The Senate on Tuesday passed the Nigeria Football
Federation (NFF) Bill 2017 after third reading. The passage followed a clause by clause
consideration of the bill and a voice vote by the
lawmakers.

Sponsor of the Bill, Sen. Obinna Ogba, had
presented the report of the Committee on Sports
and Youth Development before the passage. Presenting the report, Ogba, explained that it had
become important to repeal the extant law guiding
activities of football in the country in view of
controversies surrounding its implementation. He said there had been series of court cases
relating to football and that the passage of the bill
would bring such to rest as issues regarding the
NFF would be tackled by the Court of Arbitration
and not regular courts.

“It has become necessary to repeal the Extant Act.
This is because it requires a lot of amendments to
bring it into agreement with FIFA required
international best practices. It is to give the desired
boost it requires. “The Bill has no financial implication because it is
only seeking for a change in the name of the
football body in order to achieve greater and
better results in future. “It seeks to ensure that only those who are
actually involved in competitive football matches
are members of the Federation and not just
organisations and establishments as contained in
the extant act.

“The bill also makes provision for the election of a
President to lead the Executive Committee as
against the existing law where the governing
body of the association is a board appointed from
different organisations. “It further seeks to ensure mandatory systematic
development of football through institutional, age
and gender competitions. “Also, the bill makes provision for development of
coaches and referees to enable them participate in
international competitions,’’ he said. According to Ogba, the bill takesk care of funding,
which has been a major problem in the country. He said unlike Nigeria, where the Federal
Government was expected to fund football
competitions and tournaments, countries like
England, Spain, Italy governments were not
involved in funding of football development.

He said that in these countries, football was
developed and funded by club owners through
the establishment of feeder teams and signing on
of identified star players. “This country has not achieved that and this is one
of the objectives of the Federation. “The committee strongly believes that through this
piece of legislation, the objectives as expressed in
the long title of the bill and explanatory
memorandum will be achieved,’’ Ogba said. He called on the House of Representatives to pass a
similar bill to allow for concurrent and onward
transmission to the Presidency for assent. Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki, commended
the committee for a job well done. Saraki said, “the message here is for us to bring
Nigeria in line with best practices and best ways to
administer football in the country.

“This has been an embarrassment over the years,
but with the passage of this bill, the grey areas will
be taken care of”.

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