In every sphere of human endeavour, antecedents serve as the bedrock for tomorrow's well being. For the past decades, the most popular sport in Nigeria, football, has been on the decline, despite the amount of manpower and material resources poured into the field.

At the world stage, the country failed to make it beyond the group stages in the World Cup co-hosted by Korea and Japan in 2002. It also failed to qualify to the next event held in Germany 2006 and four years later in the first ever World Cup held on the soil of Africa, the country had a terrible outing by exiting the tournament in the group stage again. In Africa, the best the country has achieved is it traditional "birth-right" bronze (which is only played for in African Nations' Cup), despite its abundant talent in the round leather game.

The same can be said about the Nigerian football league which, just like the national team, has suffered from the indiscriminate board room award of points, in-depth corruption, poor security as a result of administrative failure, nepotism and organized hooliganism.

These poor showings of the national team have not only earned it a change in nomenclature from Super Eagles to Super Chickens but also affected the country's footballers and officials at the global stage. It is becoming difficult to see the country's national team players playing for the top teams in top European leagues while most of the little that do hardly make the first team. In the same vein, Nigerian referees, lines-men and other officials are hardly picked to officiate at matches in the world cup and nations' cup or other global football events.

The poor outing at the last World Cup made the federal government to sack the entire executive council of the football body and suspend the nation from international engagements for two year - a decision that was later reversed as a result of FIFA's threat to sanction the country. This brought into the limelight the obvious: that there is a problem with our football.

To tackles these frequent failures, a new election that will not only re-brand the football authority (or federation) but also usher in a set of football executives who will champion the needed revolution should be held to provide the needed change.

The same old wines that that had ruined the state FAs and the national FA in the days of its un-productivity are back into the association as executive members. These administrative bureaucrats are the major bane of Nigeria football development. They have been in the system and offered little or nothing at all, and yet they are hanging on to power. Many of those elected to run the FA have never played football, have no previous successful experience in football management and even in some cases have more interest in making money than in football or its growth; neither do they have the strategic plan needed to develop the game at all levels.

What this country's football association needs are people with the passion for the game, people that have played the games and have the technical knowledge and know the challenges faced by the boys in the fields, not some administrative bureaucrats who do not know the total number of teams in the nation's football league.

Abedi Pele of Ghana, David Beckham of England, Luis Figo of Portugal all played special roles in their country's football affairs. Even the dictator Muammar Ghadafi appointed his son, a former player with the passion for the round leather game, to head the Libyan football association. What is the faith of our ex-internationals like Segun Odegbami, Austin Okocha and others willing to serve in what they love to do best?

Mohammed is a youth corps member with NNPC, Kaduna Zonal Office