Canada-Based Nigerian Journalist Exposes Corruption In NFF Youth Team Appointments

In a scathing critique posted on the popular Nigerian WhatsApp sports group, NSM, Canada-based Nigerian journalist Wale Ajayi has launched a passionate appeal to the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) amidst call for applications for various age-grade national team coaching roles.

Ajayi’s impassioned plea, highlights deep-seated corruption and nepotism he claims plague the selection process and the very fabric of Nigeria’s youth football.

Ajayi implored the NFF and the National Sports Commission (NSC) to avoid recommending coaches that will take Nigeria’s football a thousand miles backwards. He sensationally alleged that “the team coordinators and secretaries of the Under 17 and Under 20 national teams are brothers of NFF officials and they are all doing rackets,” branding them “the biggest problems of our football.”

The journalist further claimed that, “because we want to please our kinsmen, we have allowed touts to take over our national teams.” He painted a grim picture of the power wielded by these backroom staff, stating, “They decide who make the team, they send good players away and they intimidate the coaches by telling him they can sack him.”

Ajayi attributes their influence to being “highly connected because they are related to the NFF bosses.”

Calling for a complete overhaul, Ajayi stressed, “If we really want to sanitize the system and revive our youth football, we must do it right this time.” He described the business surrounding the Under 17 and Under 20 National teams as “too lucrative,” specifically highlighting the Under 17s as being particularly “dirty.”

He concluded with a shocking revelation: “That national team no longer belong to the NFF but the agents. They draw up team lists for the coaches. Yes, it is that bad. The academies in Nigeria run our Under 17s and they do that in conjunction with the backroom staff and coaches.”