The Nation Newspaper

Category: Ade Ojeikere

  • History on the run

    History on the run

    I have tremendous respect for Victor Nosa Ikpeba. He is one of the ex-internationals who have not reduced their self-esteem by running errands for people who struggled to touch and take autographs from them in their playing days; the larger majority of who have driven our football into the ditch. It hurts deeply listening to a product from street football run the rule so devastatingly over the domestic game, hiding behind one finger, forgetting that the word best is subjective.

    Nigeria needs a manager with Clemens Westerhoff’s drive for unsung but talented players who will be excited to live in the country to truly scout for talents. How can anyone rationalise that Nigeria with a population of over 205 million people can’t produce a football team of 22 good players with sublime skills to thrill the world? This can’t be correct talk.

    This is the difference. Westerhoff scouted Finidi George, Daniel Amokachi, Uche Okechukwu, Friday Elaho, Ben Iroha et al and took them to clubs in Europe to sharpen the rustic edges of their games. Nigeria thereafter went to thrill the world at the USA ’94 World Cup, qualifying for the Round of 16 stage.

    It hurts deeply that a product of grassroots soccer and a sponsor of local competitions has restricted the hunt for talented players in Nigeria to only our domestic league games. One would be unfair to remind Ikpeba about the exploits of players who rose to stardom using the YSFON platform. Need I list their names?  Have we forgotten players such as the late Haruna Ilerika, the late Thompson Usiyen, Tunde Balogun, Adokie Amiesimaka, Felix Owolabi, Daimen Ogunsuyi, Quicksilver Slyvanus Okpala, Henry Nwosu, Austin Okocha, Patrick Ekeji, Edema Fuludu, Davidson Owumi, Clement Temile, Austin Eguavoen, Friday Elahor, Etim Esin, Adeolu Adekola, Kanu Nwankwo, Wilson Oruma, Jonathan Akpoborie et al who used the school boys’ competitions of yore, such as the Principal’s Cup and the once famous National Sports Festivals to exhibit their talent without necessarily playing in the local leagues before they attained national and international acclaim? It is the myopia of our soccer chieftains and those that they pick to perform scouting roles that have collectively converted the Super Eagles to the seeming exclusive abode of our Diaspora boys. No disrespect for all that they have done to paper the systemic problem with our football.

    How would these ex-internationals honestly feel sitting in the stadium or inside their houses watching Nigeria’s U-17 team, the Golden Eaglets, filled with Diaspora kids under the guise of fielding the best at all times? The pain in this type of setting hits us like a thunderbolt when we watch these kids moping when the Nigerian anthem is being sung before kickoff of games. Shouldn’t the best be scouted from outside of the domestic league? The truth is that those who should protect the domestic game are either agents of scouts of foreign clubs or their shylock managers.

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    This blanket pursuit for the best for our national teams wherever they exist is so brazen that today in the Nigerian transfer system, academies and nurseries now enjoy transfer fees in hard currencies instead of stipends tagged developmental fees for discovering and nurturing them.

    In fact, a very popular former Deputy Governor was aghast when in taking stock of players rightfully owned by the state’s team, it was discovered that most of them belonged to other people under spurious titles. He immediately ordered for a proper investigation of the matter with the misnomer stopped forthwith. He also directed the police to take some club officials away to write statements on all that they knew about the issue. How could the club be paying players whose transfer fees belonged to different people aptly tagged bystanders? Monkey dey work, baboon dey chop, nobi so? No chance.

    Trumpeters of the distasteful slogan of retaining a bronze medal coach should stop thinking through their respective pocket because history never forgets. When our domestic coaches won the AFCON bronze medals, we didn’t waste time in throwing them under the bus. We clamoured for the best coaches, which we zeroed down to recruiting foreign managers. Dear Ikpeba, if you are rooting for the best players in the Super Eagles, you need to be reminded that we also need the best managers, who from the last eight years, have been foreign managers. Truth be told, my brother, Ikpeba, Eric Chelle shouldn’t be the best foreign manager that we can offer to train the best boys to glory.

    Otherwise, how do we explain the refusal to renew the contract of a coach who led us to the runners up position with the silver medal at AFCON last year and the massive clamour to retain the services of a coach who needed the bravery of goalkeeper Stanley Nwabali to berth a bronze medal at the Africa Cup of Nations, barely a year after?

    Are we moving forward with this type of judgment? Of course not. It is just that those who brought the coaches have pressed the right chords in the media to drum up the maddening noise of retaining a coach without a plan B  when his team is boxed off as we saw when Nigeria tottered against the Atlas Lions of Morocco and the Pharaohs of Egypt.

    When I hear and read comments about how the past of Nigerian football is better than today’s, I cringe; because it took us 38 years of waiting and torture from North Africans and Cameroonian teams before Enyimba won the CAF Champions League title for Nigeria back to back in 2003 and 2004, making them the first Nigerian club to achieve this feat.

    The Nigeria league of yore was inscrutable, filled with tragic incidents, such as the death of former Bendel Insurance FC of Benin City’s chairman, Major Jimoh Ojo (Retired). Or have we forgotten the killing of NIGERIA junior international Igeniwari George, Finidi’s youngest brother inside his club, Enugu Rangers FC’s bus as they drove into the Liberty Stadium Ibadan to honour a National Challenge Cup game against Stationery Stores FC of Lagos? Was it not also in those days that fans frequently ran home because of canisters of tears used to disperse irate fans who took the laws in their hands?

     Was is not also in those days that fans died after another Challenge Cup game between Bendel Insurance FC and IICC Shooting Stars FC  of Ibadan at the National Stadium, Lagos due to power failure after the tie? What was so good about the local leagues whose matches were won at the board room from spurious post match protests? The Shenanigans in our football in the past were despicable. Those were the locust years of our soccer. So, when people reference it, I’m always shocked to the bones.

    For our soccer to grow in leaps and bounds,  we must recruit top-rated managers reminiscence of what England did by employing Tomas Tuchel, a German on an 18 months contract and what Brazil did by employing Carlo Ancelotti, an Italian, to guide them through their matches at the forthcoming 2026 World Cup to be co-hosted by Mexico, Canada and the United States (US).

    We must prevent those agents and shylock scouts who have pigeonholed our national teams by picking their ‘best’ players, not ours, from being part of Nigeria’s new quest for excellence.

  • Kick in the teeth

    Kick in the teeth

    I thought they were friends. Did I hear you ask who? Of course, Eric Chelle and Austin Eguavoen. They sat through training sessions as captured on television and the few pictures dropped in the media. Perhaps, there was an understanding to allow Chelle take the decisions.

    This writer, like most followers of the Super Eagles, wanted to know the relationship between the Nigerian technical crew and their foreign counterparts with Chelle. What one saw wasn’t impressive, raising the poser of why the NFF chieftains posted Nigerians to work with the coach. You could notice the cold shoulders given to Daniel Ogunmodede each time he ran towards the boss whilst celebrating a goal scored. I also noticed with pain that discussions with the substitutes on the sidelines shortly before they come onto the pitch were done by Chelle’s European colleagues. The second question, therefore, to the NFF would be why they chose these local coaches into the team if they were not going to be gainfully involved in all aspects of preparing and executing tactics before, during and after games have been won, drawn or lost.

    All through the matches played at the AFCON, my focus was the oddities of the games – those things the live coverage hid from us back home. And the sight of watching the brief spells anytime the cameramen zoomed on the Nigerian bench sank my heart. They couldn’t be bothered if they sat on the bench as bystanders and not active participants worth their while provided their wages, entitlements and bonuses were paid.

    Pity. What hurts is that the Nigerian coaches on the bench in Morocco learned nothing new which they could use to train their teams beyond the physical exercises they watched while their boss brazenly gave the assistants he came along with enough instructions with the aid of the computers and note pads. I was, therefore, excited reading the story conducted with the incumbent Technical Director and former Super Eagles coach and captain Austin ‘Cerezo’ Eguaveon in the print media.

