Senate quizzes NFF and NSC over Nigeria football team failures

Nigeria’s Senate Committee on Sports has held an emergency meeting with the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) and National Sports Commission (NSC) over the country’s football decline. The meeting followed Nigeria’s failure to qualify for the 2026 FIFA World Cup and the Super Falcons’ inability to reach the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Brazil.

The session was chaired by Abdul Ningi, who leads the Senate sports committee. He said the meeting was convened at the request of Senate President Godswill Akpabio, who wanted explanations for the recent results involving Nigeria’s national teams.

Ningi said the committee would present a wider briefing to the Senate when it resumes next month. He also said the discussions were intended to identify the reasons behind the teams’ struggles and establish steps to address the problems affecting Nigerian football.

Relations between the NFF and NSC were another focus of the meeting. Ningi said the two bodies needed to resolve their differences and operate more closely, adding that efforts to improve cooperation were already under way. He said discussions between the institutions had not yet been concluded.

The committee also questioned why the national teams had continued to underperform despite what Ningi described as substantial government backing. He recalled that President Bola Tinubu had given players and officials $100,000 each and that the sports ministry’s budget had been increased to almost four times its previous level.

The Super Eagles’ absence from the 2026 World Cup and the Super Falcons’ failure to qualify for the following women’s tournament have caused particular concern within the Senate. Ningi said any action considered against the NFF would have to comply with Nigerian law as well as FIFA statutes, in response to calls from some football supporters for the federation to be disbanded.

The committee plans to continue consultations with the bodies responsible for Nigerian football as it seeks solutions to the national teams’ qualification setbacks and broader performance concerns.