State FA Chairmen are victims, not the problem of Nigerian Football

State FA Chairmen are victims, not the problem of Nigerian Football

By Ruth Dave Williams

I have to confess: I have changed my mind about State FA Chairmen.

And I don't make that confession lightly.

For years, like many people who follow Nigerian football, I have listened to the endless criticism of State Football Association Chairmen. In sports WhatsApp groups, chatrooms, conversations among football people and even in sections of the sports media, the refrain is almost always the same:

State FAs have too much power.

State FA Chairmen are the problem.

Their influence at the NFF Congress must be reduced.

I have heard it so often that, at some point, it almost became accepted wisdom.

Then I read the Nigeria Football Reform Framework 2026 authored by the State FA-led Congress of the Nigeria Football Federation.

And honestly, I was stunned.

As I went through the document, one question kept disturbing me:

How can these people we have spent years calling useless, incompetent and self-serving produce something like this?

What exactly have we been missing?

What exactly have I been missing?

That was the moment I began looking at State FA Chairmen differently.

Maybe We Have Been Blaming the Wrong People

I began asking myself some uncomfortable questions.

Why are State FA Chairmen so despised?

Why is there such a strong campaign to reduce their influence?

Why are they constantly portrayed as an obstacle to progress?

Why is their representation at the NFF Congress treated almost like a national emergency?

And why, when these same people finally put forward a serious reform document, is there comparatively little excitement or serious discussion around it?

That last question bothers me the most.

The Nigeria Football Reform Framework 2026 is not a document you can simply dismiss because you dislike the people who produced it.

Read it.

Challenge it.

Disagree with it where necessary.

Improve it where possible.

But read it.

Instead, I have watched the conversation around Nigerian football continue to focus disproportionately on how to weaken the State Football Associations.

At some point, I had to ask myself whether we have become so conditioned to blaming State FA Chairmen that we no longer bother to ask whether they are actually the problem.

Maybe they aren't.

Maybe they are victims of the system too

What Exactly Have We Got Against State FAs?

Let us go back to the basics.

The State Football Associations are the football institutions closest to the grassroots.

They operate within the states.

They organise and support competitions.

They are involved in youth development, amateur football, women's football, grassroots football, refereeing, coaching and the administration of football activities within their territories.

They are part of the machinery through which Nigerian football is supposed to develop.

So I keep asking:

Why should the people carrying such responsibilities not have a voice in the national football parliament?

Do State Football Associations deserve their seats at the NFF Congress?

My answer is an emphatic yes.

Not because every State FA Chairman is competent.

Not because every State FA is well run.

Not because they have never made mistakes.

But because institutional representation should not depend on whether every individual occupying a seat is perfect.

If that were the standard, practically every institution in Nigerian football would lose its right to representation.

Representation Is Not the Problem

I have studied the structure of football federation congresses in different parts of Africa and Europe, and geographical representation is hardly some strange Nigerian invention.

It is a feature of football governance in many countries.

In fact, they are in majority in over 95% of the football parliament I have studied.

So why should Nigeria suddenly behave as if the presence of State Football Associations in the NFF Congress is an abnormality?

And who exactly should have greater representation?

The people who operate football at the state and grassroots level?

The clubs?

The leagues?

The players?

The coaches?

The referees?

The women?

The zones?

These are all legitimate questions.

But the answer cannot simply be:

“Remove the State FA Chairmen because they have too much influence.”

That is not reform.

That is rearranging power.

Real reform should ask whether representation is fair, proportional, transparent and capable of producing accountability.

And on that basis, I believe State Football Associations have earned their place.

He Who Works Must Chop

There is a Nigerian expression I keep coming back to:

He who works must chop.

It may sound crude, but there is a governance principle buried inside it.

If you expect an institution to carry responsibility for football development, that institution must have resources and a voice.

From my findings, State Football Associations receive only about ₦1 million annually from the Federation.

If that figure is correct, then we have a serious problem.

You cannot give an institution responsibility for football development across a state, starve it of resources and then turn around to complain that it is ineffective.

You cannot demand performance from an institution you deliberately keep weak.

You cannot ask State FAs to develop football from the grassroots while withholding the resources required to do the job.