    This time Eguaveon literarily kicked Chelle in his teeth when he said in the interview that: “I felt disappointed that we did not include some NPFL players in the AFCON squad. Some players in the team did not even get a minute of action, so why couldn’t we include a few players from the local league? At least three or four would have been better.”

    “The players are not bad, and just because we didn’t do well at CHAN doesn’t mean we should throw the baby out with the bathwater.

    “This is something we need to look into because it speaks volumes when players come directly from the local league into a major tournament like AFCON.”

    At least five of them in the 2025 AFCON squad didn’t play anytime. Why then did Chelle not pick players from the domestic league? Was it not Chelle who chose all the home-based players he selected for the CHAN tournament?  An admittance of failure on Chelle’s part of his poor selection of the domestic league players. In fact, I thought Chelle would have replaced injured Cyriel Dessers with one of the enterprising home-based players to serve as his learning curve. It didn’t occur to NFF chiefs also to replace Dessers who left the camp injured with a home-based player.

    “We can only advise him; we cannot force players on him. I must also say that he has a lot of respect for the players and wants to see how he can gradually bring them through. We have discussed this a few times, but the timing has to be right,” Eguavoen explained.

    “If he stays in the country more often, he will have better opportunities to visit venues and watch players. If he doesn’t, it becomes more difficult,” he added.

    Pray Eguavoen, this has always been the crux of the matter for those foreign coaches employed with our money whenever they throw the home-based players under the bus. Instead of the NSC and NFF chieftains to sit down and bridge the gap between the home-based and foreign-based players getting into the World Cup squad in 2030, they were busy planting one-sided stories which portray the falsehood of Nigeria qualifying for the last stage of the qualification matches in March.

    These two bodies’ tardy handling of matters concerning the qualification game of the 2026 Mundial want to force Nigeria back into the race at the expense of D.R Congo. Do they want to drag us to the World Cup with fresh stories of unfulfilled promises and failure to pay the players and coaches their match bonuses in the United States (US), Canada and Mexican cities? Shouldn’t Nigerians be told how they fared in all facets of the country’s participation at the AFCON tournament in Morocco, especially the team’s finances with particular attention to those things which poured odium on the country?

    ”I can’t tell what is going on and it’s the same for all of us in the board of the NFF at the moment. FIFA hasn’t officially charged DR Congo with any infraction. So it’s a whole lot of confusion down here”, he said.

    He however said a ruling is expected next month before the playoff in March, confirming that the NFF will no doubt lodge an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) if they don’t get justice from FIFA.

    ”If we don’t get the justice that we expect, then CAS will be the next stop. That I can assure you”, he concluded.

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    Can somebody in government not stop these half-truths in the media by our visionless sport administrators whose primary concern is to travel with the teams to competitions outside the country, instead of ensuring that the game is given the fillip of growth that it needs? Who issued the passports and passed them as legitimate documents to the D.R Congo players? How come no eyebrows were raised against the Congolese until our desperate officials latched on it? Since when did FIFA become immigration officials on passport documentation?

    Rather than our NFF and NSC chieftains dissipate energy on this D.R Congo misadventure with FIFA and later CAS, they should find a suitable accommodation space for Chelle to reside in fitted with state-of-art gadgets and recreational facilities within his house for exercises in Abuja, if indeed we expect him to truly monitor our home-based players himself. It won’t shock anyone if we are told that Chelle doesn’t have an official vehicle(s) with all the vehicles the big men have parked in their residences untouched. Money to be paid to the international attorney to handle the cases with FIFA and CAS will buy the SUVs for Chelle. Not so here?

    I’m glad that Portugal wants an international friendly against Nigeria in Lisbon on June 6. This is heartwarming and the best way to strategically rebuild the team by dropping the ageing and injury-prone ones for new and truly younger ones who can only be found in the Diaspora, according to daily reports in Chelle’s media.

    It is obvious the NFF and NSC are satisfied with these quick fixes than making deliberate efforts to revamp the soccer nurseries and academies across the country. I’ve repeatedly written here that countries which excel in sports don’t operate on fiscal budgets. They have sports funding done on biannual of four-yearly circles depending on the sport. Indeed, you don’t run sports by not hosting big competitions; if for anything else, to upgrade the country’s facilities and raise the awareness of such sport(s) among the people.

    France, a renowned soccer nation recognised her World Cup-winning team in 2018, not because teachers or civil servants were unimportant, but because exceptional contributions demand exceptional recognition.

  • Pyrrhic victories

    Pyrrhic victories

    Nigerian sports administrators are experts in quick fixes rather than carving out deliberate and enduring structures that would churn out talents seamlessly. I watched the new African Cup of Nations champions, the Teranga Lions of Senegal’s matches and each time tears flowed down my cheeks. I had heavy loaded heart each time commentators reminded us during their games  of the advantages they have secured for the future, particularly their ages.

    May I humbly ask our administrators: ‘how old will these players be by 2030? Besides, there is the deafening noise from a few football lovers trying to sway others to regulate their tunnel vision of making sure that second rated Coach Eric Chelle remains on the coaching bench. If I know our administrators very well, the selection of new players into Super Eagles would be farfetched. If we retain Chelle because of his pyrrhic victories in Morocco, no disrespect to what he has done (somebody needs to tell me),then we would have tacitly embraced cabals which would support the coach’s  retention of certain players always playing our matches, except they are walking with walking sticks.

    A Pyrrhic victory is a win achieved at such a devastating cost that it feels like a loss, with the victor suffering immense casualties, resources, or damage; making the success ultimately hollow or unsustainable, like winning a battle but losing the war. The term comes from King Pyrrhus of Epirus, who famously said after defeating Romans at great expense, “One more victory over the Romans and we are completely done for!”.

    Indeed, the reason our soccer slid into the abyss was because many of us didn’t encourage new entrants into the Super Eagles after what our debutants at the USA ’94 World Cup in 1996 did withtheir what has now turned out to be pyrrhic victories. It got so bad that a sitting sports minister argued that he didn’t want that feat eclipsed by defeats from any country under the guise of playing friendly matches. The boys got so unruly that they plotted the sack of PhillipeTroussier, whose 3-5-2 formation had effectively removed the aging ones. It struck them so badly that it didn’t matter what Nigeria did at the France ’98 World Cup. Playing at the Mundial then was a birthright.

    Our administrators have unwittingly conceded their rights to guard certain tenets of NFF/Chelle contract as it affects Chelle telling the world that his contract isn’t in his hands, when he has a subsisting contract with Nigeria. What happened to the famous right of not divulging anything enshrined in the contract? Isn’t this a breach? What has happened to the infamous oath of secrecy which all the parties in the contract must uphold?

    “The coach was very emotional when he addressed the team after the quarter-final win over Algeria. He didn’t cry, but he was deeply moved. He told us that he has yet to be contacted by the NFF and so anything is possible as regards his future,” the team member told only SCORENigeria.

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    “Really he enjoys the support of the team and has made us one big, happy family. But we also know that several other countries are interested in working with him, with some of them offering him much more money than what he gets in Nigeria.”

    Isn’t this a time bomb waiting to explode in the coming years of Chelle’s tenure? Haven’t we tacitly emboldened the players to pick the coach they want to work with when the chips are down, going forward? These are players with the penchant for civil disobedience when fighting for their entitlement.

    Chelle has joined the league of journeymen that Nigeria has recruited who use our players’ innate skills during matches to enrich their Curriculum Vitae (CV) for future jobs across the globe.

    Former Super Eagles coach and captain, Sunday Olisehwas dumfounded with the ceremony after Nigeria clinched another bronze medal at the AFCON, our ninth in the competition’s history and rightly so. The flipside to Oliseh’s argument is that some of the players are debutant and would surely want to celebrate their first senior medal at AFCON.

