Leadership (Abuja)
29 December 2008
The year 2008 is gradually drawing to a close. In fact, in two days time, we shall be talking about 2009 and what hope lies ahead for us as a sport- loving nation.
The year in view, depending on how we want to see it, is one many of us would want to forget quickly considering the poor results that characterized it especially at its tail end. We began the year with grief, sequel to our senior national team, the Super Eagles crashing out early in the quarter-finals of the African Cup of Nations in Ghana. This was the worst performance in our recent football history.
Then came another major flop, despite our strength as a football powerhouse when our national U-17 team after just doing Nigeria and indeed the black race proud in Korea, failed at our backyard in Benin Republic to the lowly rated Benin boys to clinch a ticket as defending champions for the next edition. But a brief respite came at the Beijing Olympics where we managed to pick one silver two bronze medals. The football silver won by Samson Siasia and the bronze won by Uche Chukwumerije has been however, described as more of personal efforts and doggedness to succeed.
After the Olympics, almost everything we seem to have entered into in terms of sports failed to click, apart from of course, the consolation of boasting a clean slate in our World Cup qualifiers. But the best yardstick of measuring how a nation does well is determined mostly at times by how good it performs in continental or international engagements. In football for instance, which remains the biggest sport the world over , the indices for measurement are FIFA ranking, World Cup pedigree, Nations Cup and Continental prowess determined by strength and performance of club sides from a nation. Looking at all these, we are perhaps at the moment only intact in our 2010 World Cup qualifiers chase. Every other thing has being a mirage.In the last FIFA ranking, we dropped points while Enyimba failed to reach the final in the CAF Continental Club championship, a tournament they had won back-to-back in 2003 and 2004.
As a nation, we were worst hit in the months of November and December. Between these two months we experienced unprecedented loses in football that calls for serious concern, considering the fact that there are major championships lined up for 2009 and 2010 involving Nigeria that we must not allow a repeat. In 2009 alone, we have the U-20 African Youth Championship in Rwanda, World U-20 in Egypt, Super Eagles Nations/World Cup qualifiers and the World U-17 Youth Championship on our own soil. Lest we forget, the president had while playing host to the glorious 2007, set tasked the NSC and NFF to ensure that we are not just hosting to participate but win.It was as if we were jinxed not to win any laurel this year. Even the Super Falcons, who were hitherto veterans in winning the African women football titles, could not fly in Equatorial Guinea and exited disappointingly in the semi -finals. The other women teams, both the Flamingoes and Falconets could not do any better in their respective U-20 (New Zealand) and U-17(Chile) World Cup outings. But two other defeats that remain particularly painful are the Home- based Eagles and the U-20 that represented us in the West Africa Football Union (WAFU) maiden tournament.
Both are initiatives that could present us the needed platform to further develop our football. Yet, last week marked the climax of the CHAN 2009 initiative with the completion of the draws for the first ever Home-based national teams in Africa, but Nigeria's flag will not be hoisted in Cote d'lvoire. It would have been a perfect opportunity to see the emergence of players who perhaps would take over from some of the ones on the scene, as we approach the 2010 World Cup and plan for the future. It appears we are fast losing grip on the continent. But Ladan Bosso has another opportunity this January to give Nigerians something to cheer in the beginning of the year in Rwanda with the Flying Eagles. I believe he is the most fortunate coach in Nigeria today, because he has inherited immensely from late Yemi Tella's bunch of world beaters in character, discipline and skills.
There is therefore, no excuse for him to fail in Kigali. In all these however, where do we trace these series of recent failures in football to? I have heard many blame it on our league, some on administration at the NFF while others see lack of planning as responsible. Even though these factors may have one link or the other to these recent flops, l disagree with those who blame it solely on our leagues be it amateur, national division 1 or GLO league. I agree there are yet imperfections in our various leagues, which l had talked on, but certainly not dearth of talents who remain the raw materials to be harnessed for glory. The truth is that anywhere, any day and anytime in this country, there are boys and girls begging to be discovered. No matter what you take away from the Nigerian league, one thing you cannot take away is the fact that there are abundant talents. From Kano, Kaduna, Jos, Calabar, Enugu, Lagos, Edo, Delta and other places, we have what it takes in terms of talents to win us trophies.
It is in these same leagues and environment that the likes of lsmaila Mabo (Falcons '99), Samson Siasia and late Yemi Tella of Blesses memory picked a bunch of raw hungry talents to impress or beat the world. There are still many more not yet to be discovered and hungry for success youths. In my opinion, our problems basically lie with our coaches and the committee who appoint them arising from the complexity of a system begging for change. Now the scenario is simple. We have coaches who get appointed by their god-fathers with a list of boys or girls who must play, or worse still are not given a free hand on players' selection. Apart from some of these coaches getting the job on the basis of sentiments, be it tribal or selfish interests, the coaches on their own see the opportunity more as one of making fast bucks. They then resort to the easy way out of compromising standards with football jobbers or players' agents whether the boys or girls are good or not. We have heard of some of them who in the name of conducting screening or scouting for talents only end up in hotel rooms in states to agree on deals with players' agents or fronts of some football eggheads. Until the system is transparent and the coaches themselves embrace strict professional discipline, the problem would simply continue unabated.
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