On the 18th of August 2022, The Annual General Assembly (AGA) of the Nigeria Football Federation which was held in Lagos cleared the road map that will lead to a new executive committee for the Football Federation.

The historic event was scheduled for the 30th of September, and all things being equal in three days time, the NFF Elective Congress 2022 will go down.

All things being equal?? That question popped up in your head right? Well, a court order on the 15th of September forbade the NFF from holding the election, hence, there’s still uncertainty if it would go ahead or not. But as things stand, the election will go down, as no statement from the NFF has stated it wouldn’t hold.

For the Elective Congress, different positions are up to be filled, ranging from the post of the President, Vice President, executive members.

From the South-west Zone, a top administrator Ayodeji Adegbenro who’s vying for an executive member position has talked about plans if elected.

Ayodeji Adegbenro is an ardent sports administrator with cognate experience, also La Liga’s Communications and Project Coordinator (Nigeria & Ghana).

In an Interview with Elegbetetv.com , Ayodeji talked about what he feels the current board didn’t do enough, how he’d ensure to bring in Fresh ideas Into Nigerian Football and prioritise grassroot football and the changes the NFF Need finances wise considering Government funding could keep dropping in the coming years.

On what he intends to do when elected and what the current administration could have done better, he said: 

” I’m looking at bringing on fresh ideas if elected into the board of the NFF, new ways of doing things, confirming to global best practices, and of course help to create policies that enable the development of Nigerian Football “

” For me what I feel is wrong. Maybe not wrong, but they didn’t do enough. In my opinion it is the base of the pyramid, they didn’t pay enough attention to what is happening at the grassroot level of football, that is age grade football, Coaching, education and development. Our leagues, the local leagues. I feel like the current board could have done more in those areas. “

Talking about what changes are needed finance wise, and how the NFF Needs to attract more funding from private sectors, he said:

” First of all, you have to make the product attractive, right now, the Nigeria Football as is currently set up, isn’t appealing enough, you cannot blackmail or force people to buy a bad product, if the product is good, people would buy, so we have to make our football brand appealing, especially to the younger generation of fans, and when you do that and win this people over and have the numbers, then of course the brand, the product would be appealing to corporate organisations.

”  For you to attract revenue from corporate organisations, you have to make the brand appealing, for corporate organisations, it’s about numbers, so once the brand or product is appealing enough to a large number of consumers, then with those numbers, you can always attract investment from those organizations. “

” And trust me with the way the economic situation is going, the contribution from the government would probably reduce in the coming years, so NFF needs to be up and doing. “