    Oliseh submitted further that: “There was a time when the Super Eagles shed tears after finishing second, because to us, anything but the trophy was unacceptable.”

    “Celebrating third place builds a culture of mediocrity.”

    “I will give you an example of what I meant. Before the final in Rabat, a video went viral of the Super Eaglescelebrating winning third place against Egypt. At the media tribune where I sat, both African and European journalists mocked us; they couldn’t believe it,” Oliseh said.

    “We must remember that the decline of our dominance started when we became content with bronze. If we want to be Africa’s best again, wild celebrations for anything less than gold must stop immediately,” Oliseh concluded.

    Oliseh just reminded the younger generation of the Super Eagles that winning a third place isn’t worth it, not with the armada of stars we parade from across the globe. We have the players to win AFCON thrice on the trot, but a better coach who won’t look for amicable resolutions for high acts of indiscipline because it involves one of the big boys.

    What Chelle succeeded in reawakening in the Super Eagles was drill them to required playing weights.But they lacked tactics to dislodge below the line marking, as seen in the games against Morocco and Egypt, which dragged beyond the stipulated 90 minutes duration.

    Unfortunately, our football doesn’t have articulated nurseries whose curriculum comes from the football federation for the good of the game. The situation is so bad that the last expedition to Morocco by the Super Eagles was prosecuted by our Diaspora players who couldn’t sing our national anthem before the matches began. This writer cringed with envy listening to different commentators in the media reiterate the ages of the Senegalese players and how bright their future would be. Left in the lurch is the domestic game still pampers and unable to grow.

    Interestingly, civilised countries develop their sports through the neighbourhood system, where facilities are built to engage the youth and push them away from social vices. Nurseries serve as the bases for storing the data of those discovered. Such information helps to nurture and monitor the good ones to stardom. Besides, nurseries lay the foundation on which the athletes are taught the rudiments of the game. It is at such factories that playing styles and patterns unique to such countries are evolving.

    The countries that excel in sporting events have systems that guarantee enough funds for the sportsmen and sportswomen to compete with the best, such as tax rebates on sport-friendly firms, lotteries, and businesses owned by wealthy nationals who know what is in such a sponsorship and the benefits from the sitting government. Such financial taxes are spelled out to companies and wealthy citizens after agreements have been reached. These cast-in-stone policies are binding on all the parties to such an extent that breaches are adequately addressed to allow either of the parties to seek redress in court.

    ”Nigeria’s failure to qualify for the 2026 FIFA World Cup has carried a high financial cost, with the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) missing out on a guaranteed minimum of USD 10.5 million following FIFA’s approval of a record USD 655 million prize money pool for the tournament. FIFA confirmed that every one of the 48 teams that qualified for the expanded World Cup in North America will receive USD 1.5 million in preparation funds, in addition to a minimum participation payout of USD 9 million for teams finishing between 33rd and 48th place.

    This ensures that each participating Member Association earns at least USD 10.5 million simply for qualifying.

    Nigeria’s absence from the tournament means the NFF will receive none of these funds, a significant blow at a time when many African federations rely heavily on FIFA competitions to support national team programmes, grassroots development and administrative costs.’’

  • Too many cooks

    Too many cooks

    My mind raced back to 2013 where several videos were captured of scenes where former football federation chieftains took bets openly with the late Stephen Keshi mocking him to beat Congo DR, if indeed he was the sole architect of the Super Eagles‘ third AFCON conquest in South Africa, beating Burkina Faso in 2013. Congo DR beat the Super Eagles 2-0 inside the Stadium of Champions in Uyo.

    There was celebration after the loss, especially the way the football chiefs danced and hugged each other openly thanking God for the retributive justice on those who stole their joy after the South Africa 2013 AFCON’s heroics. We haven’t forgotten that the Super Eagles coach announced his resignation in one of the South African radio stations, much to the consternation of top Nigerian officials, including the honourable Sports minister, who heard of the coach’s resignation whilst inside a taxi cab.

    In fact, the minister laughed it off as a huge joke because he had just left the coach after a reward session for him in the home of billionaire businessman and chairman of the truly Nigerian telecommunication organisation. The minister was stunned listening to the coach’s voice inside the taxi announcing his resignation from the Nigeria job despite lifting the 2013 AFCON trophy.

    The Federal Government delegation liaised with the coach, leaving the serving minister and our football chieftains licking their lips in anguish. The battle line had been drawn between the soccer federation’s chiefs and the coach until he was eased out of the job following a string of bad results. Rather than build on the 2013 AFCON success, the feud arising from the AFCON campaign destroyed the Super Eagles to smitten.

    Had the Eagles not been in heavy crises, Nigeria would have done well at the 2014 World Cup. Instead, there was the show of shame over unpaid allowances, with players, coaches and team officials threatening not to play the Round of 16 game against France. The government had to bring in cash of $3.8 million into Brazil to settle the cause of the strike action because the team didn’t train. It won’t be news to read here that the Nigerian contingent spent the night before the game against France sharing the money instead of training. Why were they in a hurry to share the money, even with the cash in their coffers already?

    One was, therefore, not too excited with the Super Eagles outings in Morocco because all the features of the 2013 brouhaha stared one in the face, with most of the characters who fuelled the crises in the past being part of the whole drama which unfolded in Morocco. I deliberately refused to talk about the team’s matches in my columns because I had seen the competition’s chart before games began that for the Eagles to reach the finals of this edition, they needed to eliminate the hosts, Morocco, which from my crystal ball amounted to asking anyone to climb with a greasy pole. The Moroccans were Africa’s number one football nation on FIFA’s monthly ranking. They became the first Africa nation to play in the semi-finals of FIFA Senior World Cup, a feat they achieved at the Qatar 2022 Mundial.

    Many close people wanted to know my impressions about the Nigerian side in Morocco. I told them bluntly that if the Eagles’ outings have been spectacular, it has been largely due to Alex Iwobi’s immaculate defence splitting passes and the sparkling manner he has marshalled the team, with the strikers the biggest benefactor. I told them that for any country to beat Nigeria, their players must stop Iwobi from spraying those defence splitting passes up front towards Osimhen, Ademola Lookman and Akor Adams. I warned them that Morocco had the talent to stop Iwobi, especially with their vociferous fans rooting ceaselessly for them.

    The Moroccans bullied Iwobi off the ball and had the match referee’s indulgent eyes to thank for remaining 11 men on the pitch and not less for the duration of the game.

    Indeed, the Super Eagles haven’t distinguished themselves in competitions where there were crises of unpaid wages, allowances and match bonuses. The Morocco AFCON wasn’t going to be different. There were also the gossips in the media of countries such as Tunisia, Guinea, Angola etc scouting for Super Eagles coach even when he has one year left on contract.

    Eagles’ coach needs to attend regular coaching courses to update his knowledge of the game. The coach’s mono-track coaching mentality is his biggest obstacle to winning titles anytime soon. One had thought he would have fielded Simon ahead of Onyedika in Ndidi’s position because of his experience and the determination to excel he exhibits anytime he is fielded.

    Simon is the best dribbler of the ball in that team and would have created openings in the Moroccan defence like he did for the few times he played on Wednesday night. It was clear that the team needed to truly play differently to make the opposition totter going forward. One is still pinching oneself why it took the Nigerian coach so long to substitute Akor in that game? Truth be told, Akor and Onyedika were lost in that game. A clever coach would have substituted both players, given the quality of stars sitting on the bench.

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    Much of how well or how badly a team plays rests with the thinking of the coaches on the bench. Nigeria played well at the group stage, Round of 16 and the quarter-finals. Enough time for coaches to plot counter tactics, which was what the Moroccans did. Sadly, our boys got worked up by the referee’s poor officiating. Our boys must ensure that they beat the Egyptians today in the third-place tie. The Pharaohs play the counter-attack formation, which means our defenders must be very vigilant, especially as Calvin Bassey won’t be qualified to play the game due to two yellow card offences. Pity!

