Duro Ikhazuagbe
The Fanny Amun-led Fact Finding Committee set up by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has left more questions than answers in its report submitted to the federation after two weeks of its tenure.
Amun who led Nigeria’s Golden Eaglets as head coach to win the 1993 FIFA U17 World Cup and also coached other cadres of the senior teams, has since resigned from the committee.
The other members of the Committee set up in the wake of Super Falcons’ failure to qualify for next year’s Women’s World Cup in Brazil include; Dr Alex Mana, former Super Falcons Captain Desire Oparanozie, Coach Ladan Bosso, former Super Eagles Midfielder, Mutiu Adepoju and Nasiru Jibril, who served as secretary.
It had amongst other items to find out why Nigeria’s national teams were on a free-fail, failing to qualify for global competitions. It also looked at such areas as governance, finance, technical development, grassroots football and league management.
In a four-page final report submitted to the NFF, the Committee first carpeted the Congress made up of football stakeholders who have continuously defy past and present government moves to expand the body to accommodate persons capable of bringing fresh ideas to the administration of the game in the country.
“The alleged refusal of the NFF Congress to effect necessary, achievable and workable model of the statutes to accommodate everybody that will liberate the federation despite the requests from the three Presidents of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” was seen as the crux of the matter militating against the progress of football in the country.
Several stakeholders have in the past taken the NFF to court to make moves that will expand the Congress but it remains a close-knit body dominated by state FA chairmen, majority of whom are rubber-stamp of the leadership of the Ibrahim Gusau-led executive committee.
It recommended that members of the NFF Congress should be knowledgeable, credible and experienced, while proposing a maximum of two terms in office.
On Super Falcons failure at the WAFCON 2026 in Morocco, the Fact-finding Committee found no evidence that individual players influenced team selection.
“Players were all cooperating with each other, there was no influence of individual players on team selection,” the report stated.
It also examined the case of Ashleigh Plumptre, who was left out of the WAFCON 2026 on the flimsy ground that she was injured. The Committee however said in its reports that Plumptre who was an integral part of the Super Falcons underwent surgery and was not fit to play.
It said that its report was based on confirmation by Falcons’ doctors in Nigeria and Plumptre’s medics at her club in Saudi Arabia.
The Committee expressed dismay at the free access to national team camps, stressing that it “didn’t agree with the whole process of how some officials infiltrated the camp at will.”
It recommended that responsibilities within the technical department should be clearly defined, with national teams given better structures for preparation, player development and performance management.
According to the Committee, player selection should be based on current fitness and performance indices, while technical and medical teams must make player fitness a major consideration.
It recommended a total overhaul of Nigeria’s league ecosystem for better performances of national teams. The leagues mentioned include; the Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL); Nigeria National League (NNL); Nationwide League One (NLO) and the Nigeria Women Football League (NWFL).