Maigari makes important decisions on Nigeria football without contacting NFA Board, members say

The NFF board say they find out about important issues from the papers.

The leadership of the Nigeria Football Association has been accused by some of the Association’s board members of taking major decisions without consulting the board.

The NFA has 12 executive members and major decisions discussed by any committee are expected to be taken to the board for final vetting before they are carried out.

Some board members who spoke to PREMIUM TIMES expressed their shock and disbelief at the fact that some decisions were taken without informing the board.

A board member who pleaded anonymity said, “Yes the NFF (NFA) President and Chris Green (the Head of Technical Committee) have been making major decisions on the board without carrying members along; so many things we only learn from news reports.

“This is unprofessional and not acceptable, they need to change. Imagine the fourth month of this year is almost over and a single meeting hasn’t been called, it’s a shame,” the member said.

One of the most important decisions recently taken by football administrators is the sack of members of the coaching crew of national teams including some assistants of Stephen Keshi, the Super Eagles coach. The salary of some of those not sacked, including Keshi, was also reduced.

Board members of the NFA, however, say they were not involved in taking that decision.

Leye Adepoju, a member of the NFA Board admitted that he has no idea of the current issues within the association.

“I didn’t attend any meeting wherein such issues were raised. The simple truth is that we didn’t meet on it. I don’t know what they are doing. When they were about to employ the coaches and back room staff of the national team, it was brought to us the executive. Now that they want to downsize they should also inform the executive. I only read it in the papers. How they come about (the decision to downsize), I don’t know,” Mr. Adepoju said.

He added, “There was never a meeting that was held to say that it may be necessary to downsize. If there’s a process that led to downsizing then everybody should be made aware of it. If a meeting was held maybe we would have found other alternatives. It’s difficult for a person who doesn’t know how they came about the decision to comment on it.”

Another member of the executive board, Effiong Johnson, told PREMIUM TIMES that “the executive members have not met since the beginning of this year.”

“I just saw the downsizing in the papers, I don’t know anything about it,” he said.

The Executive Board of the Nigeria football Association will hold their first meeting of the year in Abuja on Tuesday.