    The third-place game is the best opportunity for everyone to see if Chelle has improved the team or not. This game offers us the opportunity to evaluate the depth in strength of the squad’s players, depending on how Chelle deploys those who haven’t played a game in the competition since it began on Sunday December 16, 2025. Chelle was given a semi-final ticket mandate which he achieved. He must pull this chestnut out of fire by beating the Egyptians with some of the new boys he kept on the bench. It will also be Chelle’s best chance to claim ownership of his team, not those interlopers hanging around the team.

    Nigeria’s campaign for the 2030 World Cup ticket starts today in Morocco with a bronze medal – no excuses whatsoever. The best two African countries are meeting in the final game of the 2025 AFCON, a confirmation of FIFA’s ranking as perfect. It would be honourable if Nigeria wins today’s bronze medal game and be crowned the third best African football nation. It would be marvellous if we achieve this feat by beating Egypt resoundingly.

    Did I hear you ask which nation will lift the AFCON 2025 diadem, dear reader? Too close to call. Please enjoy the game on Sunday. May the better nation lift the trophy, referee permitting.

  • Dying Elephant’s last kick

    Dying Elephant’s last kick

    Most superstars are brats. Yet, it is important to stress also that no rich man’s kid plays the beautiful game – soccer, which has consistently served as the vehicle for kids of poor people to change the peasant lifestyle of their families with wealth generated with their God-given talent.

    Victor Osimhen should be told by handlers that he needs to learn to be patient in his interactions with people. He should realise that as brand ambassador to many thriving business concerns, a lot is expected of him. He should be found worthy in character and learning, even if he isn’t a graduate yet. No business concern would love to identify its brands, goods and services with an ambassador who would pour odium on their brands through needless controversies.

    Sadly, players in the team have confirmed Osimhen’s unruly conduct severally in training with the coaches and even NFF, NSC chiefs papering over the issue, as if Osimhen is untouchable. Pity! The consequence of recruiting Lilliputian coaches.

    ”You people are just overreacting. Osimhen is like that even in training; so it’s nothing new to the rest of the team. It’s in his nature to be that explosive but it’s nothing serious”, a player in the team said.

    ”As a new player in the team, the other senior players told us about similar incidents in the past which was amicably resolved. To you people outside it’s a big issue, but here we see it as normal because it happens almost every time”, he stated.

    What Osimhen did to Lookman was despicable for a team mate who was his successor to the Africa Footballer of the Year diadem. Osimhen needs to be reminded that Lookman won the U-17 World Cup playing for England. He also won the U-20 World Cup playing for England. One therefore, can’t see what would have driven Osimhen to disrespect Lookman. This is certainly the dying Elephant’s last kick. Osimhen humiliated Finidi George and got away with it based on the emotional attachment Nigerians had towards Osimhen, which wasn’t fair. Finidi was a critical player for the Super Eagles, scoring goals with aplomb and providing assists to mates to score goals. Finidi belongs to the league of Super Eagles’ stars who scored goals for Nigeria at the senior World Cup, a competition Osimhen hasn’t participated in. Finidi has won the AFCON title, Osimhen hasn’t. Finidi won the UEFA Champions League crown with Ajax FC of Holland, Osimhen hasn’t. Why the NFF and indeed the NSC chieftains belittled Finidi before Osimhen is the Karma which has haunted the Edo-born striker to Morocco. Osimhen’s foolery towards Lookman can be likened to the dying Elephant’s last kick. Indeed, his bus stop. Who cares if he doesn’t play for Nigeria again?

    If the Eagles’ outings have been spectacular, it has been largely due to Alex Iwobi’s immaculate defence splitting passes and the sparkling manner he has marshalled the team, with the strikers the biggest benefactor. So, a badly behaved Osimhen must be told categorically that successes in football matches rests solely with good team work.

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    Mention must be made about the swiftness in curtailing what could have broken the team to pieces as exhibited by the NFF and NSC chiefs in Morocco. The damage control was top notch, although the social media feasted on it maximally, which may have jolted our sports administrators to act decisively.

    The team’s administrator, Dayo Enebi, informed the international media in Morocco on Tuesday that: “There is no problem whatsoever in our camp. Whatever people saw as a crisis between two brothers was easily resolved a couple of hours later. All is good and we are presently at training,”

    Osimhen was seen making gestures to fellow forward Ademola Lookman just before a corner kick, and conjectures of various complexions have followed in the legacy and digital media. Osimhen netted a brace in the encounter to move to 34 goals in 50 matches for Nigeria – only three less than the Nigeria senior record of 37 goals by ‘Goalsfather’ Rashidi Yekini (of blessed memory).

    Ademola Lookman, who had two goals and two assists before the match, having played in the games against Tanzania and Tunisia while sitting out the encounter with Uganda, added another goal and three exquisite assists on Monday night.

    It is true that such high profile shows of shame abound in the game globally, but it shouldn’t involve our best exports to the European leagues. Osimhen and Lookman are previous African Footballer of the Year award winners who should be emulated not despised in the media.  Indeed, Osimhen can’t be pampered to be right in his altacations. Otherwise, he would find himself standing alone on the pitch without team mates to play with. No man is infallible.

    Osimhen should note that the lifespan of athletes in their sport is between five years and 10 years, injuries permitting. It simply means Osimhen should learn to control his quick temper. There is life to live after football. He won’t say he isn’t  aware of the business angle in retirement for great achievers like him, such as being used as a brand ambassador for their goods and services across the world.

    What has impressed me so far is Osimhen’s post-match stoic silence over the issues surrounding the game. Equally impressive has been Lookman’s constant description of Osimhen as his brother; this shows clearly how well he has acculturated playing the game. Lookman in all the press meetings listens attentively before he blows the media away with his informed responses.

    I, therefore, won’t dwell on this matter but wait until today at 5pm to see how well both of them would play against the Algerians inside the 45,000-capacity Grand Stade de Marrakech on Saturday, in the third quarter-final match of the ongoing 35th Africa Cup of Nations finals. Incidentally, when Morocco hosted the AFCON in 1988 (the only previous championship the North African Kingdom staged), Cameroon clashed with Morocco in the first semi-final while Nigeria and Algeria clashed in the second semi-final. The quartet are now repeating history at the quarter-final stage.

    Thirty-eight years ago, Nigeria edged Algeria in a marathon penalty shootout after regulation and extra time ended 1-1, while Cameroon edged hosts Morocco to set up a Nigeria-Cameroon Final. The Indomitable Lions won that controversial Final 1-0. This time around the two countries would meet in the semi-final – Nigeria versus Cameroon – I’m salivating already.

    Yes, why are we so blessed. Why do our sports administrators find it difficult to learn from past experiences – in this case the issue of not paying our players what was promised them.

    “The NFF, the Sports Commission, the Presidency, the Minister of Finance, and the CBN are all involved.

    Fundamentally, the money for this AFCON is approved and being processed through the right channels. It’s a matter of timing,” the Chairman of the National Sports Commission (NSC), Shehu Dikko said on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily.

    “Let me give you the timelines of how the issues work. First and foremost, I must tell you that Mr. President, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu GCFR, duly approved the special budget for the AFCON as far back as November 14, 2025,” he said.

    “But approving the money is different from getting the money out. It takes time for the money to be processed through Finance, the Office of the Accountant General, and the CBN.”

    When would we overcome these bureaucratic bottlenecks to save us the international disgrace of our players refusing to train or threatening not to travel to competition venue because of unfufilled promises to them?

