The National Sports Commission (NSC) and states’ Directors of Sports across the country have resolved issues that had earlier threatened to lead some states to boycott the 2026 National Sports Festival, billed to hold in Enugu later this year.

The aggrieved states had pointed out that the plan to reduce the number of events at this year’s National Sports Festival, tagged Coal City Games, to 15 was against their interests, particularly since most of them had spent time and money preparing athletes for events slated for exclusion from the games.

But an extraordinary meeting of the executive members and zonal representatives with the NSC Director General, Bukola Olopade, in Abuja, at the weekend, agreed that the number of events be increased to 27.

At the meeting, Olopade explained that some team sports were not included in the first instance because “they are expensive” to be sponsored by the various states, especially as they attract only one medal, unlike individual sports.

Olopade affirmed that the Federal Government is desirous of sponsoring competitions through the instrumentality of the various federations at least four times yearly.

“This,” he said, “will expose the athletes to competitions that will also prepare them for international competitions.”

The meeting agreed that the events to feature at the Coal City Games include athletics, para athletics, badminton, para badminton, basketball, wheelchair basketball, boxing, cycling, football and gymnastics.

Others are judo, mixed martial arts, swimming, table tennis, para table tennis, tennis, taekwondo, weightlifting, para powerlifting and wrestling.

The optional sports listed for the festival are cricket, canoeing, para canoeing, darts, golf, shooting and para shooting.

The Coal City Festival in Enugu will hold between November and December this year.

Meanwhile, the National Intermediate Games, earlier scheduled to be held in Lagos in August, will now be held from October 1 to 15, 2026, just as the National Youth Games has been moved from this year to the first quarter of 2027.