Shehu Dikko, chairman of the National Sports Commission (NSC), says FIFA is yet to communicate a ruling on the petition of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) against the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo) for allegedly fielding ineligible players during the World Cup playoffs.
Dikko spoke in a chat with journalists after meeting with President Bola Tinubu at the State House on Thursday.
DR Congo defeated the Super Eagles on penalties in the final of the African playoffs for the 2026 World Cup. The loss ended Nigeria’s World Cup dream.
However, in December, the NFF filed a petition with FIFA, accusing the Congolese FA of deceit in clearing players for its national team, despite their status contravening the country’s citizenship laws.
NFF added that some of the “fraudulently registered” players played for DR Congo at the playoffs.
The matter has been tabled before the FIFA Disciplinary Committee for a ruling. However, over the past few days, Nigerians have become anxious about the case after several falsified verdicts began circulating online.
Addressing the situation, Dikko said FIFA has not informed the federations when the matter will be adjudicated, adding that “when they finish, they will tell the world”.
He added that Nigeria has a “good case” against DR Congo and is “confident” of the evidence.
“We had a misfortune or penalties in the playoffs. We lost it, but we found out there are some breaches here and there, which we believe, even before we played the playoffs, those breaches, we noticed them and we already documented them,” Dikko said.
“So ourselves and the NFF submitted to FIFA, what we feel were the breaches against the rules and regulations, which are also part of sports, it’s not being sore losers, it’s just what it is. So the relevant bodies of FIFA are dealing with it, and we are hoping, any moment, we will hear their decisions.
“But we are confident we have a good case. But I keep saying, we have put the World Cup behind us already. Whatever happens, it is what it is. But we are not looking at that, we are looking at how do you build for the next competitions, the next AFCON, the next WAFCON is next month.
“You can see how we pushed the performance at the last AFCON in Morocco, everybody was happy about it. So World Cup is a closed chapter, but yes, we have a pending legal issue to deal with. It’s not within our competence to do, our own is to say this is what we feel was the wrong thing that was done, and we leave it.
“Even FIFA, it’s not the FIFA deciding, there are independent bodies in FIFA who are independent of FIFA; disciplinary committee, ethics committee, are independent bodies of FIFA, they make their decision based on what they see on the rules and they won’t tell you, we are doing it tomorrow or next tomorrow, when they finish, they will tell the world. But we are confident that, yes, if it is legal issues, we have a good case. That’s why we submitted the case.”
Shehu Dikko also said the sports sector has “induced almost about 140,000 jobs” into the Nigerian economy in 2025.
The NSC chairman said the jobs were created both directly and indirectly across the sports sector.
“The President is talking about sports is not just being measured about the medals, it’s being measured about what you contribute, the GDP, how much was created. Last year we induced almost about 140,000 jobs, both direct, indirect and induced, across all the sporting ecosystem. That is how we are now measuring our sports and other kinds of parameters,” Dikko said.
“I remember right from the beginning, we unveiled what we call the New Hope Initiative for Nigeria Sports Economy, the real framework, which clearly defined where we are going and which way we are going, and has a clear objectives and has a clear outcomes that we are looking at, what will be the final outcome, and that is the final outcome we are seeing; we are winning on the pitch, we are also winning on the on the economic side.
“One of the things that we have to now push more is about the infrastructure because we need infrastructure to work. So we also discussed that, and part of the memos Mr President is looking at is to see how we can fast-track the development of sporting infrastructure across the country, both the elite sports and also the grassroots sports.”
In November, Dikko had revealed that sports was contributing “almost more than” one percent to Nigeria’s gross domestic product (GDP).