  • Chelle needs match readers

    Chelle needs match readers

    Eric Chelle‘s tactics, game management, substitutions and match reading initiatives leave much to be desired, with due respect. He is usually bewildered once the games begin. At best, he stands on the sidelines, his lips moving and gesticulating with his hands, which translates to nothing in terms of how well or badly the teams play. One can’t see how his muttering translates to good displays. Rather, the players continue with their side passing game, leaving the fans yearning for goals.

    The Super Eagles have played three Group C matches with nothing to cheer. Rather than fans sit back to eat their cherished meals and wash them down with their choice drinks, they sit back in astonishment watching a team leading in a game tottering while they pray for the referee’s final whistle. Super Eagles were too poor in the three games, considering their pedigree and the European clubs they play for.

    Super Eagles were awake for only 30 minutes of each of the six halves played against Tanzania, Tunisia and can you beat it, a ten-man Uganda that had her first choice goalkeeper sent off. Instead of tearing the Ugandans apart with goals and scintillating ball artistry, our players stood hands akimbo when a ten-man Ugandan side opened up our defence with one pass from the midfield which left Uzoho stranded as he rushed out to remedy a situation in vain.

    Put simply, the Eagles lacked the stamina to last for 45 minutes of each of the six halves they have played. The big boys in the team failed to track back to do some defensive work each time the team lost possession of the ball. The big boys chose to trek back to avoid being caught offside than be actively involved in the transition play, having regained ball possession from our opponents.

    Chelle’s Eagles have the penchant for conceding late goals in matches. It didn’t start today. Nigeria was lucky with the 2-1 victory over Tanzania. The Tanzanians were a better team tactically. I wasn’t surprised the Tunisians and Ugandans couldn’t neat them. Tanzania’s Argentine coach comes highly recommended when next Nigeria is scouting for a good coach.

    Tanzania’s gutsy 1-1 draw with Tunisia saw the Taifa Stars reach the knockout stage for the first time in their history. They will play host nation Morocco in the Round of 16.

    Chelle’s game management from the bench is awful. It is either he doesn’t have a renowned match reader or he has one whose views he doesn’t take seriously. Otherwise, how do you explain how a team with a three-goal lead suddenly becoming clueless, leading to them conceding two goals against Tunisia (3-2) and a goal against Uganda (3-1) in the last two Group C’s matches?

    Having watched the three group matches, one cannot but commend Chelle over the composition of the 28-man squad. This list threw a string of forgotten young boys who had done well for the country at the age grade  cadre. Of particular mention is Onyedika who had been exceptional for his European club at the UEFA Champions League scoring goals with aplomb. He only enacted this goal-scoring prowess as a midfielder playing for Nigeria against Uganda. Onyedika should walk into any Nigerian side at the ongoing AFCON matches, except Chelle wants to fail. Goals win matches and Onyedika represents the league of goal-scoring midfielders, which is what any coach needs to untie highly defensive teams as we have seen in Morocco.

    The Eagles are conceding goals because the opposition capitalises on the sloppiness our upfront players exhibit when tracking back to regain ball possession. Indeed, these attacking forays come through the Eagles’ right back position manned by Samuel Osayi. No fault of his since he joins the Eagles’ attack whenever he gets the ball. Ordinarily, the right player should come back to mark when they are defending in the same way that Osayi does when we surges forward in search of goals. This is where the Eagles are missing Ola Aina, whose strength and resilience on and off the ball covers up for this flaw on our right back position.

    Chelle should roll up his sleeves and dig deep into his tactics bag to produce good results with the Eagles because he would be facing the winner of the Round of 16 game between DR Congo (do you remember them) and Algeria.

    But Nigeria must beat Mozambique next Monday in an epic clash that would decide how far the Eagles would progress, especially as South Africa, Cameroon and Morocco would produce the eventual semi-final opponents for Nigeria. Mighty challenge, if you ask me. But it is surmountable with right tactics and quest to excel on the players’ part.

    Of their five previous confrontations, Nigeria have been victorious on four occasions against Mozambique, including their only AFCON encounter way back in Lubango, Angola in January 2010, in which the Eagles ran away with a 3-0 win. Nigeria won a friendly match in Maputo in August 1999 by the odd goal and won another one in Portugal in October 2023 by 3-2, while 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifying matches ended 0-0 in Maputo and 1-0 in Abuja, with Obinna Nsofor scoring five minutes into added time to keep alive Nigeria’s World Cup hopes.

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    Monday’s confrontation inside the Complexe Sportif de Fès is expected to be explosive, as the young Mambas have demonstrated capacity to stand toe-to-toe with the big teams and pull something out of the inferno whenever they need to. The 35,000-capacity Complexe Sportif de Fès, which has been home to three-time African champions Nigeria in their entire Group C campaign, will be the venue for the encounter that will commence at 8pm on Monday.

    Nigeria will take on Mozambique national football team on Monday in Fez, while DR Congo face Algeria national football team on Tuesday in Rabat. Victories for both sides would set up a quarter-final showdown in Marrakech on January 10. The fixture would echo their tense encounter last November in Rabat during the final CAF playoff for the World Cup. That clash ended 1–1 after extra time, forcing a penalty shootout in which DR Congo triumphed.

    However, it is remarkable to note here that the NSC chieftains have learned lessons from past experiences with the Super Eagles by paying their entitlements promptly, leaving the players and coaches to deliver the trophy to Nigeria at dusk on January 18 in Morocco. The coach got $20,000 for each of the three matches won. This presupposes that the players each pocketed $10,000 for each of the three games won against Tanzania, Tunisia and Uganda. Equally commendable is the swiftness in nipping in the bud another players’ show of shame by accepting to double what they offered the players initially.

    Now we know who to blame if things go awry in Morocco, God forbid. The players and indeed the coaches owe Nigerians a trophy, having broken their hearts with their shambolic outings during the matches of the 2026 World Cup qualifiers. The time to change the unholy narrative of our football at the senior level is now by winning the 2025 AFCON diadem. This is not forgetting that Nigeria finished as runners-up in the last edition held in Ivory Coast. Good luck Super Eagles. Up Nigeria.

  • Happy in our misery

    Happy in our misery

    Soccer in Nigeria is ugly. Indeed, the game is dead here if one recalls that not a single home-based player was considered good enough to either sit on the bench or taken to th 2025 Africa Cup of Nations holding in Morocco as a mascot. Yes, mascots are those budding young talents taken to major competitions for exposure. Indeed, Gernot Rohr literarily took Victor Osimhen to the Nations Cup ahead of Kelechi Iheanacho. Look at what Osimhen has become, dear reader?

    One only hopes we are sincere in our deliberate efforts to reinvent the Super Eagles  with truly younger boys not age mates of some of the retirees. One must commend William Troost Ekong for quitting the international scene with Nigeria when the ovation was at the highest. Being voted the best player at the last edition of AFCON held in Cote d’ Ivoire is massive for a defender. It won’t be out of place to write here that Ahem Musa may have taken a cue from Ekong’s decision to also bow out of the Super Eagles. Musa deserves all the applauses that he has received, particularly his decision to decision to return to the domestic league to play for his Nigerian club, Kano Pillars FC. We need many of our retired players to play for the local clubs to give the domestic league the fillip of growth since the NFF are satisfied with having 28 players representing Nigeria at the ongoing AFCON in Morocco without a single home-based player as mascot.

    It is unfortunate that we haven’t cultivated the culture of sending forth our elite players from the Super Eagles. The send forth organised for Austin Okocha in the past inside the Warri Township Stadium was laughable as players had to lift the ball a bit to kick it. The refurbished playing turf ended up being waterlogged the as channels constructed for the water to pass through to designated outlets were blocked. It still hurts that Okocha’s greatest moments in the game are recordings from the international media.

