FORMER Super Eagles captain, Segun Odegbami, has called for the temporary suspension of the Nigeria Football Federation’s 2026 Executive Committee elections, arguing that the country’s football administration has failed to match the enormous talent and potential within Nigerian football, Sunday PUNCH reports.
News Point Nigeria Sport reports Odegbami made the call ahead of the NFF’s 2026 Executive Committee elections scheduled for September 27 in Lafia, Nasarawa State. The Elective Congress was postponed by a day, from September 26, to accommodate the Super Eagles’ 2027 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against Madagascar.
According to the former Green Eagles captain, the problems confronting Nigerian football administration have persisted for decades and have gradually become entrenched in the system.
“The reality is that football administration in the past two decades, in particular, has not matched or complemented the level of talent and possible achievements,” Odegbami said.
He argued that the development of Nigerian football had been undermined by faulty decisions dating back to the early 1990s, adding that those decisions had since evolved into an established system that had become difficult to reform because the people who created or benefited from it remained part of the football administration structure.
“The growth of our football industry has been stunted by faulty decisions taken more in ignorance than by any malicious intentions since the early part of the 1990s,” he said.
“These have grown, sustained and become the norm in our football, a monster that now needs the creators of it to rid it of its venom. They won’t do it because they are also the beneficiaries of the faulty architecture.”
Odegbami also criticised the manner in which elections into the NFF board have traditionally been conducted, describing the process as a recurring source of controversy and crisis.
“Elections into the board of the NFF have become a four-yearly ritual of crisis,” he said.
The former international further argued that the shortcomings in football administration had prevented Nigerian football from becoming the economic and youth-development engine it has the potential to be.
He said the situation had denied young Nigerians opportunities while also limiting the country’s broader economic potential, despite the enormous passion for football among Nigerians.
“All of these to the detriment of the country that loves its football with passion but can only look on helplessly as football continues to fail to achieve its full potential, fails to boost the country’s economy, and fails to empower the country’s gifted youths with the best opportunities that are available all over the world,” he said.
Odegbami maintained that Nigerian football needed sufficient time to reassess its administrative structure and confront its longstanding challenges before another electoral cycle is allowed to proceed.
He therefore reiterated his call for a temporary halt to the NFF electoral process, saying the pause would provide an opportunity for Nigerian football to address its deep-rooted administrative problems and regain its footing.
“I hope all Nigerians, including the members of the Nigerian Football Association, will understand why these elections should be temporarily halted for Nigerian football to find its feet again,” he said.