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The chairman of the National Sports Commission (NSC), Mallam Shehu Dikko, has told the players’ bloc that the Professional Footballers Association of Nigeria (PFAN) is the only body legally recognised to work with the NSC and the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF).
Dikko made the remarks during a two-hour interactive session with the players’ bloc on September 14, shortly before their meeting with a FIFA delegation. He said the recognition is backed by the National Sports Commission Establishment Act 2023, and that the NSC and NFF cannot work outside the law. He urged the players to close ranks under PFAN for the benefit of the ongoing football reforms and transition process.
The players had held a private meeting at Sandralia Hotel the previous night. “We resolved to keep our differences aside and speak with one voice as a united front,” said Prince Harrison Jalla, Chairman of PFAN’s Board of Trustees.
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Jalla said past NFF leaderships spent decades using a divide-and-rule policy to stall the growth of the players’ union. He added that Dikko, a former Vice Chairman and later Chairman of the League Management Company and a 2nd Vice President of the NFF for eight years, “thoroughly understands the history and politics” behind that stagnation.
Jalla commended Dikko and NSC Director General Bukola Olopade. “Putting the self-induced players’ union crisis to rest is giving the ongoing football reforms and transition process a human face,” he said.
He said the FIFA delegation was pleased to see Tijani Babangida, Harrison Jalla and Chikelu Ileanyosi make their presentation as one united body.
