World Athletics has rejected the application to transfer Nigerian sprinter Favour Ofili’s national allegiance to Turkiye.
The ruling on Thursday said that the move was part of a government-funded recruitment campaign that threatened the integrity of international competition, and the development of homegrown athletic talent.
The World Athletics Nationality Review Panel ruled unanimously that approving the transfer would impinge upon and compromise the imperatives established in the World Athletics Transfer of Allegiance Regulations.
Ofili, 23, is one of Africa’s most accomplished sprinters. She holds the Nigerian women’s 200m record of 21.96 seconds, set during her collegiate career at Louisiana State University, where she became the first female NCAA athlete to break 22 seconds in the event.
She finished sixth in the 200m final at the Paris 2024 Olympics and holds the world 150m record of 15.85 seconds, set in Atlanta in May 2025.
The Turkiye Athletics Federation filed the application on July 4, 2025, making Ofili one of 11 athletes from Nigeria, Kenya, Jamaica, and Russia whose transfer requests were submitted as a group.
The panel assessed all 11 applications together, finding them to be part of a coordinated strategy led by the Turkish Ministry of Sport and Youth through a government-owned club, the Istanbul Directorate of Sport, Istanbul Genclik Spor Kulubu, known as IGSK.
The panel’s decision described the scheme as a recruitment drive intended to assemble a nationally representative athletics team for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games by purchasing the services of established international athletes, primarily from countries with strong athletics traditions.
The case has drawn wide attention within global athletics as part of a growing controversy over Turkiye’s efforts to recruit established international talent for the 2028 Olympic Games.
Among the other athletes whose transfer applications were assessed as part of the same block were Olympic discus champion Roje Stona of Jamaica, Olympic long jump silver medalist Wayne Pinnock, Olympic shot put bronze medalist Rajindra Campbell, and world under-20 triple jump record holder Jaydon Hibbert. Those decisions were not published as part of Thursday’s ruling.
Under the terms of Ofili’s club contract, she was to receive $10,000 per month from April 2025 through July 2028, followed by $5,000 per month through October 2032.
Ofili had been granted Turkish citizenship in May 14, 2025, and was not required to relinquish her Nigerian citizenship.
The panel found that the strategy directly undermined three core principles of the Transfer of Allegiance Regulations: protecting the credibility of national representative competition, encouraging member federations to invest in developing domestic athletic talent, and ensuring young athletes can pursue national team pathways without fear that those spots will be filled by athletes recruited from abroad.
“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,” the panel wrote in its decision.
The panel also assessed Ofili’s individual circumstances and found they did not alter its overall conclusion. It acknowledged her grievances with the Athletics Federation of Nigeria, which the panel confirmed had failed to register her for the 100m at the Paris 2024 Olympics despite her having qualified.
They had previously prevented her from competing at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics by failing to complete required anti-doping paperwork. Those failures were described in the ruling as established facts.
Ofili, in her declaration to the panel, had cited both institutional failures and personal safety concerns in Nigeria as reasons for her decision. She stated that the transfer aimed to protect her sports career and mental health. The panel took note of those concerns and said that her safety and welfare claims had been referred to World Athletics’ safeguarding processes.
However, they determined that the athlete’s grievances with her home federation, while noted as context, were not determinative of national allegiance under the rules. It also found that Ofili’s connection to Turkey had not been sufficiently established. At the time of application, she lived, studied, and trained in Louisiana.
Although the panel determined that she had been spending holidays and off-season periods in Antalya and had moved her primary residence to Turkiye in December 2025, it found that these steps did not constitute the genuine, close, credible, and established link required under World Athletics rules.
Because Ofili last represented Nigeria at the Paris 2024 Olympics, World Athletics rules require a three-year waiting period from the application date before a transfer can be approved. The panel found that even under that framework, the conditions were unlikely to be met and that the broader Council imperatives took precedence in any case.
The panel did make clear that the ruling does not prevent Ofili from continuing to live, train, or compete in club or invitational events in Turkiye or elsewhere. It affects only her eligibility to represent the country in national representative competitions such as the World Athletics Championships and the Olympic Games.
The Athletics Federation of Nigeria was notified of Ofili’s application on July 3, 2025, one day before it was formally filed but the federation did not respond to the panel during proceedings.
At the time Ofili publicly confirmed her switch in September 2025, AFN President Tonobok Okowa offered a sharply different assessment of her motivations.
“Ofili herself knows the whole truth,” Okowa told ESPN. “This is all about money.”
Ofili, in her own statement, denied that financial considerations drove her decision, writing that the change came “from the heart, not from financial motives.”
On Thursday, however, the AFN welcomed the ruling and said it was ready to move forward with the athlete. Okowa said the federation had officially welcomed Ofili back and called on the wider athletics community to rally around her.
“What she needs most from stakeholders is love, support, encouragement and more love,” Okowa said in a statement issued by AFN Media Committee Chairman Maxwell Kumoye.
The federation said Ofili’s return was expected to boost Nigeria’s sprint prospects ahead of major international competitions, and called on officials, fans, and the athletics community to provide an environment in which she could reach her potential on the global stage.
The TAF have 30 days from the date of this decision to request reconsideration, and may subsequently appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