    I’m happy that Alex Iwobi proved his mettle in last week Tuesday victory over Tanzania which was scrappy. The manager may have found his rightful position as Iwobi’s passes were accurate, especially the one that resulted in Nigeria’s first goal. One is still scratching his head to find out the reason Chelle substituted Chukwueze. Nigeria’s biggest problem would rely how well Chelle reads the matches and the quality of substitutions he makes from the benh in the course of the game.

    In the game against Tanzania, Chelle’s changes did little to improve the team’s performance because the Tanzanians trouble our defenders with their swift counter attacking style of play. Back home here, most Nigerians watched the closing stages of Tuesday’s game with bated breath. The Tunisians are better players and could hurts us badly if we fail to track back to mark them a soon as we lose possession of the ball.

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    I ask Chelle again here what informed his decision to substitute Victor Osimhen in the last ten minutes with Onuachu?  This isn’t to say that Onuachu isn’t good enough for the role. My grouse rests with the fact that Osimhen’s exit from games always changes the rhythm of our matches with attacking foray melting away like ice cream placed underneath the scorching sun. No African side would see Osimhen upfront on the field and discount him.

    One had thought Osimhen had a knock and wanted to leave the game in order not to aggravate he injury. My thought was wrong going by Osimhen’s countenance as he walked off the pitch. Dear Chelle, there shouldn’t be any margin for tactical error in tonight’s game against the Carthage Eagles of Tunisia. Nigeria should aim to top Group C by beating the Tunisians. It is the only option for the Eagles going by our low goals aggregate of one compared to the Tunisians plus three goals with no goals against.

    Against the Tanzanians, two o our goals were ruled out as offside offences largely because Osimhen and Adams Akor didn’t time their runs perfectly like the Tanzanians did with theirs. Chelle’s instructions to the boys to play the ball from behind is good our players must show sufficient hunger for goals by opening up chances towards the flanks since our strikers are fast runners. Those needless passes backwards not kills the attacking forays but exposes our players as inefficient dribblers of the ball.

    Nigeria shouldn’t lose tonight to the Tunisians. We need to be happy in our World Cup misery  with any form of victory than a defeat which would translate to a double jeopardy. Even if our football is the ICU, we restore hope of a sustainable revival by beating the Tunisians. That way the last game be a befitting ceremonial game for Chelle to tested other players ahead of the much difficult fixtures beginning with the Round of 16 games next week. Good luck Nigeria.

    However, we cannot allow foreign coaches through our administrators who recruit them to kill our joy with the chain of bad results recently. Let it be known to Chelle that his contract won’t be renewed if Nigeria fails to lift the winners’ trophy at the 2025 AFCON currently holding in Morocco. No half measures anymore.

    In Europe, the game of soccer is beautiful to watch. You can spend hours watching games live at home or at Stadia. You can equally be excited watching recaps of major matches at home or any gadget you choose to watch the matches, yet you will derive the same excitement as if you are watching a live game.

    For the soccer game, the end of the season throws up certain puzzles surrounding who the  best players, coaches, etc are with different parameters used in picking different winners. Such subtitles as the best striker, best defender, best goalkeeper whose prize would be a golden glove,  best midfielder, best winger, highest goal scorer (men and women), young player of the year, you name them. But it is the best footballer of the year male and female that attracts the fans’ applause and attention the following season.

    If we must achieve excellence and meet the objective requirement for the rapid development of our sports industry, then we must broaden the finance base of the industry and create the right conditions for private sector funding and investment in sports.

    We must accept that there is the need for us to have the political will to make sports a big business, which inevitably will create the platforms to unemployment. We need to cultivate business concerns to embrace sports, but with a caveat -transparency and accountability.

    There was the need to create enabling environment for business concerns to key into sports patronage, first to change the way it is run in Nigeria and then to get Nigerians to know that sports help increase the country’s G.D.P as seen in other climes.

    Grassroots development can be actualised through the hosting of international and continental sporting events. Most countries use these big competitions to woo the blue-chip industries to identify with sports. Besides, these competitions open up the hinterland with the facilities constructed creating jobs in the locality. The facilities would attract the villagers to learn the games and, inadvertently, improves their health.

    Big sports competitions generate revenue, create jobs, improve financial bases and provide the best opportunity for foreigners to have first hand interaction with Nigerians. Such competitions improve tourism, a sure money spinner. Need I state the benefit that business concerns will gain from the volume of foreign exchange during such competitions?

    Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year, dear reader.

  • Let’s win on the pitch

    Let’s win on the pitch

    Now we know who to blame whenever the story breaks in the media that Super Eagles manager, Eric Chelle’s wages are in arrears as we have it till date. The chairman of the NSC told Arise TV on Monday that: “The NSC has been paying the salaries of Eric Chelle (Super Eagles coach) on behalf of the NFF even though we’re not a party to the contract.” “This is part of our support to the NFF.”

    The chairman’s response on television gave the impression that his commission was doing the NFF a favour, as if it isn’t part of his commission’s duties to ensure that things are done seamlessly. The failure of the commission to pay Chelle his wages promptly amounts to failure of leadership. He ought to humble himself by apologising to Nigerians for this administrative blunder.

    How the chairman has forgotten so quickly that he once held court at the NFF beats pundits hollow. Indeed, his comments on this tardy payment of Eagles manager’s wages are legendary. And they litter the internet as it never forgets. I thought the chairman ought to have given NFF the responsibility to pay Chelle his wages for such an action to be in sync with his views on the matter when he was an NFF chieftain. The chairman should take responsibility for the failure to pay the coach. After all, he was virtually the one who led the photo ops during the tactician’s unveiling at the Dankaro House in Abuja. Need I forget the celebrations involving the NSC’s top echelon and NFF bigwigs in England when Nigeria won the Unity Cup by beating Jamaica in the final game? 

    Curiously, one thought the issue of Nigeria missing out on getting one of the tickets to the World Cup was over until the news where NFF’s General Secretary Sanusi raised hopes about a likely third lifeline for the Super Eagles to the 2026 World Cup. Sanusi sounded like a qualified lawyer when he confirmed the petition has been lodged and that Nigeria is awaiting FIFA’s decision.

    “The Congolese rules say you cannot have dual citizenship,” Sanusi told reporters. “Wan-Bissaka has a European passport; some have French passports. The rules are very clear, and we have submitted our petition.”

    FIFA is reviewing Nigeria’s World Cup petition, but DR Congo have fired back, telling the Super Eagles to “focus on AFCON.”

    He added that FIFA’s approval was based on documents provided by the Congolese authorities.

    “As far as FIFA is concerned, once you have the passport of your country, you are eligible. That’s why they were cleared,” Sanusi said. “But our concern is that FIFA may have been deceived into clearing them.”

    ”Under DR Congo’s constitution, nationality can only be acquired through specific state-approved processes, including naturalisation, marriage, adoption or formal option, and the country does not generally permit dual citizenship. Nigeria argues that if those procedures were not followed, sporting eligibility could collapse,” he enthused further.

    FIFA has the power to act if fraud or falsification of documents is proven, including withdrawing eligibility, imposing bans, forfeiting matches or expelling teams from competitions. But a word of caution is necessary here for Nigeria, considering how we have gotten to the point where sanctions to offenders pushed us into the playoffs in Africa which we fluffed by losing on penalties to DR Congo.

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    A dangerous precedent would have been set if Nigeria displaces DR Congo at this stage. I hope we won’t start making false claims of FIFA being racists, if we get edged out by default like it happened to Burkina Faso, following the points deductions against South Africa and Eritrea’s late withdrawal from the qualification matches. It would be more dignifying for Nigeria to qualify for the World Cup based on her exploits on the field of play, not through boardroom points.

    Of course, DR Congo’s Director of Football, Hérita Ilunga, reacted sharply to Nigeria’s complaint, insisting FIFA operates on sporting nationality rather than domestic law.

    “FIFA does not operate based on legal nationality, but on sporting nationality,” Ilunga said. “If that is the case, I advise you, my dear Naija, my BBC brothers, to focus instead on the AFCON.”

