By Amaechi Agbo

The Nigeria Football Federation, NFF on Saturday goofed after the federation used its old logo Nigeria Football Association (NFA) on its official message.

The federation while celebrating the victory of Nigeria’s U-17 Africa Cup of Nations, AFCON last Group B win against South Africa posted a picture of the victorious Golden Eaglets with a logo bearing NFA.

With the message, “Let’s go” accompanying a picture with “qualified” as caption on its Twitter handle on Saturday, the picture has an “Nigeria Football Association Abuja” logo.

Nigeria’s football is currently run in part under the NFA Act of 2004 and partly by a military Decree 101 of 1992, both of which recognize the football federation as the NFA (Nigeria Football Association) rather than the NFF. That difference in nomenclature has been the basis of lawsuits in the past.

In 2017 Nigeria’s Parliament, the Senate passed the NFF Bill, which would not only give legal backing to the Nigeria Football Federation under its ‘NFF’ nomenclature, but also guarantee it independence from government.

The Bill, which was originally sent to the House during the tenure of Aminu Maigari as NFF president in 2012, is expected to replace both Decree 101 of 1992 and the NFA Act of 2004.

It would still need to be passed by the House of Representatives before being signed into law by the country’s president.

However with the tenure of President Muhammadu Buhari ending on 29thbofnthis month, it remains not be seen if he could assent the bill which has been on his desk for five years.

The Nigeria Football Association, NFA changed its name to Nigeria Football Federation, NFF in 2008 without a legal backing.

NFF as it is currently known (but NFA under the law) was formally launched in 1945 and formed the first Nigerian national football team in 1949.

It joined CAF in 1959 and FIFA in 1960. The NFF headquarters is located in the city of Abuja.

The Golden Eaglets came from behind twice on Saturday to beat South Africa 2-3 in an enthralling encounter as they qualified for the quarter-final of the tournament holding in Algeria.

They will face Burkina in the last 8 on Thursday

A win for the Nduka Ugbade led teenagers will hand them a ticket for the 2023 FIFA U-17 World Cup later in the year.