•Favour Ofili
The World Athletics (WA) has declared that it has neither reviewed nor confirmed the four transfer of allegiance applications it received from the Turkish Athletics Federation, which reportedly includes Nigeria’s Favour Ofili.
The statement from the world athletics governing body comes amidst viral reports that the 22-year-old Ofili has officially begun the process of switching allegiance to Turkey, less than three months before the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, reports The Guardian.
Though World Athletics did not disclose any individual names, the governing body said the applications are currently under review by the Nationality Review Panel (NRP), the independent body responsible for handling all nationality change requests by the sport’s rules and ethics.
The World Athletics Communications Manager, Maphuti Hlako, hinted: “We can confirm that the NRP (Nationality Review Panel) has received four applications from the Turkish Member Federation requesting athlete transfers, these applications have neither been reviewed as of yet, nor approved by the NRP.”
Apart from Ofili, four Jamaicans have also requested to change allegiance to Turkey. They are short putter Rajindra Campbell, triple jumper Jaydon Hibbert, long jump star Wayne Pinnock, and Olympic shot-put champion, Rojae Stona.
The athletes would reportedly get $500,000 each and a monthly $30,000 stipend to change nationalities if they accepted to represent Turkey.