    Hmmmmm! What is the matter with our sports administrators? Don’t they have shame? Do they intend to prepare a one player (Victor Osimhen) strong squad to the 2026 World Cup by default? Please somebody in government should tell those pushing for another boardroom summersault to catapult Nigeria into the World Cup next year to be co-hosted by Mexico, Canada and the United States to stop it. Nigeria shouldn’t be perceived as sore losers. After all, we have a chance to right the wrongs of our World Cup failures by lifting the Africa Cup of Nations diadem in Morocco on January 18, 2026.

    Must Nigeria qualify to play at the Mundial via the backdoor? Is playing at the World Cup Nigeria’s birthright? Which of FIFA’s rules would DF Congo have infringed to merit an ouster at the boardroom? Who determines eligibility at the World Cup? FIFA or the country concerned, in this case DR Congo? How much of a country’s constitution is important for eligibility as enshrined in FIFA’s rules?

    One is excited over the fact that there are deliberate attempts to reinvent the Super Eagles with younger players whose ages won’t be debatable. Unfortunately, the new boys are mostly Nigeria-born. But the significant thing would be how well they would fit into the spine of the team (Stanley Nwabali, Calvin Bassey, Ola Aina, Wilfred Ndidi, Alex Iwobi, Samuel Chukwueze, Ademola Lookman and Osimhen) to give us the desired results.

    One has been very impressed with the way the boys reported to camp in Cairo. They had the numbers to train and it rubbed off on how they played in the friendly. One isn’t, however, happy with the way Osimhen reports to the team’s camp. Osimhen is looking like the next monster we are grooming with penchant for coming late to the camp.

    The painful thing about Osimhen’s lateness is that he advertises his exit from his Turkish side with videos suggesting that he is leaving the stadium straight to the airport to board the aircraft. Sadly, he reports to camp late, leaving this writer in awe as he is welcomed to camp with no sanctions. It is absolutely unacceptable for Osimhen to report to the Cairo camp 24 hours to the team’s departure from the Egyptian capital.

    As an elite player in the squad, he should lead by example, not creating the impression that he is untouchable. His lateness to camp affects the team’s preparations for competitions. Osimhen should know that he is the pivot of the team and must, therefore, report early. One was pleased watching the team play comfortably the 3-5-2 formation before switching to the 4-4-2 style of play.

    My angst with Chelle is his penchant for openly disagreeing with referees’ calls. Chelle was shown a yellow card for dissent towards end of the match by the referee. One only hopes he doesn’t get the red card flashed at him leading to exit from the bench. This definitely would jeopardise Nigerians’ dream of lifting the trophy. The Eagles mustn’t spoil Nigerians’ Christmas and New Year with sloppy performances.

    The Eagles must change from being spoilers to clear winners on the pitch, not at the boardroom.

  • Recipe for paralysis

    Recipe for paralysis

    Those who make peaceful changes impossible always make violent changes inevitable. Nigeria‘s World Cup campaign was a fiasco even with browbeating tactics employed by the hierarchy of the supervisors to steal the thunder of the NFF at the concluded Africa Playoffs for the 2026 World Cup competition. The supervisors ran the errands associated with the playoffs including having to pay the players’, coaches’, officials’ and backroom staff’s outstanding entitlements arising from the team’s refusal to train ahead of the last playoff against the Democratic Republic of Congo.

    The supervisors and their lackeys sang, dance and shouted while pumping the air with punches which threatened to pull down the roof top. In fact, you could hear a background voice assuring listening to the noise from their drumbeats of personal aggrandisement that the federation won’t owe the contingent any form of outstanding allowances after Nigeria beat ‘customer’ Gabon 4-0. They had forgotten that Nigeria had never lost to Gabon, making the 4-0 defeat a routine than an achievement to be celebrated with such maddening displays.

    Behold, last week, like a thief at night the story leaked that Super Eagles manager, Eric Chelle was still being owed two months wages. No concrete denial has been made by those who did the payment to say he had been paid upfront as is the practice with such payments in the past or that mode of payment has been abolished.

    “According to a top @NatSportsComm official, speaking off the record, @NGSuperEagles head coach Eric Chelle is certainly owed wages. But the source says that it is TWO months and not three. “We have spoken to him and the money is going to be paid very shortly.”

    “According to this highly-ranked official, Chelle had been paid regularly since February, until things came unstuck around June/July. That was resolved until the current arrears, which he says is for “September and October.”

    “As for his bonuses, “that is an @thenff matter,” the source said. “They are responsible for that.”

    *But is this state of affairs good enough, for #Nigeria, that we repeatedly owe @NGSuperEagles coaches  wages? Is this not a shame and an embarrassment for the country? Nigerians, over to you…,” foremost Nigerian journalist Osasu Obayiuwana wrote on his social media handle, X.

    Pray, isn’t this debt story associated with Chelle’s wages another recipe for paralysis? Over time when such ill wind of debts emerges from the evil forest in the media, Nigeria loses the games. I ask, who should we ask if Chelle’s wages have been paid when those who ought to ask such questions are the ones doing the payment themselves? Nigeria, we hail thee …

    Don’t Nigerians deserve to know how much Chelle earns monthly? It isn’t enough for rumour mill to whisper that Chelle goes home with $55,000 monthly with the alibi that he pays his assistance out of the huge cash.  I’m not English but I know how much Thomas Tuchel, the England manager earns in his 18 months contract. Tuchel for the records is German. Ditto Carlo Ancelotti, the Italian manager who will bark out instructions to Samba Boyz of Brazil at the 2020 World Cup to be co-hosted by the United States (US), Canada and Mexico.

    Wait for it. Did they not say in the aftermath of the show of shame in Morocco mid-November that Mr. President graciously released to them N12 billion to offset all the debts associated with the team? If yes, how come they couldn’t pay Chelle’s wages for September and October with their allocations in mid-November whilst in Morocco? How about the money that would have been paid to the coaches, players, backroom staff and team officials had Nigeria beaten DR Congo in the final Africa Playoffs game on November 16, in Morocco? Couldn’t that money had been used to settle wages owed Chelle at the end of November?

    Well, it is good to note that Chelle would be paid soon. It is also worthy to state here that we have given the coach the alibi he needs when things go awry. What one finds very interesting is that nobody is talking about Nigeria lifting the trophy on January 18, 2026 unlike in the past. In fact, Chelle’s employers have given him a semi-final target at the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations. They are also excited with the deliberate attempt by Chelle to rebuild a new squad, although the bulk of the team, especially the team’s spine would be populated by the experienced players.

    One of the debutants is 22 years old Salim Fago Lawal, a center forward, playing for Croatia-based side NK Istra 1961, who had a solid 2025 season, scoring 4 goals and providing 2 assists in 16 appearances at the SuperSport HNL (Croatian top league) and Cup combined by late 2025.

    He was part of the Nigeria’s U-20 Flying Eagles World Cup squad in Argentina in 2023. He played 5 matches, scored 1 goal, 0 Assists, 0 Yellow cards.

    Tochukwu Nnadi is a 22 years old Nigerian footballer who plays as a midfielder for Zulte Waregem of the Belgian Second Division. Nnadi has so far played 15 matches, no goal, with six yellow cards and one red  card flashed at him. He played five matches for Nigeria’s Flying Eagles at the 2023 World Cup in 2023 Argentina, with no goal and no assist.

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    Ebenezer Akinsanmiro, a young Nigerian midfielder, played for Pisa SC on loan during the 2025-26 season (as of Aug 2025), making 11 appearances. He was previously on loan at Serie B side Sampdoria during 2024-25, scored 1 goal in 35 appearances. He is 21 years old.

    Akinsanmiro started playing professionally for Remo Stars in 2020. He was part of the team that gained promotion from the Nigeria National League to the Nigeria Professional Football League at the end of the 2020–21 season.

