FIFA and CAF Step In, Order Halt to NFF's Election Process Amid Crisis

FIFA and CAF have jumped into the mess unfolding at the Nigeria Football Federation, telling the body to pause its ongoing election process while they look into what's been going on.

The order came in a letter dated September 7, 2026, sent to NFF Deputy General Secretary Emmanuel Ikpeme. FIFA's Chief Member Associations Officer, Elkhan Mammadov, said both organizations are reviewing the legal, governance, administrative and electoral issues tied to the recent turmoil inside the federation.

This move comes less than two weeks after NFF President Ibrahim Musa Gusau, General Secretary Mohammed Sanusi, and the rest of the Executive Committee all resigned. Gusau announced his resignation at a press conference in Abuja, following growing anger over how poorly Nigeria's national teams had been performing.

That poor form has been hard to ignore. The Super Eagles missed out on the 2026 World Cup after a penalty shootout loss to DR Congo in the African play-off final. Then the Super Falcons failed to qualify for the 2027 Women's World Cup too, losing their play-off to South Africa, something that had never happened before in the team's history.

The timing made things even messier. The resignations landed just a month before the NFF's Elective Congress, which had been set for September 27 in Lafia, Nasarawa State. Not long after, the NFF said it was pausing everything tied to that congress, promising a new election process once reforms are worked out with FIFA and CAF.

Now FIFA and CAF want that pause to stay in place until their review wraps up. Both bodies say they need to keep things as they are while they look into the leadership crisis and talk to the people involved.

FIFA was careful to point out that nothing has been decided yet. The letter also named Ikpeme as the main contact between the NFF and the two governing bodies going forward.

This all follows a meeting held on September 1 at FIFA headquarters in Zurich, where officials from FIFA, CAF, the NFF and the Nigerian federal government sat down together. FIFA said the meeting was meant to help them understand what exactly triggered the crisis.

Up next, FIFA and CAF plan to send a joint team to Abuja. According to the letter, that mission will sit down with NFF staff, federation members, electoral officials and government representatives, including people from the National Sports Commission, to hear everyone's side before deciding whether to recommend any next steps.

FIFA was blunt about one thing: nobody should assume how this ends. That means talk of an imminent ban on Nigeria, or plans to install a normalisation committee right away, is getting ahead of things.

So how did it get to this point? Gusau's resignation followed months of pressure building on the NFF after one setback after another for Nigeria's national teams. The Super Eagles missing the World Cup was bad enough, but the Super Falcons missing the Women's World Cup was historic for the wrong reasons, ending Nigeria's run of appearing in every edition since it began in 1991. Nigeria's youth teams struggled too.

On top of all that, there's a financial cloud hanging over the federation. The EFCC and ICPC are currently looking into how the NFF handled a ₦12 billion government fund meant for player wages, bonuses and allowances.

In response, the federal government has been pushing hard for reforms across Nigerian football, and the National Sports Commission has already put Ikpeme in charge of running the NFF Secretariat following the wave of resignations.

For now, nothing is settled. FIFA and CAF say they want the full picture before deciding what happens next, and the future of Nigerian football's leadership hangs on what that assessment finds.