The Nation Newspaper

Category: Ade Ojeikere

  • Dream Flying Eagles for Nigeria

    Dream Flying Eagles for Nigeria

    ANYONE who is said to be U-20 should be 19 years 11 months or below at the time of reckoning. This presupposes that such a child must either be in secondary school or is a Jambite in any of the tertiary institutions albeit the university. For those who cannot pursue their education at the university, the polytechnics and other Colleges of Education serve as remedial platforms, especially for the brilliant ones eager to be called graduates in the future.

    There may be others who couldn’t make the required grades to qualify to attend higher institutions. They may opt for other things in life or choose to do some jobs to eke a living and invariably repeat their classes. What all these scenarios tell us is that it is easy to identify any U-20 using these criteria as mentioned earlier.

    The telltales by some of the participating teams at the concluded U-20 World Cup qualifiers for Africa’s representative for the event in Indonesia over discrepancies were shameful. They forgot that the world is a global village with age complainant countries who will be in Indonesia ready to pounce on these cheats.

    Would it matter if one Nigerian player is caught in Indonesia as an age cheat? Of course, the shame would be on us for a long time. But do we care? No. Those caught in those days of being born in hospitals in Local Government Areas (LGAs) that weren’t created at the time when their documents stated became stars and coaches for the country at major football competitions.

    Should this age scam continue when we know where to find U-20 players in Nigeria where we have 774 Local Government Areas LGAs? No. Those who were in Cairo should be made to show their educational records no matter how remote the areas where they were issued were. A country with a population of over 200 million people shouldn’t find it difficult to identify, train and expose 30 truly young boys to represent us in Indonesia.

    Would it not be a shame if all members of the Flying Eagles could not show us verifiable educational records? Where were their schoolmates when they returned to the country? How about their principals? Wouldn’t it have been a delightful sight to behold if their classmates stormed the airport to celebrate with them? Or are we saying these boys aren’t of school age? Is it the best way to seek funding from the corporate world if we showcase these boys with their schoolmates? How do we hope to revive defunct inter-school soccer competitions across the country when the products wouldn’t be allowed to use the platform to change the narratives of their different families the way Napoli FC of Italy’s Nigerian striker Victor Osimhen has done with his? Pity!

    One feels ashamed reading stories about non-payment of allowances and winning bonuses to age-grade players in Nigeria instead of encouraging those who are ready to improve their educational qualifications by going to school. It is not too late to start this age-grade renaissance with the FIFA U-20 World Cup in Indonesia later in the year.

    This desperation to win every competition Nigeria registers for is the death knell of the game. Indeed any age cheat who is registered in place of the real U-20 player has thrown such boys into the crime market. Countries that have perfected these age-grade cadres did so with a prize when they started. Such successful nations deemphasised winning the cups. They chose to build structures which would institutionalise the need to have feeder teams in all their soccer teams as one of the criteria for registration every season.

    At the 2018 World Cup, 19 years old Mbappe played for France winning the diadem and playing up to the finals years later at the 2022 Qatar World Cup at 23.  Mbappe has no history of playing for France’s age-grade teams since such exceptional players are immediately elevated into the senior side. Any person thinking that these Flying Eagles would play more than the mandatory three games of the group stage would be in for a shocker because this team would be beaten groggy with goals.

    Sports minister Sunday Dare Tuesday at a reception to welcome the bronze medal-winning Flying Eagles in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) was called out for mentioning the only student who dazzled in one of the editions of the Principal Cup competition played in Abuja. The minister tacitly elucidated the essence of the U-20 World Cup as one meant for students although he only mentioned wasn’t in school again, having been discovered in 2021. The question could then be asked how old he was when he played for the winning team in the finals in 2021. This writer won’t stretch this argument too far because the owner of the school where this boy was discovered, nurtured and exposed to bigger competition is a stickler for excellence and won’t be part of any age-cheating expedition that would pour odium on his reputation. 

    Sunday Dare recalled the Fosla Academy Karshi, Abuja player was among the Flying Eagles and called him out.

    “There is a Secondary school student among you, Dare said pointing to the Flying Eagles.

    “Yes, he is Onuche Ogbelu, some of his teammates responded with a rousing chorus.

    Ogbelu stood up and after introducing himself, the Minister asked everyone to clap for him for breaking into the national team stressing that Ogbelu made him proud two years after the maiden Principals Cup was held. He however said, “this is one of the gains of the maiden Principals Cup.”

    Fosla Academy Karshi, Abuja on March 30, 2021, emerged champions of the maiden National Principals’ Cup finals held at the Moshood Abiola Stadium, Abuja. The Sani Lulu boys defeated Christ Comprehensive College, Kaduna 2-0 in an entertaining final dominated by the FCT boys.

    One only hopes that the NFF chieftains took notice of this singular attention given to Ogbelu by the minister. They should take a cue from the Ogbelu example to populate the Flying Eagles with good players of school age not what we have in the present team.

    The other thing which should worry the NFF chiefs was the fact that none of Ogbelu’s teammates could also tell the minister that they were students too like Ogbelu by mentioning their schools, especially after Ogbelu had left school. Ogbelu left school this year at SSS 3 at 19. Meaning that he is ready for university. One of my friends laughed his heart out and told me that the other players forgot the names of their schools. Really?

    No prize for guessing right that Ogbelu is the youngest in the squad in the true sense of the claim. Others, I dare say would have been allocated ages which aren’t theirs. Otherwise, they would have told the minister about their former schools or the present ones. I also wonder how the coaches felt about the preferences given to Ogbelu.

    Today, the Senegalese are the winners of the 2022 Africa Cup of Nations. They are also the winners of the Africa Beach Soccer championship, winners of the home-based Africa Nations Championship (CHAN) 2023 and only recently in Egypt, Senegal added the U-20 AFCON tile to their long lists of achievements anchored on proper planning with the grassroots central to their soccer developmental programmes.

    Any Nigeria team to major competitions meant for age grade players without school boys or girls is a scam. It isn’t what will develop the game here. If we don’t expose players to competitions how will they improve? You tell me.

  • Flying Eagles: not Nigeria’s best

    Flying Eagles: not Nigeria’s best

     Anything that isn’t good is bad. Indeed, the Flying Eagles players hoisting the country’s green-white-green shirts are certainly not the best crop of U-20 players available to national team coaches who aren’t thinking through their pockets. I’ve nothing wrong with picking the 23-man squad from a particular area or region of the country. They must represent our best arising from credible screening exercises which should be fair to every child. These players presently in Cairo belong to agents and club scouts raising the poser of how Nigeria plays professional or football should I say organise football at that level around the country.

