Leadership (Abuja)
Salifu Usman
2 November 2009
Abuja — FIFA Vice President, Jack Warner yesterday gave Nigeria and the Local Organising Committee of the ongoing FIFA U-17 football tournament a pass mark, having successfully completed the first phase of the competition Sunday across the eight centres.
Speaking at a press conference in Abuja, the FIFA helmsman said even though the country experienced some hitches initially, the LOC to the admiration of the world's football governing body woke up to its responsibilities to address the challenges.
Jack Warner said he is happy to see Nigeria organize the competition to this second round stage, but tasked Nigerians to always appreciate the efforts of their government and organizers of the tournament." We at FIFA are happy that Nigeria successfully completed the first group stage and are at the round of 16. I am also happy that the Nigerian team rose up to the occasion after a shaky start and being booed to qualify for the second round as group leaders."
The FIFA Vice President however, said he is worried over the spate of negative criticisms in Nigeria's media when in the real fact they ought to be projecting the country and the tournament positively. He said Nigerians must imbibe the culture of giving kudos to organizers when they perform well rather than always pointing out issues negatively.
Commenting on the performances of the Golden Eaglets who comfortably made it to the knock out stage, he said with what he has seen of the boys and based on their last performance against Argentina in Bauchi, the boys look good to make it to the quarter final and possibly the last four. "Nigeria has a top class team and I believe they are good for the last four. If Nigeria does not beat New Zealand, then they have no business being in this tournament.
If the team does not go beyond the quarter final, then it will be a big disappointment. The boys I saw in Bauchi are very good technically and exhibit good confidence and appear to play better outside Abuja. They are good for the last four." Warner reasoned.
Worried by the poor turn out of spectators, especially at the Abuja centre where he frowned at why fans would walk out on a team at a time they needed their support referring to the opening match against Germany, he said now that the boys have proven themselves, he expects to see a packed full stadium this Thursday when Nigeria tackles New Zealand.
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