And you certainly cannot weaken their voice at Congress and pretend that doing so will automatically improve Nigerian football.

Perhaps We Should Strengthen Them Instead

This is where my thinking has changed most dramatically.

I don't want a State FA Chairman who is a rubber stamp.

I don't want a State FA that simply follows whatever the NFF executive says.

I don't want a State FA that simply follows the instructions of a state governor.

I don't want State FA officials whose only concern is travelling with national teams.

I want strong State Football Associations.

Independent State Football Associations.

Professional State Football Associations.

Accountable State Football Associations.

State Football Associations that can look the NFF executive in the face and say:

“No. This is not good for Nigerian football.”

That is the kind of State FA I want.

And if that requires reforming the way they are elected, funded and governed, then let us reform those things.

If their finances need greater transparency, let us demand it.

If their officials need stronger accountability, let us create it.

If their representation needs proportional adjustment, let us debate it.

But don't destroy the institution because some people have abused the institution.

I Am Beginning to See the State FA Chairman Differently

Perhaps this is the most personal part of this whole argument for me.

I started reading the Reform Framework expecting to find the usual political calculations.

Instead, I found myself asking whether we have been unfair to an entire category of football administrators.

I found myself wondering whether some of the people we casually abuse and ridicule are actually fighting for something bigger than themselves.

Maybe some are.

Maybe some aren't.

But the document has forced me to reconsider the blanket judgment.

And that is why I find the current conversation so troubling.

We cannot spend years telling State FA Chairmen that they are useless, then ignore them when they demonstrate that they have ideas about how Nigerian football should be governed.

That is intellectually dishonest.

If the document is wrong, tell us where it is wrong.

If the proposals are impractical, explain why.

If the legal arguments don't hold, challenge them.

If the governance model is flawed, propose a better one.

But don't simply dismiss the document because of who authored it.

The Sports Media Also Needs to Look in the Mirror

I am equally uncomfortable with the role of the sports media in all of this.

The media has enormous power to shape public perception.

For years, the State FA Chairman has been an easy target.

A convenient villain.

Whenever Nigerian football fails, there is always someone ready to point at the State FA.

Whenever elections become controversial, the State FA Chairman is blamed.

Whenever Congress takes a decision somebody doesn't like, the State FA is blamed.

But perhaps journalism requires more than repeating the popular narrative.

Perhaps we should sometimes stop and ask:

Is the popular narrative actually true?

The limited attention given to the State FA-led Reform Framework has therefore been disappointing to me.

A document of this significance should be subjected to rigorous public scrutiny.

Not silence.

Not ridicule.

Not tribalism.

Not personality politics.

Debate it.

State FAs Are Not the Enemy

I have arrived at a position that may not be popular in some football circles.

I believe State FA Chairmen are victims of the Nigerian football system as much as they are participants in it.

They are operating within a structure that often gives them enormous responsibilities but limited resources.

They are expected to deliver grassroots football without adequate funding.

They are expected to administer football without sufficient institutional capacity.

They are expected to remain independent while operating within environments where political influence is enormous.

And then, after all of that, they are told that the solution to Nigerian football's problems is to reduce their voice.

I don't buy it.

Let Them Speak

The State Football Associations have spoken through the Nigeria Football Reform Framework 2026.

For me, that changes the conversation.

It doesn't mean they are automatically right.

It doesn't mean their proposals should be accepted without scrutiny.

It simply means they have earned the right to be heard.

And perhaps that is the biggest lesson I have personally taken from reading their reform outlook.

Never allow your prejudice about the messenger to prevent you from hearing the message.

I went into that document expecting to find evidence that State FA Chairmen were part of the problem.

I came out asking whether we have been unfairly making them the problem.

Maybe the real challenge is not how to silence them.

Maybe it is how to make them strong enough, independent enough and accountable enough to help save Nigerian football.

For once, instead of asking:

“How do we reduce the power of the State FA?”

perhaps we should ask:

“How do we build a State FA strong enough to hold everybody—including the NFF executive, government and themselves—accountable?”

That, to me, is what genuine football reform should look like.

And after reading that document, I am no longer convinced that the State FA Chairmen are the villains of this story.

Maybe they are victims too

. Ruth Dave Williams is a passionate freelance footballer writer. She lives in Abuja