    Any endorsement of the group of players and coaches presently in Cairo to represent Nigeria at the World Cup proper in Indonesia is the death knell of the game in the 21st Century. Nigeria would have once again lost a whole generation of players whose spaces are being filled with players who shouldn’t wear the country’s colours if we have a football culture worthy of emulation. This is one of the reasons players such as Obafemi Martins emerged due to his exploits with Inter Milan FC of Italy and not through any Nigerian club. Yet, he played the game on the dusty streets and playgrounds abound in Lagos. What a shame.

    The coaches who are with the Flying Eagles cannot give what they don’t have. So anyone expecting miracles from them in Indonesia should be told that the World Cup at any level is the podium to celebrate excellence and not mediocrity which is what this group would bring to the country at the U-20 World Cup later in the year. The argument that the time is too close to the junior Mundial is weak because those who would play for the serious-minded football nations would be playing with boys on the fringes of the senior teams over the last two years.

    If anyone allows these coaches to pick those to represent us in Indonesia, we would have wasted four years that other countries would use to groom their squads for the 2024 and 2028 Olympic Games. In other football nations, their cadet teams graduate through the FIFA age-grade competitions to stardom. Nigeria picks coaches based on sentiments, not on their coaching track records, to handle our teams. They gather players at every age grade who cannot form the nucleus of other national teams, going forward. This is the essence of all FIFA age-grade competitions – growth – not arrested development which has been permanently enshrined in Nigeria’s soccer developmental plans. Doesn’t hurt our administrators that lads such as Chrisantus Macaulay, the best player in the 2007 U-17 World Cup melted like ice cream placed on table underneath the scorching sun when Toni Kroos who played for Germany in the same competition reached the zenith of his game?

    Nigeria has a mandatory three matches at the group stage of the U-20 World Cup which shouldn’t be prosecuted by half-bakes on the altar of continuity or that we don’t want to rock the boat. If we truly want good representation in Indonesia, we must disband the entire squad and sack the coaches. Coaching is about hiring and firing. A coach is as good as his last game. The Flying Eagles coach in Egypt is bereft of new ideas and his utterances bring shame to the country. Our domestic coaches don’t always pick our best players. It is the major reason many young boys sneak out of the country for greener pastures.

    Word is rife that a certain player (name withheld)who wasn’t part of the preparations for this tournament but he is in the squad. Like a sore thumb, he was fielded in Nigeria’s first game against the Senegalese where he was shown a red card. He again was fielded in the semi-final game against the Gambia, where he missed a penalty kick. Should such a boy make the team to Indonesia? Indeed, the coach changed the squad he used to win the WAFU Cup with as many as 13 boys. Which good coach changes a winning squad? Read my lips, please.

    This is what the Flying Eagles coach told the world press after Nigeria was beaten 1-0 by the Gambia in the first semi-finals. According to the coach: “We lost stupidly, we were naive from the start. We failed to take our chances and we also missed the penalty in the 86th minute of the game. I am very frustrated because we had the team go all the way. Football is cruel.

    “We didn’t measure up. I congratulate The Gambia for winning,” he added.

    My dear Flying Eagles coach, who picked the players? By your post-match utterances, you have shown yourself the team’s exit door. If you couldn’t use the last two years to assemble players Nigerians would be proud of, is it this short period you would use to decipher your folly? Who does that? Super Eagles manager Jose Peseiro is shopping for players to fill the void created by our injured players and those who are recuperating. He isn’t talking about the Flying Eagles even if the opposition is the Wild Dogs of Guinea Bissau as they are known.

    The Flying Eagles players representing us in Cairo at the U-20 competition play like robots. They are stiff and very unimaginative and they don’t play like a team trained by coaches with proficient knowledge of the game. You can always predict with confidence what they would do with the ball. Previous Flying Eagles players have played the game with flair. One thing which was always in the past squads was the dribbling wizardry, and intelligent displays, they played with zest and were a delight to watch. Not these ones in Egypt whose tardy performance lures one to sleep whilst watching them.

    These Flying Eagles have failed to improve their displays with every game even against countries that Nigeria had previously beaten by as many as nine goals. It shows growth on the part of those beaten countries over time. For us, the stunted growth continues.  It speaks to their true ages.

    Veteran sports journalist, Mitchell Obi captured the Flying Eagles miserable display in Egypt thus: ”As a group or individuals these Flying Eagles hardly inspire and like the Super Falcons, both going to the World Cups. There must be a drastic reengineering of the technical and playing crew. We are far from our minimum standard and expectation of yore and how it pains to think that the once despised minnows have caught up with us., interestingly in Flying colours..cry my beloved Nigerian game. !!”

    The problem with assembling any national team starts with the NFF’s arbitrary choice of coaches who are eager to be appointed knowing that the job would serve as their ATM. These coaches dare not ask for contracts to be signed with the NFF nor do we get to know how much they are entitled to monthly. It doesn’t matter if such coaches don’t get paid for three years for as long as they remain on the job. How would hungry and angry coaches deliver any qualitative service? The end result is a shoddy job with the teams.

    And with the federation yet to inaugurate their sub-committees, no form of crosscheck on the list of players taken for such critical competitions was done to weed out unqualified players.

    The choice is ours to either sack the coaches and disband the team or we allow them stay to further destroy the next generation of players. Each time we do well in major tournaments such as the World Cup, foreign clubs send their scouts to Nigeria to shop for raw talents who would come very cheap.

  • No nurseries, forget age-grade tourneys

    I’m not a fan of Nigeria’s age-grade teams across all levels and gender. The reason is straightforward. Our age-grade stars hardly make it to the pinnacle of their careers because there is little willpower that can propel an ageing player to compete with younger boys. Indeed, the wholesale transition of most of the country’s cup-winning age-grade teams to other teams leading to wearing the Super Eagles shirts regularly has been like a mirage. And until those who administer our football redirect their attention to nurturing the grassroots through soccer academies, we would always resort to shopping for talents to represent Nigeria at the nursery levels in Europe and the Diaspora. Shame.

