Kennedy Boboye has offered a blunt assessment of the NFF’s chances at CAS, arguing that Nigeria bungled the protest from the very start and that no court can fix a case built on procedural failure.
Kennedy Boboye has seen enough football administration go wrong to know when a protest is dead on arrival. The Bendel Insurance head coach told FootballInNigeria.com.ng this week that the Nigeria Football Federation’s planned appeal at the Court of Arbitration for Sport against FIFA’s ruling on the DR Congo play-off is unlikely to succeed, and his reasoning cuts to the core of how the entire process was mishandled.
“Protests are filed within 24 hours,” Boboye said. “It could even start during the game once you identify genuine grounds. Next, you pay the protest fee. That confirms the protest process. But if you wait for days and then hurriedly submit a protest without fulfilling the requirements, it doesn’t make sense to expect FIFA to entertain it.”
His verdict on the CAS route was equally unsparing. “Going to CAS won’t perform any magic. It will be difficult for CAS to overturn FIFA’s verdict because the initial protest conditions were not met.”
What Went Wrong in Rabat
The Super Eagles and DR Congo played out a 1-1 draw on November 16, 2025 at the Crown Prince Moulay El Hassan Stadium in Rabat, with the Leopards winning 4-3 on penalties to book their spot at the intercontinental play-offs. The NFF subsequently filed a protest alleging that DR Congo fielded ineligible players, but FIFA dismissed it on technical grounds, citing both the timing of the submission and the failure to pay the mandatory protest fee of 1,000 Swiss francs.
Reports later emerged that FIFA had notified the NFF about the missing fee as far back as March 9, yet the federation only publicly acknowledged the situation this week. FIFA confirmed that DR Congo’s players had valid passports and prior approval for their change of national association, effectively closing the door on the substance of Nigeria’s complaint before any review of it could begin.
Boboye Puts the Blame Firmly on Nigeria
The Bendel Insurance coach was careful not to excuse the broader failure with sentiment. He’s right that there was a genuine eligibility question worth asking. The Congolese government does not recognise dual nationality as a general rule, with an exception only for children born abroad who hold citizenship of their birth country. Whether the flagged players actually met that threshold was never properly tested because the NFF didn’t follow the process required to force that test.
“You don’t approach a competition with overconfidence when you haven’t put your house in order,” Boboye said. “No country is a minnow anymore. We lost our chance during the qualification series, and trying to cut corners at this stage is not appropriate. It’s unfortunate we may miss the World Cup again, but the real question is whether we will learn from this.”
Boboye’s Own Season With Bendel Insurance
Away from the national team drama, Boboye has been doing solid work at club level since taking charge of Bendel Insurance in October 2025. The Benin Arsenal currently sit seventh on the NPFL table with 44 points, a position that still gives them a realistic shot at a continental ticket if they can win consistently across their remaining eight fixtures. Boboye’s target is a top-three finish, and with Nasarawa United having lost ground after leading the standings for much of the season, the race is far from settled. Fans following the NPFL run-in and Nigeria’s ongoing legal battle with FIFA can find all the latest updates and this month’s Bet9ja YOHAIG promotion code for enhanced odds on Nigerian football here.
📌 Did You Know?
- Kennedy Boboye previously managed Sunshine Stars, Kano Pillars, and MFM FC before joining Bendel Insurance, making him one of the most well-travelled coaches in NPFL history with experience across Nigeria’s north, southwest, and south-south football regions.
- The mandatory protest fee for FIFA competitions is 1,000 Swiss francs, equivalent to roughly 1.9 million naira at current exchange rates — a sum that makes the failure to pay it all the more puzzling given what was at stake.
- Bendel Insurance, known as the Benin Arsenal, won their only NPFL title in 1979/80 under the old Nigerian league structure and have been chasing a return to continental football for over two decades since their last CAF competition appearance.
- DR Congo’s November 2025 penalty shootout victory over Nigeria was only the second time the two countries had met in a World Cup qualifying play-off, with the previous encounter dating back to the 1974 qualifying series won by DR Congo, then known as Zaire.
- The Court of Arbitration for Sport, which would hear the NFF’s appeal if accepted, has previously ruled against national football federations in eligibility-based protests where the original submission failed to meet the procedural requirements of the governing body involved.
- Nigeria’s Super Eagles have now failed to qualify for three consecutive FIFA World Cups, with exits in 2022, 2023 (technically 2022 qualifying cycle), and now 2026, a streak that represents the country’s worst qualifying run since they first appeared at the tournament in 1994.
- FIFA’s rules on eligibility protests in World Cup qualifying are governed by the FIFA Disciplinary Code and the specific competition regulations, which require protests to be submitted in writing within two hours of the final whistle in most cases, with the fee paid simultaneously.