    There is also Usman Mohammed (born 1994), a Nigerian midfielder, plays for Israeli club Ironi Tiberias, making 11 appearances and scoring 1 goal. He missed two games. He won Olympic Bronze Medal with the Nigeria’s U-23 squad in 2016 in Brazil.

    23-year-old Blackburn Rovers defender Ryan Alebiosu recently completed his nationality switch from England to Nigeria. Born in London, Alebiosu started his career with Arsenal, where he spent over a decade, signing his first professional contract with the London club in 2020, although his first taste of senior professional football came during a loan spell with Crewe Alexandra.

    He received his first call up to the Super Eagles when he was named in a 54-strong provisional squad for the Africa Cup of Nations last week.

    My worries include the invitation extended to goalkeeper Uzoho and the fact that no domestic league player was considered good enough for the 28-man squad. Pity, our people never learn from history.

    27 years old Francis Uzoho plays for Cypriot First Division club Omonia Nicosia.  So far in the 2025-2026, he has made three appearances, conceded two goals, kept one clean sheet and had one yellow card flashed at him. One only hopes that invitation extended to Stanley Nwabali isn’t ill-advised.

    Sport is a big deal. It unites nations and enchants people. Besides, it has a global appeal, pulling fans and sponsors in a unique force that impacts positively on businesses-and health. These positives can best be evaluated when the government has a template that makes it possible for businesses and philanthropists to key into the nation’s vision for sports.

    Governments of sports-loving nations entice the businesses with relief packages, such as tax rebates on their investments in sports. Given sports’ global appeal, governments effectively utilise the platform as their public relations tool to change people’s perception of their entities.

  • Insurance policy, please

    Insurance policy, please

    Some unthinkable things happen in the administration of sports in Nigeria. One of such is the reported neglect of Ola Aina to treat himself for an injury he sustained playing for the country. Aina is threatening to dump the country in future international competitions over the shabby manner in which the NFF’s and indeed the NSC’s leadership abandoned him to his fate to treat his injury.

    Aina, in his report stated categorically that his English Premier League club, Nottingham Forest FC of England underwrote his medical expenses from the time he underwent a successful surgery till his current recuperating condition. Indeed Nottingham Forest FC’s Manager told the international media in a pre-match interview on Monday night that he is expecting Aina back in the team’s training session next year. Is this writer shocked by what has befallen Aina? Certainly not.

    The NFF and indeed the NSC showboating attitude to the players’ welfare is legendary, so much so that there is a lack the trust and confidence in these two bodies whenever they make promises to change for an improvement in subsequent tournaments. In fact, the players have had to down tools to get their entitlements, the last of such shows of shame happened in Morocco, mid-November during the CAF Playoffs where Nigeria was edged out of the 2026 World Cup on penalties by DR. Congo.

    Aina’s outcry and threat not to honour Nigeria’s invitations raises the poser if our sportsmen and women have serious and binding insurance policies, for instance? I’m not an insurance broker, so permit me to ask our sports chieftains if indeed our athletes have insurance policies which can be accessed, especially in situations like the one Aina found himself. Reading Aina’s comments rightfully suggested that the immensely talented defender was asking for some form of compensation. This is a legitimate request.

    Otherwise, on what premise is Chelle or any of our football or sports chieftains expecting Aina to join the Nigeria side in camp, ahead of the 2025 AFCON matches in Morocco? To whom much is given, so much more is expected. We need to prioritise our athletes’ welfare packages because there can’t be sports administrators without the athletes who win the laurels.  The reason foreign clubs get our players’ support on the thorny club versus county imbroglio.

    Yes, NFF President visited Aina after Nigeria’s ouster from the 2026 World Cup, but that visit was more to ameliorate the setting which the defender complained about. Curiously, in this drama was the story that Chelle was waiting to find out if Aina and Agu would be fit for AFCON. The question would be what happened with the talk of Chelle being in close contact with our players, so much so that he presented a 55-man squad for Nigeria, although another story claimed he has his 28-man squad ready for submission to beat the December 10 deadline set by CAF.

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    Chelle has picked Aina and Agu while his submission that he got assurances from the players that they will be fit hence his decision to include them in his squad remains to be seen – although he is also aware that they might also not make it.

    His explanation was taken by the NFF technical committee, with Chelle also saying that the doubts over the availability of one of the duo, was why he handed a first time call up to young LASK defender Emmanuel Michael.

    According to Chelle: ‘’Michael will serve as a cover for the two senior left backs in the team in Zaidu Sanusi and Bruno Onyemaechi respectively.”

    However, if Aina walks his talk of not honouring Nigeria’s matches, Chelle’s headache would be worrisome since Fredrick is also out of AFCON with a very serious hamstring injury while Aina’s manager stated that he would be back in January.

    Chelle appears to have learned a few lessons from the ill-fated 2026 World Cup qualification series with his choice of players. Unfortunately, FIFA has inadvertently thrown spanner in the works of coaches like Chelle who are thinking of rebuilding the Super Eagles, using younger players.

    FIFA chiefs in their argument published on Thursday morning said: ‘’Clubs will only be obliged to release players for the Africa Cup of Nations from December 15 – a week later than the standard international window – following a decision by FIFA on Wednesday in Zurich.”

    ”FIFA said the shortened release period, the same approach used for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, was agreed after consultations with the Confederation of African Football (CAF) and other stakeholders to “reduce the impact on various parties”, without elaborating.

    ‘’The 2025 window of the men’s UEFA Champions League runs until December 10. The governing body added that national federations and clubs involved in continental tournaments over the release period are being encouraged to hold bilateral talks to agree “appropriate individual solutions” where scheduling conflicts arise.”

    Countries going to Morocco for AFCON have been given the shortest part of the stick, like Nigeria which are eager to pacify their citizens by lifting the AFCON trophy like they did in South Africa in 2013. The African Nations Cup will run from December 21, 2025 to January 18, 2026, leaving national teams less than a week to prepare once all players are available, in what is likely to be another logistical challenge for coaches and organisers at the continent’s flagship international competition.

    Thumbs up to William Troost Ekong for announcing his retirement from international duties on Thursday, drawing international applause for knowing when to quit the game which brought him fame, opulence and wealth.

    According to Troost-Ekong:  “None of this would have been possible without the people around me. To every coach, member of staff, and most importantly, my teammates, past and present who have been part of my international journey, thank you!”

    “To the Nigerian fans—the heartbeat of Nigerian football. Your support has carried me through every high and every challenge. I will stand with you as you stood with me.

    “This isn’t a final goodbye. My work within Nigerian communities continues, just as my love and passion for this team will never fade. ‘’

    One only hopes that the rebuilding exercise of our national teams is enduring. Only the best should be selected. Our national teams have lost the fear factor such that hitherto soccer minors now beat Nigeria in competitions. Our sportsmen and women should always be rewarded after each feat.

    It is true that there is a global recession. But the spiral effect of rewarding our athletes is unquantifiable when they move from amateurs to professionals. A handsome reward in cash and kind will reinvigorate the desire of most sceptic parents to allow their kids earn a living as sportsmen and women.

    Indeed, athletes who win laurels for Nigeria are children of the hewers of woods and drawers of water. In fact, every time these kids sneak out to do sports, they return home to be flogged and at other times denied their meals to serve as deterrent to other kids who would want to toe their path. Some of these parents beat their children because they want them to be educated. They always point at their relations and neighbours whose kids are educated and doing very well in society. They want to produce as many graduates as they can afford to send to school, not sportsmen and women whose life span in the industry is between one year and 10, barring any injuries.

    For some other parents, its boundless joy if their kids sneak out for games. It means fewer people to cater for when the meals are ready. Of course, these lads are not bothered. Their target is to get recognition from clubs or national teams’ scouts, which they know will open a new vista in their lives.