    Countries we invade to convince kids who haven’t been to Nigeria to represent us have credible nurseries beginning from age five where children are taught the rudiments of the game. Indeed, there is hardly any club in Europe across all leagues that don’t have thriving academies whose products are involved in weekly league schedules like their senior teams. These leagues have competitions bankrolled by the corporate world with the talents discovered properly groomed and exposed to their senior teams whenever there is the need to plug leaky positions in such squads. Need I waste space to list such players? But if you insist, a recent example of a gem discovered a few years ago who is dazzling the world with immense talent is Frenchman Mbappe. Interestingly, Mbappe has played in two consecutive World Cups for France, winning one and being a runner-up in the other.

    Manchester United FC’s goalkeeper David De Gea was runners-up to one of our grade team’s goalkeepers in one of the U-17 World Cups when the English Premier League’s goaltender featured for Spain’s cadet side. How our goalkeeper isn’t relevant or should I say why he isn’t competing at the same level as De Gea today speaks to the biggest problem with our age-grade teams, not minding whose ox is gored.

    The absence of credible nurseries to discover, train and expose the talented players at the grassroots at the 774 Local Government Areas in the country explain why such a kid goalkeeper could rise to the height of such an international competition and being the star of that final game against Spain tells the story of how our football chieftains don’t consider standardising the nucleus of the beautiful game here.

    The Senegalese have established qualitative nurseries using their allocations from FIFA through grants. Today, the Senegalese are kings and queens of different age-grade tournaments in Africa. What this also means is the discovery chain of new talents is seamless, not needing any form of corruption in the models being used. What nurseries do for such a shining goalkeeper is that the operator would monitor his career path and ensure that he plays for decent clubs here or in Europe than allow him to easy prey of shylock club scouts and agents? This writer won’t be surprised if the Senegalese lift the U-20 trophy in Egypt, given the way the young lads strut their trade during matches. In fact, they score goals with aplomb unlike ours.

    Academies which are nurseries for warehousing the game have been standardised to protect the sector and backed by law for effectiveness. It is at this level that countries’ playing patterns evolve depending on what the coaches feel could bring the best from their nationals.  Standards are set for owning such academies including their curriculum to shut out quackery. These academies are registered by the country’s FA with the right synergy struck where players’ movement in and out of the country is documented.

    The beauty of this system is that it also provides a platform for coaches to be trained and retrained on how to handle kids until adulthood. In fact, many of these coaches end up specialising in training young ones. They won’t be persuaded to handle clubs since they enjoy doing the job. It is, therefore, easy for these countries to name age-grade teams’ coaches, not by guesswork or sentiments but by their achievements in the local competitions in such countries. This academy system ensures that players’ data are accurate. They are stored and used in subsequent editions as the players grow. I have deliberately dwelled on age cheats and the choice of coaches.

    Our soccer chiefs shouldn’t insult our sensibilities by celebrating pyrrhic victories over soccer minnows such as Uganda, with due respect to their citizens on the altar of securing the U-20 World Cup qualification ticket scheduled to hold in Indonesia. It took a deflected own goal for the Flying Eagles to earn a place in the World Cup, with most commentators unhappy with the team’s performance. Flying Eagles’ strikers have developed clay feet so far, leaving the team’s defenders to score the few goals credited to them.

    Flying Eagles’ game against the Ugandans was miserably poor with sports entrepreneur Onome Obruthe complaining about his eyes which still itched him, a clear two hours after the match ended. The Master, ace sports journalist Mitchell Obi wrote in one of the WhatsApp platforms on the game thus: ” Football with pain…a goal with pain…a ticket with pain and a coach who goes down in praise..were these Eagles meant to fly…not all birds fly. Consolation is deserved…we can March ON….keep marching Mr

    Bosso…our pain will be your gain.” NFF, those of you who still have ears to listen and eyes to read, Obi’s message is clear – we need a paradigm shift in the team. What we have seen from this squad is a very bad testament to our game at the domestic level. This group can’t be the best crop of U-20 players in Nigeria. The team’s style of play speaks to the technical abilities of the coach as he has shown an improper understanding of the modern tricks of the game. Nigeria would be the whipping team of the World Cup in Indonesia if this group is allowed to remain as the country’s flag bearers. It isn’t enough for any Nigerian team at the U-20 level to qualify for the main event. Given the exploits of Nigerian kids in Europe, we should be the favourites to win the trophy at such a major tournament and not among the also-ran teams.

    Former Interim League Management Board member Emmanuel Zira stated when asked to review the team’s performance thus: ”Coach’ Ladan Bosso is a very good coach and knows how to develop a good team. He was able to bring together, at short notice, a group of players who seem to grow from strength to strength in the ongoing U-20 AFCON. They look like they can qualify for the World Cup and probably even win the ongoing championships in Egypt!

    ”However, I have a huge concern about the true ages of the players. I have been a club chairman for decades and I can tell you that those players don’t look like U-20 to me at all! You are talking of an age range of 19 years and below.!

    ”This is not a common practice in Nigeria alone, but rampant in Africa. Especially west Africa. Only Egypt seem to have a semblance of U-20 players! This practice is only hurting the growth and development of our football. The effect of such practice, down the line for Africa, will just be a mere waste of time and wastage of the so many talents we gave around Nigeria that are of the age category!

    ”We must not see under-age tournaments as purely designed for us to go and win trophies by cheating, at the expense of developing our abundant talents that can shock the world going forward, that can be of economic value to themselves, family and the country,” Zira wrote to this writer.

    Those who have refused to speak the truth about this team’s uncoordinated displays so far, should ask themselves who among these Flying Eagles can in the next two years walk into the Super Eagles and pick a regular shirt? Besides, the players on the U-20 side, Flying Eagles ought to naturally be the feeder team to the Super Eagles. Certainly not these Coach Bosso boys.

  • IMC: Nigerian coaches need training

    IMC: Nigerian coaches need training

    The domestic league would have achieved part of its fillip for growth if the Interim Management Committee (IMC) chieftains can organise a pre-season and also a mid-season refresher course for the coaches who handle the 20 professional league teams to keep them abreast with the modern tricks in the game, ahead of the second round of the abridged NPFL competition with Bendel Insurance FC of Benin City and Lobi Stars FC of Makurdi leading Groups A and B at the end of the first round of matches across the country.

