By Samuel Akpan
The Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) has urged football authorities to treat the current leadership void as an opportunity for genuine institutional reform rather than a quick fix.
Speaking at Abuja’s Onomo Hotel on Friday, SWAN President Isaiah Benjamin presented an 18-page position paper to the joint FIFA/CAF Fact-Finding Mission, emphasizing that Nigerian football requires a fundamental reset rather than surface-level changes.
“Nigeria does not require another cosmetic adjustment to its football administration. Nigeria requires a reset,” he said.
The submission followed the resignations of NFF President Alhaji Ibrahim Gusau, General Secretary Dr Mohammed Sanusi and board members.
Benjamin urged stakeholders to rethink the entire governance structure from the grassroots to the NFF Executive Committee.
He warned that hurrying into another election under the existing system could simply recreate the same flaws that have repeatedly produced disputes, leadership crises and interim arrangements in Nigerian football.
“The current leadership vacuum provides an opportunity to address the fundamental question of what governance framework Nigerian football requires to become more democratic, accountable, commercially sustainable, development-oriented and internationally competitive,” Benjamin said.
PerSecondNews reports that a core demand in the document calls for ending the media’s 16-year exclusion from formal football governance.
SWAN maintains that sports journalists are vital to restoring institutional memory, public accountability, and stakeholder connection to the sport.