Favour Ofili, the 24-year-old Nigerian sprinter, missed the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and later the 100m at the Paris 2024 Olympics due to no mistake of her own, but because of errors from the Athletics Federation of Nigeria, which pushed her to switch allegiance to Turkey. By May 2025, she had secured Turkish citizenship, but World Athletics had yet to clear the transfer. After months of waiting, World Athletics recently rejected her request along with that of 10 other athletes. So what’s the next move now?

Following World Athletics’ decision, the Turkish Athletics Federation has now confirmed it will challenge the ruling with CAS, alongside Ofili and 10 other athletes whose applications were blocked in the same case. The appeal was first reported by journalist Kayon Raynor.

He stated, “Breaking @turkeyathletic will be appealing the decision by  @worldathletics to turn down the transfer of allegiance applications of 11 athletes including 4 J’can Olympians.”

While Turkey is gearing up to fight the decision, the Nigerian Federation’s president is also keen on having Ofili back.

“We have nothing against her,” Tonobok Okowa said. “We want to keep working with her,” he added. Clearly, both Turkey and Nigeria wish to have Ofili in their national teams.

Meanwhile, Ofili finds herself in a tough spot. World Athletics recently confirmed, “The Application by the TAF for Favour Ofili (the ‘Athlete’) to transfer allegiance from NGR to TUR is not approved.” As a result, Ofili remains ineligible to represent Turkey in major international competitions such as the Olympic Games and World Championships, although she is still free to live, train, and compete at the club level.

Alongside Favour  Ofili, the case includes several high-profile names in world athletics, such as Olympic discus champion Roje Stona, Olympic long jump silver medallist Wayne Pinnock, Olympic shot put bronze medallist Rajindra Campbell, world U20 triple jump record holder Jaydon Hibbert, as well as Brigid Kosgei, Brian Kibor, Ronald Kwemoi, Nelvin Jepkemboi, and Catherine Relin Amanang’ole.

This then raised a key question: why were all these athletes rejected together?

According to World Athletics, this was a coordinated recruitment strategy led by Turkey. The governing body said the move formed part of a state-supported effort aimed at strengthening its athletics programme ahead of the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games.

It stated: “By importing athletes specifically to fill national team positions for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games, the Turkiye Ministry-led recruitment campaign directly displaces and compromises those domestic athletes, undermining their long-term pathway expectations.”

But what pushed Ofili to change allegiance in the first place? Apparently, Olympic setbacks did.

Favour Ofili is one of Africa’s most accomplished sprinters in the 200m. She holds the Nigerian women’s 200m record of 21.96 seconds, set during her collegiate career at LSU, where she also became the first female NCAA athlete to break the 22-second barrier in the event. Despite that success, her international career faced repeated Olympic setbacks because of administrative issues in Nigerian athletics.

It began at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, which she missed after Nigeria failed to meet mandatory anti-doping testing requirements. At the Paris 2024 Olympics, officials again left her out of the women’s 100m despite her qualification, this time because of a registration error. Although she still reached the 200m final, these back-to-back disruptions pushed her to reconsider her future and change allegiance.

Soon after, Ofili moved forward with her switch to Turkey, securing citizenship by May 2025 and signing a lucrative, long-term contract with a government-backed club. The deal provided significant financial stability, guaranteeing her $10,000 per month through the 2028 Olympic cycle and $5,000 per month until October 2032.

In her allegiance shift to Turkey, she shared with World Athletics the reason as the career management issues, emotional strain, and a lack of consistent institutional support. However, her decision sparked mixed reactions.

AFN President Tonobok Okowa told ESPN, “Ofili herself knows the whole truth. This is all about money.”

But after months of review, World Athletics has officially rejected her transfer. So far, Ofili has not made any detailed public statement on the final decision. Following the rejection, Roje Stona shared his reaction through his agent, Paul Doyle:

“Athletes in the past have been approved, and now all of a sudden, these ones aren’t. They’ve really, truly embraced Turkish culture, so to me it doesn’t make sense. He’s not happy, obviously, but he understands that it’s a process. Hopefully, we can get through this and it’ll work out as favourably as possible for him.”

Now the case moves to the CAS, and whether Ofili and the others can overturn the decision remains to be seen!