    The paradox in coaching is that when the team excels, the players take the credit with the media celebrating them to the high heavens. Wait for it, when the team loses games, the coach gets the stick with the players blaming the manager’s tactics that brought them glory in the past. Unfortunately, coaches earn far less than many of the big players, which isn’t good enough especially if such players are the big boys in the game. The tendency for management to kowtow to their views on everything almost turn such stars into monsters. So, if the coaches’ wages aren’t anything to reckon with, who then handles the critical aspect of training and retraining them to make the league matches more exciting to watch?

    In fact, one club chairman informed this writer while beating his chest that he had regrets about changing the team’s coaches because the management knew how the club won the league title. This chairman also advanced the same logic to explain why the club does wholesale changes of players when scheduled to represent Nigeria in CAF’s inter-club competitions. Well, that was the locust years of the league with the IMC determined to block all the rot in the domestic game.

    In fact, the immediate past NFF President Amaju Pinnick during his first tenure thought he shocked his audience when he revealed to them that most of the coaches who participated in a coaching course in which he got a firm to bankroll in England couldn’t operate a computer. They had to be taught how to operate and function with a computer. It showed how rustic their tactics would be. It also showed the quality of the telephone handsets they have. How would such coaches gain from the avalanche of knowledge available online? These days people educate themselves using relevant educational applications. Fans who throng the match venues weekly to watch games deserve to be entertained and tasked to return for the next matches based on the quality of coaching exhibited by the players.

    It is important to state here that these spectators have competing interests for their hard-earned monies and would only watch other games if what they have seen in the previous matches tickled their fancies. Besides, an improvement in the number of fans who watch such clubs’ matches translates to extra revenue in their coffers. The reason most excited state governors throw open the gates of their teams to fans is because of the paltry returns from the turnstiles weekly. No state governor will allow fans to watch games for free if the club’s management realises over N1 million weekly from the gates.

    State governors should use this interlude in the NPFL to structure their teams such that they can be run professionally and those in charge made to explain the profit and loss sheets to the auditors at the end of the season. I always cringe with envy when the Premier League publishes vital information on the finances of the PL teams. Most of the teams have huge losses but what they have as assets far outweigh what they may incur as debts. No wonder the deep-pocket Sheiks keep scrambling to own the Premier League clubs each time stories around them bother on change of ownership. Not so for the NPFL.

    The mid-season break is usually a stocktaking period where clubs retool their operations which most times is centred on strengthening the squad with better players. The irony of most recruitments by the clubs at this period is that the coaches are left untrained with the game going uglier with every match. These largely untrained coaches infest our players at the grassroots in the 774 Local Government Areas in Nigeria, hence the urge by those who are lucky to sneak out of the country to Europe.

    Part of the problem with Nigeria is that we don’t have strong structures in place across the country to discover, nurture and expose new talents. One of the nagging problems that result from this is that soon after the young talents are discovered, they begin to feel too big for the system and run their shows. And in no time, they lose steam and Nigeria is worse off for it – examples abound.

    Coaching is a function of hiring and firing depending on the manager’s successes, especially for inpatient employers. In fact, when teams are fumbling their fans wave the white flag calling for the coach’s sack, if the teams’ fortunes continue to dwindle. What stands for the European clubs’ management is the fact that they have organised and tested systems which throw up the next manager when anyone is sacked or should I say released mutually. Indeed, there are two types of coaches. Those already sacked and those waiting for their sack letters.

    Indeed, those struggling clubs at the lower rung of the league table won’t dare sack the fumbling coach if he was brought into the team through the state governor of his wife. The IMC can include training and retraining programmes for the NPFL coaches in their prospectus for next season. IMC can use preseason and midseason programmes to grade the coaches for the good of the game.

    Nigerians are beginning to watch the beautiful game here on television even with the station’s shortcoming of not being able to allow those who watch the games at home to view replays of exciting moments of the games, especially of spectacular goals scored after 190 matches.

    Spectators now have the luxury of watching live games where visiting teams have won games without any form of causalities arising from mayhems at venues. The IMC should as a matter of urgency speed up their talks with the television rights owners who have a Supreme Court judgment to see how both bodies can do the business of live broadcast matches according to acceptable conditions by all the parties.

    The live telecast of matches is the opium of the league and this writer believes that the rights owners of the league should be allowed to do their job. The Supreme Court judgment must be respected to the letter.

    Of course there should be zero tolerance for government ownership. The government’s contributions towards sports rest with providing the enabling environment for the industry to thrive – which includes providing infrastructure, policies, and takeoff grants, if need be. It is run through communities and individuals with sufficient funding from the corporate world over time. What our leaders also don’t take into consideration before adopting models which work elsewhere is such models are time tested and necessary changes informed from what they gathered after the introduction of such an exercise makes such models attractive and worthy of emulation.

  • Before the fans maim referees

    Before the fans maim referees

    Crazy and divisive comments by fifth columnists, haters of the new body running the league (IMC) sadly so, some pen pushers (I have deliberately not tagged this group as journalists) in various media are steadily building the structures for urchins to ‘kill’ one match referee for failing to handle games involving their favourite team at home with cheap penalties. It is important for the IMC to raise the alarm before the relevant security apparatuses to avoid the chilling shedding of fans’ blood being spilt at match venues on the altar of winning domestic league games at all costs.

    These merchants of death who have as their mantra do-or-die are growing in their numbers and need to be checked before they wreak havoc at match venues by inciting innocent fans to share in their perilous comments. They have in the last three fixtures brought to the fore some referees’ flaws to provoke the supporters of teams that were hurt by their perceived injustice. Rather than allow the disciplinary committee to adjudicate on the matter, they want to force their views on the committee without hearing the referees’ responses.

    We have seen referees handle games brilliantly in the first half only to return for the second half to misbehave, especially in the second round where every game points to either a good or bad future in the competition for teams. Investigations have shown that such diligent referees are given the beating of their lives by irate fans of the home team desperate to have the three points at stake for the game. Courageous referees have remained inside such dressing rooms where fans have invaded at half-time to bring their horrible experiences to the fore.

    These killjoys’ mode of operations is targeted at the match referees, especially when their clubs and fans fail to coax the match arbiters to award frivolous penalty kicks against the opponents. Over 30,000 spectators can’t watch a game only for an insignificant six people to run the rule on the referees’ performances. Indeed, I have looked out for the reports in the newspapers since week seven’s games were played and they haven’t hinged their reports on the referees’ poor outing but on the missed goal-scoring chances by the two teams.

