when grading a player's performance for CAF award.

[Zigabel]

At least Victor Osimhen should have made the list because he performed well in the international duty, but I don't blame them for not including anyone because they used form and international football for the ranking and if we can be honest, the Super Eagles didn't have outstanding performance so they can be exempted.

Osimhen had only his club performance to show, the National team didn't make it to the World Cup and even at the AFCON they didn't get to win it, and all of this I believe does count,  I believe his club where he plays was the only place where he got to show that performance that could give a chance to be nominated,  but it wasn't enough to qualify him to make it on the list, we can only be optimistic about  the situation of the Nigerian team, and hope our players gets nominated again in the near future. But it's not good that noo Nigerian players could secure a spot on the list.

[CryptSafe]

This should be a wake-up call to Nigeria players that, there is work to do because, they are not meeting up with the type of game that they play. Hakimi is likely to win it again because he deserves it.

I blame Osimhen and his agent because assuming they went to a berter European team then he should be winning this over Hakimi but no he had to go to a club that none of his achievements are worthy of celebrating because nobody cares what's happening over there. Osimhrn had been declining while his former team mate is excelling at PSG which could've been his club if his agent knew what he was doing. Hakimi is going to win it, winning champions league back to black and also having the AFCON trophy and the federation all trying to lick the ass of Morocco, sure they'll give him but that doesn't mean he doesn't deserve it because he actually do. Gone are the days when the AFCON player of the year used to be as debated as the Ballon d'or because of the players competing but nowadays, the winter is always clear which takes out the fun in it.

Osimhen would have been in a better position to win the award but his efforts does not commiserate with the platform he operates from. His clubside is not as effective to put him in that position of being sort after for such award. Truth be told, we all know he is capable and a good performer no doubt but he will need to operate from a good platform that is globally recognised and fit's the criterion for his efforts to be acknowledged irrespective of his national team setback.
Nevertheless, his management team needs to consider all these factors before looking for clubside which could give him more visibility and opportunities such as this irrespective of whether his national team qualifies or not but for the fact that he is in a well known clubside, he would stand chances of being nominated for prestigious awards as such and also winning it as well.

[Antotena]

I don't blame the players so much. Almost every industry in Nigeria has been infected with corrupt practices. Currently, the corruption going on in NFF is not different from what our politicians are doing here in Nigeria. Players welfare is very important if we want the best from the boys but it's unfortunate they don't care. The money is there but they keep delaying the salary of the coach Eric Chile. As we speak, there are unpaid wages spanning multiple months and even players bonuses are still unpaid. How do you expect maximum output from these players including the coaching staff. Until these issues are fixed I can't fully blame the boys or the coach for their performance.

The sport center isn't suppose to be a political center but it's so bad that it became an ethic fight and yet we don't see any result. One thing I have always been skeptical about the NFF, they complained and ask the government is not supporting as they want and look at what we get in the international football, the results are not interesting. You want the governments to fund the sport so badly, show the government that you are worth the money you want.

If you look at the Nigerian local leagues, you will find out that we have plenty of talents that are been wasted, we have people that are willing to give all in the National league but this corruption has damage the process and we always play without nothing to show. The way Nigerians are talented with football, if this is like Brazil, I'm sure we will be having many footballers in different clubs. It's our system that is affecting our expansion in this football business.

[Baki202]

The state of the Nigerian football under the bad leadership of NFF and the president has made the league very unattractive for foreign investors, if not there might be big businesses interested to buy some clubs and even build/renovate many stadiums for the business of football. You can see from Chelsea's Blueco, PSG owned by Qatar Sports Investments (QSI), and many other teams in countries where there is less greed among leaders of football association and whom treat Football as a business and not as Nigerian government project.

Not only is there no encouragement for those guys and a lot of talent, but a lot of factors contribute to the lack of recognition, and the NFF needs to find a way to improve Nigerian football because that is part of its responsibility, and the Nigerian leagues are poorly recognized because, personally, I don't watch, and when it is fixed, it will be globally recognized, and it will give them an international figure just like other leagues. But the NFF's concerns are different, but along the lines let's assume that they will make things better  they need to bring more investors also because when things are okay for sure investors will come.