The President of the Nigeria Football Federation, Ibrahim Gusau, and other members of the NFF board have resigned amid mounting pressure over the management of Nigerian football.
The NFF board had come under intense scrutiny following a series of setbacks involving the country’s national teams.
The latest setback was the failure of the Super Falcons to qualify for the FIFA Women’s World Cup for the first time in the history of the competition.
This newspaper learnt that members of the board had also been questioned by security agencies amid scrutiny of the utilisation of funds released by the Federal Government for the national football teams.
The Department of State Services has joined other security agencies in investigating the NFF over the utilisation of the N17 billion intervention fund released to the federation for players’ wages and bonuses.
The fund was approved by President Bola Tinubu in 2024 to clear outstanding payments owed to members of Nigeria’s national teams.
An authoritative source told Vanguard on Monday that the DSS had begun scrutinising NFF officials and requested documentation showing how the funds released to the federation were utilised.
“It’s a normal thing for DSS to go through all documents relating to the funds released them,” the source said, dismissing fears of a witch-hunt or hounding.
The latest investigation comes amid persistent concerns over the administration of Nigeria’s national teams, which have suffered a series of setbacks in recent years.
The decline has been highlighted by the Super Eagles’ failure to qualify for consecutive FIFA World Cups and the historic failure of the Super Falcons to qualify for the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Brazil.
The Super Falcons lost 1-0 to Cameroon in the 2026 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations quarter-finals, ending their title defence and denying them automatic qualification for the World Cup.
They subsequently entered the qualification playoff route but lost 2-1 to South Africa’s Banyana Banyana.
Nigeria had featured in every FIFA Women’s World Cup since the tournament began in 1991, making the failure to qualify for the 2027 edition the first in the country’s history.
The NFF executive committee led by Gusau had been under increasing pressure to resign following the string of failures and the resignation of more than half of its members.
Eight of the 13 members of the NFF board had allegedly resigned from their positions before the latest development.
The resignation of Gusau and other board members could affect the scheduled NFF elections billed for September 27 in Lafia, Nasarawa State.