    The referee is the sole judge of time and other things concerning the game. If in the opinion of the referee, a purported call for penalty isn’t worth his time and he decides to cast an indulgent eye on such incidents, so be it. Unfortunately, all our match venues don’t have CCTV devices built into the premises at strategic points to help fish out these people who love to smell blood at venues. I’ve seen a few games on camera and I’ve not been impressed by the security architecture of the venues. I only hope that the IMC isn’t waiting for the worst things to happen before allowing irritants to know what lies ahead of them in the event of crisis before, during and after games.

    The Police are our friend, we have been told. Therefore, the IMC ought to hold critical meetings with the Inspector General of Police (IGP), State Police Commissioners and other security agencies to secure the stadia before, during and after matches. After all, the primary job of security operatives is to secure the lives and properties of the citizenry. Plainclothes operatives need to sit among the fans so that it would be easier to spot those with unsportsmanlike conduct to face the full wrath of the law. It is done in civilised politics. We have seen instances where roughnecks are bundled out of the stadium with every uncouth act inimical to the people around such a repulsive yoyo. 

    It is the only way to avert violence since the unwanted weapons come from the spectators. If the first person who throws his or her empty bottle onto the pitch is caught red-handed and taken away to the parked Black Maria vans, other urchins would be advised to be of good conduct. The language which criminals understand is force. Indeed, acts of violence start from the fans at the stand who have objects such as umbrellas, sachets and/or bottles of water, food packs etc which come in handy as weapons of mass destruction during mayhems.

    The Executive Director, Fund management of the GTI Asset Management and Trust Limited, Nelson Ine, has said the body’s and the Nigeria Premier League’s objectives are geared towards building a football economy for Nigeria.

    Ine on Wednesday in Lagos revealed that the partnership is being driven with The Nigeria Football Fund to boost the Nigeria Professional Football League to help change the face of the round leather game in the country.

    Ine said: “We expect that soon enough government clubs won’t be able to cope in the league. They will leave because we expect corporate organisations to come in now that we are building trust in the operations of the NPFL.

    “TNFF has transparency and accountability and we expect to publish all the finances at the end of every year. So far, we are not paying match officials through anybody but direct. They collect their indemnities before every match.”

    Sport isn’t leisure anymore. It is a serious business used by countries which appreciate its power to pull the youth away from social vices, to change people’s perception of their countries, as a recreation platform for its citizens and as a veritable means for its populace to improve their health.

    Most Sport originates from the people through the communities with the products of such an enterprise emerging as ambassadors for the country in international competitions. All that the government does is provide the enabling environment for the industry to thrive. Since the ultimate target of the corporate world is the citizen, it follows therefore that sport gets the needed fillip for growth when the athletes become big stars in the world.

    This seamless setting also ensures that only technocrats are recruited to drive the process, such that it is free of scams and controversies that would chase away the blue-chip industries which are ready to provide the financial support for growth.

    But in Nigeria, we only start to take the sport seriously when it appears that we will miss out on big competitions. Unfortunately, soccer, which is our poster sport, is under the stranglehold of government personnel, who have refused to free the sport to achieve its full potential.

    A domestic league without a regimented calendar can’t produce new stars, since they only know when the season begins without knowing when it would end.  We have had in the past in Nigeria, a league season without end, hence such contraptions as abridged leagues or regional league competition, become the only way out of a self-inflicted quagmire. How does anyone expect the league to produce new talents for the Super Eagles when the competition only starts when the organisers are pressurised to do so?

    Our league organisers should use this period to get all the clubs to clear their debts, with a firm warning not to register any team with outstanding for the new season. It doesn’t matter if only six teams comply with the directive. It leaves room for the eligible ones in the lower cadre to get promoted. This idea of glossing over the rules enshrined in the league’s constitution won’t make the game run here as a business, even though state governors use their teams to settle their lackeys.

    A league without an official television rights holder is a circus, which should not be taken seriously. Such leagues obviously cannot produce national team players since they wouldn’t want their careers truncated through the organisers’ ineptitude. Any league without title sponsors has no business with the corporate world – it has unwittingly become a commercial failure. Any league without an official insurance company for the clubs, coaches, and players can best be likened to celebrating mediocrity.

  • Wanted: VAR machine for NPFL

    Wanted: VAR machine for NPFL

    The Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) enters its seventh week this weekend with the tables in Groups A and B showing how well or how poorly some of the teams have fared in the abridged league system used for the domestic games this year. Indeed, the first round of the league competition ends on February 19, and it would be time for stock-taking with fans giving damning conclusions about the poorly placed teams. It won’t come as a surprise that referees are being blamed by losing teams.

    For the fans who throng the venues, they have been satisfied with the conduct of those charged to play sensitive roles in the league’s administration,  especially with the seemingly improved performance by the match referees. This writer feels strongly that the best security at any match venue can be guaranteed if the referees come with their Grade  A performances during games. Football fans are very discerning to know when they have watched a properly officiated match. It would be very difficult for bad-playing sides to cajole the fans to cause mayhem based on the match referees’ actions if such an arbiter interpreted the rules of the game impeccably.

    The biggest complaints have come in Week six from visiting clubs, no surprise now the league table is giving warning signals to teams in the murky relegation waters in the two groups. The complaining teams should be reminded that the referee is the sole custodian of time during matches and his decisions as final. A few times, the centre referee when in doubt asks for better advice from any of his two assistants closer to the scene of the offence for his or her opinion before making his final decision.

    Indeed, not all decisions can be captured by the human eyes which explain the introduction of the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) machine which captures actions including offences committed by players, coaches, and officials within the perimeter areas of the pitches. Interestingly, some of the offences or decisions which escape the referee’s eyes are human errors discovered on the retrospection by spectators after watching video replays of such scenes in the stadium’s in-built television sets. Other times mistakes committed by some referees could come from sheer incompetence such as the misapplication of the rules of the game.

    Indeed, it took VAR’s intervention for the referees, and his assistants to rule on Manchester United’s midfielder Casemiro’s red card for almost strangling Crystal Palace’s player in a sideline melee. Again, only VAR could have spotted the ball which had crossed the line before the Newcastle right winger pulled it for what could have been the first goal.  Rightly so, the goal was ruled out in West Ham’s favour. VAR’s playback mechanism has solved a lot of knotty issues associated with the game, although there have been a few cases of disagreement with the machine’s decisions.

