Doubt continues to surround Favour Ofili's rumoured switch from Nigeria to Turkey

 Torchlight news.


Doubt Continues to Surround Favour Ofili’s Rumoured Switch from Nigeria to Turkey



Reports surfaced earlier in the week claiming Nigerian sprint star Favour Ofili had filed paperwork with the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) to transfer her allegiance to Turkey. According to those reports, the 22-year-old was fed up with what she sees as neglect and repeated administrative lapses by the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) and the Nigerian Olympic Committee (NOC).

The breaking point, the stories said, came at the Paris 2024 Olympics, where Ofili was left off the 100 metres start list despite meeting the qualifying mark—a déjà-vu of the Tokyo 2020 fiasco in which a similar clerical blunder cost her a place.

Yet Nigeria’s National Sports Commission (NSC) insists no formal notice has landed on its desk. “As far as we are concerned, Favour is still a Nigerian athlete,” NSC Director-General Bukola Olopade told reporters on Wednesday. Olopade noted that Ofili is part of the NSC’s Elite Athletes Programme, which awards Category A athletes an annual grant of USD 20,000 to help them prepare for major championships.

Adding to the fog, former Super Eagles media officer Colin Udoh revealed on X (formerly Twitter) that World Athletics has received four transfer requests from Turkey involving athletes from Jamaica and Nigeria. “The applications haven’t been reviewed or approved yet, so nothing is official,” Udoh wrote.

BBC Africa’s Oluwashina Okeleji agrees the path forward is uncertain: “It might happen—or it might not. There are plenty of hurdles. The initial reports announcing a completed switch were simply wrong.”

If Ofili does eventually change flags, she would join a roll call of Nigerian-born athletes who found new homes abroad, including Francis Obikwelu (Portugal), Glory Alozie (Spain), Florence Ekpo-Umoh (Germany), Salwa Eid Naser (Bahrain) and Femi Ogunode (Qatar). For now, though, the talented sprinter—on paper—still runs in green and white.

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