Former Super Eagles midfielder, Sunday Oliseh, in this piece offers solutions to the problems besetting Nigerian football
In 1960, Nigeria gained independence from Britain, the birthplace of the beautiful game, football. Thirty-four years later we were ranked as high as the fifth best nation in the world by FIFA.
Boasting players like Rashidi Yekini, Daniel Amokachi, Finidi George, Emmanuel Amunike, Victor Ikpeba, Stephen Keshi, the late but great Uche Okafor, Uche Okechukwu, Peter Rufai, Tijani Babangida, Ben Iroha, Mutiu Adepoju, Michael Emenalo, Jay Jay okocha and my humble self, Sunday Oliseh we wer dominating at the same time on the African football scene.
However, times have radically changed and we needed a miracle to qualify for the last World Cup in South Africa. Our football is in the doldrums, to say the least. The local football league is in tatters. We are far from being considered as one of the best footballing nations in Africa let alone the world. And as if that wasn’t enough, we are yet to record a World Cup match victory since 1998 in France, when my goal against Spain propelled us to our second consecutive first
place in the group stages of a World Cup.
So what has gone wrong since then, how can our football be put back to winning and spectacular football playing ways like it did in the 90’s? Is it even possible at all?
Well, I have good news for you Nigerian football lovers; I do believe it is possible.
With an estimated population of 150 million people, Nigeria is the most populous black nation in the world. Football is miles away its number one sport. It is loved passionately like a religion and is the number one unifying force in Nigeria.
So what is the solution to our footballing woes you may ask? To understand the remedies I intend to propose, it is first important to know what our illness is .It however is also important to know how it was in the past when things were relatively good, and how things are now to prescribe a cure to our ailing football. As painful as it may sound, our football is chronically sick!
In 1980 we won our first major footballing title, the 1980 Nations Cup, 14 years later we won the competition once again in Tunisia, followed by the Afro-Asian Cup in 1995 and the ever prestigious Olympics gold medal in Atlanta 1996.Four major titles in the space of 36 years. This is however much better than some first world countries you might say.
Having been a major player in three of the four aforementioned titles, I feel personally pained seeing what my country is going through now, hence coupled with my experiences in most major footballing nations in the world, I believe I can propose these well thought out and useful solutions to our problem.
In the 80’s and 90 ‘s Nigeria had a very competitive local league producing the above mentioned players and more before them (Segun Odegbami, Christian Chukwu, Adokie Amasiemaka, the late but great Muda Lawal, Emmanuel Okala, amongst others) some of these above-named players went as far as playing in the best clubs in the world: Ajax Amsterdam, AC Milan, Inter Milan, Juventus Turin, Monaco, Arsenal, Chelsea, Barcelona, Borussia Dortmund, amongst others. This confirms how good they became and were. As at today we have just one playing in such clubs, Chelsea’s Obi Mikel.
Today the local league in Nigeria is short of being called a joke. It is not a secret that it has become so devalued, corrupt and disorganised, and a lack of spectacle that the populace neglect it and in preference spend more time watching the major European leagues like the Premiere League, La Liga and Bundesliga, where the credibility is guaranteed, spectacle is available and no match results are fixed.
We had first, second and third national footballing divisions. States had their own first, second and even regional mini leagues, which served immensely as a breeding ground for youth players. I personally came out of this system with Durbar Hotel, Lagos. It now is in an almost non-existent state.
Lots of kids walk around the streets sporting Manchester United, Barcelona, Chelsea or Arsenal jerseys just to mention a few. They barely know the names of the local clubs in the professional Nigerian league let alone of the local star players. The devastating effect of this is that the nation is no longer producing home-made quality star players because kids are not dreaming anymore. And we know every great athlete started out by dreaming of achieving greater heights, myself and my generation included.
In a nation as populated and talented as Nigeria, 30 quality home based players is certainly attainable!
Our current football administrators, fair enough, do love the game and love to administer it like the legendary M.K.O Abiola with the Abiola Babes, or Chief Iwunanyanwu in the 90’s did. Their technical knowledge, however, of the game is very limited and they do not see the need to employ a real professional to help them in the day to day running of the clubs and related matters,.hence stagnation.
If you are sick and need a cure, you would not go to an engineer for treatment, instead you go see a doctor, so why should football be different!
Our football federation and national football administration has been so badly run and lost credibility that it is no wonder that we have become the laughing stock of the football world, prompting our president to intervene. Hopefully the new FA will do better!
For a nation as rich as we are, quality football facilities are lacking to put it mildly, finding suitable training pitches for the national team is an uphill task, let alone for the local clubs.
There is an obvious lack of a well-studied plan or strategy to football administration, or stopping its decline, hence no direction or success.
Funds are lacking for this omni-important sport, in a country like ours, so rich in natural and human resources that if well managed could rival with WORLD FOOTBALL POWERS. Potential-wise we really are GIANTS OF AFRICA. So a little more government subsidy could come in handy.
Well, we could go on and on. But the aim of this blog is not to point fingers, rather it is to propose and try to stimulate solutions to get us back to where we belong.- fifth place in world soccer at least.
POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS:
1.Genuinely assemble qualified soccer professionals, native and foreign, to diagnose in detail our shortcomings and map out a plan conducive and in line with our peculiar society to diagnose our ailing country’s football, with a view to finding a cure to our illness, like the Germans, English, South Africans, Egyptians, Spanish and most recently Ghanaians have done.
Only after doing this can we start effectively appointing people to strategic development positions with qualities similar and complementary to our plan. It is counterproductive to appoint a completely physically oriented coach for example to a Nigerian national team that is technical, offensive and flair oriented like we showed in the 90’s, qualities that mirror our people.
Our chosen set out objectives and direction will determine who we employ to do what.
Normally, before you turn your car’s ignition, the first thing you do is have a destination in mind. This will determine the route to ply. Shouldn’t football job appointments and management be the same?
2.Rejuvenate and update the national coaching institute to modern 2011day level, thereby improving the football intelligence
and team play amongst our incredibly individually talented youths and teams, producing good coaches at the same time.
Having been a successful ex-soccer player does help in being a good coach but does not guarantee it. Learning and formation added to self-experiences does. It would help if some of our ex-footballers got some more quality coaching education.
3. Restructure and have a 20-team national pro league with professional paid referees to at least try to curb the nemesis of bought match results. Without a viable local league there is no way out of this mess we are in now.
4. Change the mentality of the Football Association. People going in to serve should not only see it as a means of enrichment like the just banished FA, but also as a job worth doing well, while getting paid.
5. Fix and maintain a fixed venue for the national team games.eg like Wembley in England. Why? That way our players feel at home on these pitches and not have to discover the pitches the same time as their opponents. Playing away at home as we call it in football circles.
In summary, the national team’s state is of paramount importance to the development of our youths and local football. It’s fortunes has a multiplier effect on the nations football.
If the results are sound, it encourages foreign clubs to buy more players from the national team and the local leagues. This action at the same time makes available hard currency to our people, clubs and eventually permeate youth development. It trickles down from the top.
Before Our 1994 explosion, we had most of our national team players and professionals plying their trade in Belgium, and only one in Ajax. After 1994? They came buying from everywhere. Holland, France, Italy, Germany just to name a few, and hence started the exodus of Nigerian players and at the same time, the consequential improvement and uplifting of our nation as a world soccer force to be reckoned with.
We can still repeat this feat. Don’t you agree?
Culled from sundayoliseh.com
The team comes first, not personal glory, Obafemi Martins has insisted.