    The cry from the league venues last weekend was hinged on penalty decisions which weren’t granted most times by the losing side simply because their players were fouled inside the 18-metre area. It is not enough for a player to fall easily inside the penalty area especially if his side is losing that game. Such drama from inscrutable players shouldn’t be tolerated based on the pigeonhole camera shots which are not clear or doctored to show only where the offence was committed. The truth is that Nigerian teams are too defensive leaving their defences crowded from where offences are committed easily. It is also quite commendable that the NFF President Ibrahim Gusau directed the federation’s General Secretary Mohammed Sanusi, according to the communiqué released on Wednesday to ensure that: ”As a further step, Alhaji Gusau had handed the General Secretary, Dr Mohammed Sanusi the task of always putting a call through to all referees on arrival at their assignment venues, to remind them to discharge their duties efficiently and about the sanctity of fidelity to the laws of the game.”

    It is also laughable when attempts were made to produce slow movement using one of the phone’s devices. These unorthodox methods shouldn’t be used to take decisions which could turn out to be inimical to the game’s growth here in Nigeria. Those referees punished for poor officiating involving particular clubs should be interrogated while games involving such clubs should be adequately monitored by the IMC. Of course, such clubs’ matches should have top-rated match officials with the hierarchy of the IMC physically present at such matches venues either at home or away. If the domestic game must grow, such suspected foul plays should be checked before it becomes a reason for vendetta in the return legs by the losing teams. Restricting the punishments to just the matches referees is a recipe for disaster arising from crowd violence at match venues. 

    This writer challenged a member of the IMC over the possibility of having VAR machines at league venues across the country bankrolled by the committee. The IMC member welcomed the suggestion but disclosed that it costs about $377 million to buy the VAR machine not forgetting the cost of installation and training of the experts to operate the machine. Quickly, we both brought out our phones to convert $377 million to naira and the expression on our faces told the story about the slippery pole task if it was to be purchased and installed for use during matches by either the IMC or the participating teams.

    Should we throw our arm up over the purchase and usage of the VAR machines during domestic league matches? No, except we are saying that there are unresolved issues surrounding the live transmission of games in the courts or are out of it by way of existing Supreme Court judgments which must be respected and obeyed. The IMC may need to sit with those in whose hands lie the right ownership of the domestic league’s television rights for proper schooling for the good of the game. Government bodies should learn how to respect such issues since the owners of such rights did so with large sums of money, most times secured from commercial banks with very vulgar interest rates. Besides, these rights owners are businessmen and women whose intellectual property shouldn’t be wished away on the altar of a few people’s penchants of always thinking that there are Nigerian ways of doing things. No way. That is why we have the courts to help adjudicate on such matters.

    League matches can’t be played to attract sponsorship from the blue chip companies without television coverage. The IMC should, therefore, sit with the true rights owners and talk things over. These rights owners love the game and have chosen to do the business of television coverage based on the tenets of their contract. Breaches to contracts should be frowned upon. This perhaps may have prompted the decision to head to the courts for judgments which must be respected. Any league competition not captured by television is dead. It translates to winking in the dark. Who does that?

    The call to have a live telecast of the domestic leagues is on the NFF in conjunction with the bodies law section to look at the defunct league board’s document to see how best the problem can the resolved amicably for the good of the game. Indeed, there is truly a new dawn in the domestic game with the NFF Referees Committee holding a meeting to review the case of match officials whose handling of designated games appears to have poured odium on the league. Decisions taken were applauded by most stakeholders. The way forward.

  • AFCON 2024: Osimhen, Lookman are Eagles’ match sticks

    AFCON 2024: Osimhen, Lookman are Eagles’ match sticks

    I pity Nigeria. We have a galaxy of talented players across the 774 Local Government Areas (LGAs) but we don’t have the processes to produce the exceptionally gifted ones such as Napoli FC of Italy star Victor Osimhen and Asisat Oshoala for the women’s team. Our national team’s coach Jose Peseiro has been wandering around Europe looking for players even when our domestic league is in its sixth week. Interestingly, Osimhen is the only Nigerian plying his or her trade in the European leagues who can easily be crowned the next Africa Footballer of the Year despite Nigeria’s absence from the Qatar 2022 World Cup.

    Unfortunately, these two football players were discovered in the dusty playgrounds in Lagos. No surprises. Soccer is the cheapest game to fund at the grassroots level. Osimhen and Oshoala have told us about their grass to grace stories yet, our soccer federation chieftains have been groping in the dark – helpless. Bounce any round object – be it Peters’ ball, the painful-to-play health ball otherwise known as hazard and other leather balls anywhere in Nigeria, such a playground would be besieged with kids (boys and girls) ready to play the beautiful game.

    Most times when our big players behave as if they are doing Nigeria a favour by playing for the national teams with the same zeal and passion as we see them do for their European clubs, I always walk towards them to ask where they would have been if they didn’t get the privilege to wear Nigeria’s green-white-green shirts in major international competitions where scouts fished them out. Our big boys and girls exhibit nauseating characteristics quite unlike their European counterparts who play for their countries as if their lives depend on those matches. Our stars are the last to enter the camp claiming they went to see their relations, Yet, they are the first to fly out of Nigeria’s camp to join their European club mates knowing that they would be sanctioned. This has been the attitude of our op stars with NFF chiefs helpless instead of wielding the big stick.

    There was a particular Serie A game where Osimhmen shone like a million stars such that his club fans accompanied him to the car garage demanding autographs and pictures which he obliged them. It was obvious Osimhen didn’t sustain any knock as he played the 90 minutes of the game scoring brace. He walked with no abnormal movement to the car garage where he met Ogenyi Onazi who embraced him. But like the thief at night, the announcement came stating that Osimhen was injured and couldn’t honour a game the Eagles were to play. Not for the first was Osimhen opting out at short notice. In fact, he chose games he wanted to play.

    Pundits wondered how Osimhen could miss out on an international friendly against Portugal days before the commencement of the 2022 Qatar World Cup which Argentina won by beating the hitherto defending champions, France in a penalty shootout. The Eagles were very poor against Portugal eliciting harsh words about the Nigerian side from Bruno Fernandes, who also plays for Manchester United FC of England. Osimhen’s absence in those matches was obvious. Teams blend properly when key players who play in such matches are available. In fact, Nigeria had a penalty kick against Portugal which would have changed the game’s tempo had Dennis Emmanuel converted it. Dennis shot the ball tamely in the goalkeeper’s direction. Had Osimhen played he could have scored the penalty kick given his experience from performing such duties for Napoli in the Serie A. Indeed, Portugal beat Nigeria 4-0.

