There have been so much hue and cries about the state of Nigerian football by fans in the country that follow the game. Complaints have poured in from all quarters lamenting how the game is being run in the country and instead of improving its lots, rather it is still plunging into the murky waters of under-development.
The buck was squarely passed on the door step of football administrators, whom many see as recycled politicians; who have come to the football house to drain up the treasury of the Nigerian football federation(NFF),like every other political office. The quartet of Alhaji Sani Lulu (the president) Amanze Uchegbulam (first vice president) secretary general Bolaji Ojo-Oba, and head of the technical committee, Taiwo Ogunjobi, who for the past five years were the principal officers of the football federation together with their cohorts on the administrative board left our football in tatters.
Their Ills
When they came on board after the Ibrahim Galadima board was ousted out in 2005 for not qualifying the country for Germany 2006 world cup; many thought that finally our football will get a face –lift. Not knowing that they will be worse than their predecessors. They committed so many atrocities, siphoned money with reckless abandon and were junketing abroad with impurity.
The just concluded world cup in South Africa was the final straw that broke the camel’s back. It unearthed a can of worms and rot that has been going on in that glass house. Normally FIFA gives every nation that qualifies for the tournament $8million (N 1.4 billion) Just for qualification not mentioning the yearly subventions that FIFA remits into the account of NFF. The presidency meaning well for its nation equally gave the NFF N 900m to prosecute the world cup so that there won’t be any hitches whatsoever. Now all these came about, just few weeks to the world cup. During qualification and preparation for the world cup. The then President Late Umaru musa Yar’Adua set up a presidential Task force of twelve men comprising of ex internationals and administrators which was chaired by the governor of Rivers state, Rotimi Amaechi to help the NFF in securing qualification for the nation, when it was becoming apparent that Nigeria was losing out to Tunisia in its quest to qualify for the first FIFA world cup held in Africa. Of course a lot of dollars changed hands and miraculously we qualified.
Now in the preparation proper, The NFF typical of the proverbial leopard never changing its spots went and paid for a below par hotel for the Super Eagles. The hotel as we learnt was owned by a Nigerian and it came at a very cheap rate for the NFF who were not willing to spend any other extra money on accommodation, because FIFA gives each Federation about $60(per day) on each player; and out of greed, decided to save their money to the detriment of the players not putting into consideration: the insecurity of the place, its proximity to the stadium and undermining the fact that the place is mosquito-infested. As at the time each team booked hotels and signed contracts ,Nigeria out of the thirty two countries was the least on the Food chain of countries with good accommodation with England on top; spending over a $1000 a night per players. It took the intervention of the sports minister Alhaji Isa Bio to look for an alternative hotel for team, first he had to pay a fine for terminating the contract they signed with the previous hotel. The government lost about 18m in the scam. The government did its best to give the country a fair outing amongst other nations.
Three months to the world cup coach Amodu Shuiabu was fired and given a wide berth despite qualifying the country for the world cup and steering the nation to third place at the Africa cup of nations in Angola. In his stead former Sweden coach Lars Lagerback who couldn’t qualify his country for the world cup was hired. What he earned in one year as coach of Sweden he earned in a month in Nigeria. Of course every coach would jump at the offer of leading a nation to the world cup and he embraced it with both hands.
In south Africa, the Nigerian camp was a Mecca of some sorts. The number of officials and football administrators were ten times the number of players, the NFF in bid to get re-elected into office ferried all the state chairmen to the rainbow nation to watch the mundial. The contingent that the NFF went to South Africa with was over 400 people. They went on a shopping spree and gallivanting with tax payer’s money. Little wonder the abysmal performance of the super eagles players in the tournament.
There were a lot of distractions coming from this men that it was obvious that the super eagles would fail. not all the officials in Ghana football administration was in south Africa, even the sports minister was given a directive by their president Ata mills not to go because his office is in Ghana and not in south Africa . But it was not so with Nigeria, even the lowest person on the board of administrators was in south Africa. no wonder we failed woefully and had one of our worst performances ever at the FIFA world cup
The NFF board is known for using money to induce players to play for their country. How can you promise a player $30,000 to win a match that will guarantee a team’s passage into the next round? Why did they relegate the local league to the background and treat the local players and coaches with disdain? While the world cup was going on, the local league was on here in Nigeria and no official was around to pilot the affairs of the league. They were all away in South Africa, there by giving teams the leverage to manipulate results. If the super eagles had been competitive enough and players jostle to wear the green white green jersey, Yakubu Aiyegbeni would not have missed that sitter against South Korea at the world cup which my grandmother who is 71 years old would have scored with panache. The players don’t play with zeal and are not eager to give their all for the nation or how would you describe the moment of madness from Sani Kaita against Greece.
What the NFF is after is money, money and money. They look for any little opportunity to siphon money. Since last year, $236,000 got missing in the glass house and no body could account for it. They are trying to make us believe that the money grew wings and flew off the window. The past board committed many heinous things ;there were allegations by the duo of Sven Goran Errikson and Glen Hoddle both former England coaches that they couldn’t land the Nigerian job because they blatantly refused to inflate their wages demand in order to gratify some of the officials of the panel that interviewed them if they got the job.
Weighing it the other way round this might be true because how can you employ someone from another country? in your country to do a job for you in a particular country and upon completion the person did not come back to the country you employed him in, to give you an account but chooses to go to his nation to give you a report?
Lars Lagerback was paid a whopping sum of $250,000 monthly for five months in full with all benefits after he completely brain washed the ineptitude panel that interviewed him; of being in possession of a complete dossier of over 60 Nigerian players abroad (yet he struggled to arrive at twenty three).nobody queried him on his teams performance it is possible that the deal that brought him in as a coach is not so clean considering the revelations of Eriksson and Hoddle.
RECOMMENDATIONS
It is a good thing that our football is going through some sanitation right now. The impeachment of Sani lulu and his board is the right step in the right direction. But the people that have picked the forms so far are still same of the same. People like the interim president Alhaji Maigari, Oyuki Obaseki past chairman of the Nigeria football league who have done little to improve our league can’t better the lot of our football. We need technocrats people who have the administrative acumen to run our football, not people that will service their pocket.
We should have less dependency on foreign players and give the home based players a run in the super eagles.
We should equally give our local coaches the chance to coach the super eagles and not thinking that expatriates are superior to our coaches. They should equally be sent on refresher courses in order to compete favourably with their foreign counterparts.
The football administration should invest money in youth and academies and stop using over aged players to prosecute the youth tournament. The championship is not a win at all cost syndrome but a developmental programme that would produce the next generation of stars. We should take a clue from Ghana and Germany that their investment in youth football paid off at the FIFA World cups.
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