Forensics on Nigeria’s football fortunes

Nigerian football analysts and enthusiasts fondly return to the proverbial drawing board after major tournaments. The last successive months have seen the Flying Eagles, Super Falcons and the Super Eagles participate in international competitions all with not too impressive outcomes. I use this medium to ink my own graffiti on that drawing board, if one can still find space there.

A few hours before the Flying Eagles jetted off for the FIFA U-20 World Cup, I was engaged with a sports journalist on radio who argued that the bane of Nigerian football is our lack of continuity. He maintained that because we don’t have a habit of promoting our players collectively from the age-grade competitions to the senior teams, we weren’t getting the best from our football. I disagreed with him. I claimed that we can’t keep mediocrity in the name of continuity. I referred to players that end up losing their forms, players that were earlier dropped later upping up their games to displace those that made it ahead of them, players that decide to take up other interests in life, injuries, and not to talk of age fraud that tells on them later. Summary of what I was telling the guy in the studio was that all over the world, promotion is not a right, teams and individual players must earn it.

Anyway, the Flying Eagles gave an uninspiring performance during their short stay in Poland and not surprisingly, loud calls for them to be disbanded resounded. I couldn’t get back to my radio pal but I wondered whether he stood his ground that those boys be kept together and groomed to the immediate rung above them or he joined the majority that wanted them dispersed.

What this means is that the Nigerian Football Federation must be deliberate, through its technical department, in the formulation of a football philosophy tailored to our temperaments, resources, strengths, weaknesses and aspirations. This programme, which will be subject to periodic reviews, will be similar to what the Ministry of Education does with schools’ curricula. This developed football blueprint will then be sent to football academies (which should be run formally and must all be affiliated to the football authorities). This also entails the training of pedagogues who should be the propagators by practicalising them in their various primary postings.

Next is the Super Falcons. Despite being part of every Women’s World Cup since its inception in 1991 and pioneers of the women’s game on the continent, Nigeria still attends every Mundial with the disposition of a debutant and has seen its dominance in Africa clipped. Is it not worrying that nations that just began female football less than a decade ago like Netherlands, Italy, Japan and even South Africa and Equatorial Guinea have practically overtaken us or at least muscling shoulders with us?

Women football in Nigeria, notwithstanding its overwhelming successes in the African Women Cup of Nations, has suffered locally. If we were a serious nation, the Nigeria Women Premier League should have been not only a reference point but a hub for young girls in the continent to ply their trade but alas, the league is comatose. How then do we expect to sustain our African dominance or push the envelope at the global stage?

Aside placing women football in the back burner, football authorities have continued to take missteps in the development and franchising of the game. For instance, the South-south region remains the centre of gravity for the women’s game in the country, but whether by commission or omission, NFF continues to stage showpiece matches like their qualifying matches and Federation (FA) Cup finals for women outside the region. This practice has seen such matches played on scanty stands without TV coverage thereby making it unattractive to would-be sponsors and commercial partners.

Another misstep is the attempt to host the FIFA under 20 Women’s World Cup next year. First of all, nobody wants to host it and secondly age grade World Cups often come without economic benefits. Why don’t we invest in the development of the domestic game for the profit of our girls instead of hosting a cosmetic party for outsiders?

Now to the biggest masquerade: the Super Eagles. From the less convincing squad selected for the Nations Cup in Egypt, to the recurring errors that befall us in major tournaments, the national team is definitely punching below its weight. With an enviable pedigree and population size, setting a semi-final target for the national team in an AFCON is nothing but a pedestrian mark.

There are of course other things to talk about the national teams but let me zero in on owed allowances which is a negative that tends to undo all the hard work. The Flying Eagles and the Super Falcons refused to leave their hotels in Poland and France after their exits from their respective World Cups while the Super Eagles snubbed a training session during their stay in Egypt as a way of handcuffing the authorities for their pay. Absurdly, the leadership of the NFF has been self-congratulatory on its attraction of sponsors, commercial partners and other monies yet when it is time to pay these players, they give excuses. This should not be so. All contractual agreements with the players must be timely obeyed.

 Okunfolami writes from Festac, Lagos

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