Nigeria has etched its name in football's hall of infamy. Only recently, two football clubs in the amateur league recorded scandalous victories that set tongues wagging in the football world. Plateau United Feeders defeated Akurba FC by 79 goals to nil. Also, Police Machine FC trounced Bubayero FC by 67 goals to nil. Both matches were played simultaneously, as the winner with a better goal difference would have qualified for the Amateur National League division III.

To stave off a wholesale indictment from the world governing football body, FIFA, the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) mandated its disciplinary committee chaired by Chief Mike Umeh to investigate the matches. In implementing the Umeh committee's report, the NFF pronounced a life ban on all the players of the four teams and their officials. Also, the personal details, names and photographs of the affected players and their coaches will be published, according to NFF, to ensure that they do not circumvent the sanction.

There is no field of endeavour that has united the citizens of this country and at the same time brought it international glory and recognition like the game of football. At the lowest point in our evolution as a nation, the exploits of the various national teams at the global stage had stemmed the tide. It is a shame that the current leadership of the Glass House (NFF) has, through its ambivalence, allowed the vices that have crippled almost every other sector of the economy to creep into its activities. We do not expect anything better when every official of the Glass House is pre-occupied with scrambling for tickets to accompany the national teams to international engagements in order to cart home some estacode. Scant attention is paid to grassroots games that actually need attention.

Sports, especially football, are now a veritable tool in international diplomacy. This, more than any other thing, explains why the minister of sports and the NFF hierarchy should guard against any wanton abuse. Football in Nigeria, if well organised, should be a major foreign exchange earner as is obtainable in most South American countries.

Banning these players and their officials is not enough deterrent. We do not take the NFF seriously with its promise to publish their photographs. The NFF's website is not functional; so where does it intend to publish the photos? We strongly recommend that these players, their technical crews, the officials that officiated these matches and the owners of the football clubs should be formally prosecuted in a competent court of law to ascertain their culpability or otherwise. But we agree with Chief Umeh in his submission that "the winners were desperate to win, while the losers were too willing to lose". Going forward, NFF should create a functional and verifiable website that should contain the data of all its accredited clubs, players, coaches, referees, and its statutes.