Stakeholders await FIFA’s visit

Top officials from the world’s football governing body, FIFA, are expected in Abuja on Monday to engage both the National Sports Commission (NSC) and the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) on steps taken so far in the reform process of the nation’s football.
  
This follows the resignation of former NFF President, Ibrahim Gusau, the Secretary General, Mohammed Sanusi, and the entire board of the federation.
 
The wait for FIFA’s visit is coming just as two groups are said to be engaged in “intense lobbying” at the Presidency for their preferred candidate to head the proposed NFF Normalisation Committee. The duo of Christopher Green and AbdulHakeem Mustapha, both lawyers, have emerged as the two frontline candidates being fronted by the two groups to head the committee.
 
In line with President Bola Tinubu’s order, the NSC, which supervises the NFF, was said to have mooted the idea of setting up a ‘normalisation Committee” that will midwife the reform and organise a fresh election for a new NFF board.
 
FIFA officials are expected to vet the names of individuals being proposed by football stakeholders and the federal government.
 
The Guardian learnt yesterday that chairmen of states’ Football Associations (FAs) are pushing for Green to head the committee for Nigerian football to be “truly reformed.”
 
The states’ FAs, which constitute the bulk of the NFF Congress, were said to have rejected all names being thrown up by some other stakeholders and decided to settle for Green, a former NFF board member and coordinator of Rivers United FC.
  
According to a source, the FA chairmen see Green as a person who cannot be easily manipulated because of his “experience and love” for Nigerian football.
  
“The FA chairmen want Green because they feel both FIFA and CAF delegations to Nigeria will easily relate to him,” the source said yesterday.
 
However, another powerful interest group being led by a former NFF president is said to favour the choice of AbdulHakeem Uthman Mustapha to lead the committee.
 
Like Green, Mustapha is not a stranger to football administration in Nigeria. A Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Mustapha had served as a member of FIFA’s Anti-Racism and Anti-Discrimination Committee. He was also a former president of the CAF Appeals Committee.
 
The source hinted yesterday that the push for Mustapha as the man to head NFF reforms follows his extensive experience in football’s legal and judicial structures, as well as his international football experience.