    Super Eagles need a renowned tactician who can negotiate Osimhen’s release for national team matches without friction. Napoli pays Osimhen’s wages but he came into the limelight playing for Nigeria at the U-17 World Cup. Only a reputable coach employed by Nigeria can work out the synergy for both club and country to the advantage of both sides. There are easy fixtures that either Nigeria or Napoli can prosecute without Osimhen. There shouldn’t be any difficulty in getting Osimhen to play for Nigeria. Truth be told, Jose Peseiro lacks that pedigree. If Super Eagles were to maximise Osimhen’s talent, then Nigeria needs a better coach. Don’t expect any miracle from Peseiro.

    In fact, some of the very big ones such as Messi have embedded in their various clauses which make it imperative for them to play for their countries when there is a clash of fixtures between such players’ clubs and countries. Indeed, at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, Messi defied Barca’s threat to play for Argentina. The Argentines won the gold medal beating Nigeria 1-0 in the final with De Maria beating Nigeria’s offside trap to score the winning goal. Dear reader, please don’t ask me if Nigeria played with all her big stars at the age-grade level.

    Make no mistakes to say I dislike our players. No way. I always celebrate Nigerian kids using The Nation newspaper and its sister publication, Sportinglife’s platforms. Tongues have been wagging in low and high places over the regularity in which these two publications feature Osimhen. For the reasonable ones among those who think that there is more to the frequency of Osimhen on Sportinglife’s cover, my response has been that if nothing is wrong in highlighting Cristiano Ronaldo’s, Lionel Messi’s, Mbappe’s, Neymar’s et al’s stories daily including the incorrigible things they also do outside the pitches, then nobody should bat an eyelid when Nigerian boys and girls who outshine their European counterparts in England, Spain, Italy, Germany etc are being celebrated here in Nigeria.

    Ordinarily, if we are sincere in rebuilding the Super Eagles, Osimhen, a product of street football in Nigeria like Odion Ighalo, Emmanuel Amuneke, Jonathan Akpoborie, Obafemi Martins, Victor Moses et al should be the new Eagles captain, his age notwithstanding. The argument that strikers aren’t good captains isn’t cast in stone. Senegal’s captain, Sadio Mane is a striker and he has been an influential leader. Ditto with Cameroon whose captain Vincent Aboubaka is the team’s top striker. Most national teams’ captains are usually their best players. Super Eagles’ hitherto docile approach to matches would be energised by Osimhen’s dogged fighting spirit which other Super Eagles players would inadvertently imbibe in the course of competitions.

    Osimhen will serve as an inspiration to others given his exploits with Napoli and other European clubs he has played for. But can Nigeria risk naming Osimhen as captain when he won’t have the courage to play for Nigeria when there is a clash of fixtures with Napoli? I understand and appreciate what our players go through whenever they return from national team assignments. The battle to retain the regular shirts is always a herculean task. In this instance, it is very different, not how Osimhen carried Napoli on his head during matches.  Osimhen is the soul of Napoli. When Osimhen plays well the team benefits and vice versa. Osimhen can easily honour Nigeria’s matches and play his Italian side’s games with the right arrangement.

    Napoli’s gem Osimhen and Ademola Lookman who plays for Atalanta FC in the Seria A are painting Italy red with goals weekly. Today, Osimhen has scored 14 goals and Lookman’s 12goals  are the first two players on the highest goal scorers’ table in the Serie A, with pundits tipping them to fight till the end of the season scoring goals with aplomb. And with Paul Onuachu joining Southampton in the English Premier League this week for 18 million pounds, the talk in soccer circles is hinged on how ruthless Nigeria’s attack would be at the next Africa Cup of Nations slated to hold in Cote d’ Ivoire in January 2024.

    But is the NFF ready to use these strikers’ potentials to Super Eagles’ advantage when the chips are down in Cote d’ Ivore next year.

  • Flying antelopes need help

    Flying antelopes need help

    Do antelopes fly? None that I know, have seen or heard of. This question is a subject for another day. The Flying antelopes in today’s discussion are the immutable Enugu Rangers International, easily the most successful football team in Nigeria in Africa. How can anyone forget Christain Chuwkwu, Emmanuel Okala, Adokie Amiesiamaka et al? These were some of the household names that compelled Nigerians around the country to leave their houses to the stadium in their locality to watch Enugu Rangers anytime they were scheduled to play a game.

    Enugu Rangers represented everything the game craves as their players never disappointed their fans and got new faithful as they strut their trade to the delight of spectators at home and in the stadium. Enugu Rangers’ brand of football was unique with the players playing games as if their lives depend on it. If you have ever watched Rangers’ matches, the crowd left the stadium satisfied that they had been thoroughly entertained. There was a dull moment whenever Rangers played be it in victory, or drawn games of defeat. Their Spartan fighting spirit stood out like a sore thumb.

    Enugu Rangers’ players weren’t weaklings. They were tough men with eyes seemingly spitting fire out as they awaited the commencement of a big game. Their players literarily wore the faces of warriors, they were focused and had this remarkable way of dancing on the touchline to the melodious tunes from their supporters who played like an orchestra. Flying antelopes’ fans rendered Christian songs which dragged the spectators to the area where they sat in the stadium to join the sessions.  The opposition had to eat well and grid their loins to stand any chance of getting favourable results. Rangers’ players fought to the finish. It was victory or nothing, a mantra that stood them out anytime. Not so anymore. It hurts.

    Today’s Enugu Rangers are weaklings. They lack all the traits the founding players represented. They aren’t big and strong; they lack the bulldog fighting, which was one of the Rangers’ of yore’s characteristics that endeared them to the fans n match days and stood like partygoers heading for the discotheques the way they looked before the game now.

