Nigeria’s biggest contractor for sports infrastructure has lamented the unhealthy involvement of some administrators in his country in projects for the delivery of sports infrastructure.
In a post on social media, Ebi Egbe, managing director of Monimichelle construction company, called “administrators using proxy unqualified companies to acquire stadium projects the most damaging structural issues in Nigerian football development. When contracts for stadiums, training pitches, floodlights, turf systems, and sports complexes are influenced by politically connected proxy companies rather than technically competent firms, the result is usually poor-quality infrastructure, abandoned projects, inflated costs, and facilities that fail international standards.”
Egbe, who has been building sports infrastructure for over 15 years already, points out that “In the sports construction industry, especially pitch construction, once contractors prioritise profit over quality or clients assume football pitch construction is cheap, we will continue getting it wrong. A standard football pitch is a technical infrastructure project, not just ordinary landscaping.”
Flawed bidding processes
To have this arrested, the government revitalised its National sports commission (NSC) in October 2024. However, according to Egbe, points bidding processes are now being manipulated, contract pricing appears to be unrealistic, and administrative favouritism and coordinated blackmail or propaganda campaigns further muddy the situation.
“The consequences are visible across Nigerian football: poor playing surfaces causing injuries, stadiums failing CAF/FIFA inspection, lack of maintenance culture, waste of public funds, and clubs forced to play home matches away from their states,” he said.
The Nigerian sports infrastructure, with football infrastructure in particular, is currently facing a crisis.
According to Egbe, “a separation of administrative duties from professional groundsmanship will drastically reduce the poor construction and bad maintenance culture of football pitches in Nigeria. For Nigerian football to improve sustainably, football administrators need to prioritise competence, long-term facility durability, and international compliance over patronage networks. Genuine sports infrastructure development is highly specialised. Building a FIFA quality pitch is very different from ordinary civil construction because it involves: subsoil engineering, irrigation systems, turf science, drainage gradients, player safety standards, lighting lux calculations and environmental considerations. Without experienced professionals handling these projects, Nigeria will continue spending heavily while producing infrastructure that cannot compete globally.”