Before now, there has never been any accepted relationship between football and faith. Both phenomena were considered as opposite sides and were never accepted to exist together. People have always held the opinion that God has no business with sport and in the case, football, until popular Nigerian prophet, Primate Ayodele proved otherwise.

Primate Elijah Ayodele

Primate Ayodele, the Leader of INRI Evangelical Spiritual Church, is known for his prophecies on different sectors and unlike others in the prophetic ministry, the cleric captures education, government, politics, religion, traditional institutions, sports and many other sectors in his prophecies. In his prophecies about sports, he speaks on football, boxing, wrestling, etc. and truthfully, many of his prophecies on these subjects have come to pass.

Most especially in the Nigerian football system, Primate Ayodele has been duly recognized as the only prophetic voice that accurately gives divine revelations, counsel and prophecies about coaches, players, NFF presidents and tournaments from time to time. His impact is well-known among stakeholders in the football system and this is why the current NFF president, Ibrahim Gusau, despite being a Muslim, has established a relationship with the prophet after he accurately foretold his emergence as President when he wasn’t even planning to contest.

One major thing Primate Ayodele is known for is that he doesn’t prophesy to please anyone, no matter how close you are to him, he would say it as he received it from the throne of heaven and it is on the premise that he warned the NFF president before the last AFCON which was cheaply took away from the Super Eagles and more recently, the choice of Finidi George as the coach.

In 2023, during an event to celebrate his annual thanksgiving, Primate Ayodele publicly assured the NFF president who was in attendance that the Super Eagles will reach the final stage of the AFCON tournament and if they can listen, Nigeria has all it takes to lift the cup. However, he later advised the federation to change the coach and warned against using some players during the tournament. Unfortunately, his warnings were not adhered to and this cost the country victory at the finals.

Finidi George

On Finidi George, Primate Ayodele in a viral video mentioned that the ex-eagles player will be a disaster to Nigeria’s football. He made it known that the choice of Finidi George will put Nigeria’s football in shambles and his administration will not be any good to the country. These revelations were made before Finidi George had any major match and surprisingly, the prophetic revelation of Primate Ayodele came to pass at the very first major outing of Finidi George and this led to his disgraceful resignation, making his administration one of the shortest Nigeria has ever had.

Beyond Super Eagles, Primate Ayodele’s prophetic prowess transcends into the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) as his prophecies about the just concluded 2023/2024 season have been fulfilled. In November 2023, He prophesied the fate of some clubs including Abia Warriors and Doma FC.

For Abia Warriors, Primate Ayodele revealed that the club will not win the first to third position while Doma FC will not have a good outing.

These were his words:

‘’Abia warriors might not be able to make 1st to 3rd in this season.’’

‘Doma FC will not have a good outing this season. They will have a series of troubles, confusion and they need to be careful.’

Just as he revealed, Abia warriors finished 12th and Doma FC got relegated.

With his antecedents, Primate Ayodele has been able to establish that God is interested in every area of man’s life and that there is a place of faith or religion in every man’s dealings.