    In fact, today’s Enugu Rangers have no home. The team’s The Cathedral at the Nnamdi Azikiwe Stadium in Enugu is under lock and key with the organisers of the domestic league unwilling to temper justice with mercy for the good of the game here. Would anyone blame IMC for insisting on the rules of the game? Certainly not. Enugu Rangers, based on its exploits since inception shouldn’t be talking about playing inside a rented stadium but being owners of a sports complex equipped with modern facilities that would be the envy of other clubs in Africa. Enugu wasn’t a Nigerian brand. It was the ideal club for lovers of the game. Those were the good times.

    I did my NYSC in Anambra State and had the privilege of sitting very close to and knowing some of the icons of the team of yore such as Ogidi Ibeabuchi, of blessed memory, Christian Chukwu, Christain Madu et al courtesy of one of the cricketers in Anambra State Mbamalu. I was a member of the state’s cricket team as a youth Corper and could gain entrance into the stadium to watch Enugu Rangers. It is important to write here that I support Bendel Insurance FC of Benin City. But Enugu Rangers had this alluring appeal which attracted soccer faithful to them both on and off the field.

    Back to Enugu Rangers International of yore. It wasn’t just a soccer team but a movement which drew fans to them. Each time the team’s bus drove into any stadium, it was quite some effort for security operatives to ward off their teeming fans who cheered them endlessly.

    Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, the Enugu State Executive governor should have asked critical questions from his sports commissioner over the dwindling fortunes of the Enugu side than issuing an ultimatum to the engineering firm renovating the Nnaamdi Azikiwe Stadium. How come Rangers don’t have a home where its teeming fans can troop into the stadium to cheer them to victory? Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi’s two-match ultimatum to Rangers’ coach was misdirected and it hasn’t also come as a surprise that the coach has asked that his services be dispensed with. Throwing the job back at the governor who ought to have prioritised Enugu Rangers’ issues, not to treat their files on his table at Government House in Enugu isn’t good for the team’s image. The governor should, henceforth, direct his commissioner to transfer all files concerning Rangers to his office. Possibly pay them from the governor’s office.

    Other traditional clubs in the Rangers’ league such as Bendel Insurance FC of Benin City and 3SC FC of Ibadan all play their home games in  Benin and Ibadan in the full glare of their supporters. It isn’t a fluke that Bendel Insurance is the joint leader in the league with Remo Stars. The two teams have built their teams on the experiences of their sojourn in the lower divisions and strengthened their squads to be what it is today – very formidable. Will Rangers rise again? Of course. The team’s current lower-rung representation will force the governor to reconstitute the management committee for effective organisation.

    Rangers are being made to catch up with the other teams due to their owners’ absentmindedness. It shows clearly that the Enugu state government didn’t review the team’s performances last year such that the findings would have formed the basis for effecting changes where there is the need for such movements. While other teams wait in their different stadia for Rangers to honour their games to smile to the bank because of the Flying Antelopes’ antecedents in the domestic league, the Enugu boys are being made to travel on our bad road networks weekly. They get to match venues tired with sore limbs arising from sitting for long hours inside uncomfortable buses, most times. Rangers are pioneers of the professional league competition in Nigeria in 1990, not forgetting that Flying Antelopes rose from the ashes of the better-forgotten Nigeria Civil war to become the symbol of a race – the Igbo man’s identity. For such a team to play every game in the domestic league on away soil tells the story of the level of regard attached to their welfare. My dear governor, football isn’t a lottery ticket. Victories in soccer come with proper planning, not guesswork.

    The three weeks old league hasn’t gone without some sad tales, especially with the poor performance of certain referees. They have been identified and suspended pending when the full investigation is completed. This promptness in decision-making will make others sit up. Some of the errors could be human mistakes. Though some others could because such referees are grossly incompetent.  And it is only fair that the referees’ suspension is looked into. It is too early for referees to start any manipulations with the teams since there is a Super 6 to decide the eventual winner of the abridged league.

    The IMC should revisit the stadia used for matches to inspect them again, especially the playing surfaces. Pitches which are looking like a pigsty should be delisted and the owners of such premises directed t improve on the questionable areas before matches can be played again. The IMC should as a matter of policy have zero tolerance for bad pitches now that the rains are around the corner. The inspectors should insist on seeing that drainages around the pitches aren’t blocked and that they are functional for the good of the game.

    Will Enugu Rangers be relegated at the end of this season? No way. These antelopes will gallop out of the murky waters of relegation to give the title race a piece of their fighting sprit. Current leaders, beware.

  • Deafening noise from the stadia

    Deafening noise from the stadia

    The deafening noise from different NPFL match venues at dusk showed clearly that with the right political will to change corrupt tendencies, the people know how to celebrate what is good and admonish what is inappropriate. It should be obvious to the older order that they killed the joy of Nigerians across the country with poor knowledge and understanding of how to run the domestic game to make it attractive to both the fans and intending sponsors. The lesson to learn for those who have had favourable results at away venues is that a time would come in the abridged league’s fixtures when they would either be beaten at home by their visitors or held to pulsating draws. When such unfavourable results happen they should be prepared to take the defeats on their chins. They should remind their fans that there are three likely results in a football game – win, draw, or loss. And the best any team can achieve per game is one of the three aforementioned outcomes.

    With four away victories, four drawn games and a miserly two victories at home, a new dawn beckons which should soon rub off on all our national teams. So, what did the IMC do differently and how long would this impressionable feeling last in our soccer polity such that Nigerians can take their families to watch football matches as we see in other climes where the game is played to look beautiful simply because they adhere strictly to the rules and regulations of the game.

    The change we are celebrating arose from the administrative decision by IMC men to insist on the sponsor to pay monies meant for referees’ upkeep and indemnities are paid directly into their accounts and not into the accounts of the match commissioners. OF course, these referees are not kids. What the IMC needs to do is to publish the names of the match officials days before the game like they do in civilised climes where the game is played with pomp and ceremony.

    The IMC should strive to reduce the contact between match referees and club officials by insisting that no club pays for anything the match officials do, so that we can sustain these exciting times when ill-prepared teams are beaten without complaints anywhere in the country. Efforts should be made to task the State FAs of where games are played to provide the vehicles that drive the referees around the cities and to the stadium to reduce any form of unholy romance with club officials which could affect their performances on the pitch. The best form of security in any game is the centre referee and how he relates with his two assistants. If they were forthright in their decision making which must be swift, then the fans would easily walk out of the stadium without touching them or the away teams.

    In such circumstances, irate fans resort to taking the laws into their hands and this is where the IMC, representatives of the state FAs and clubs’ involved officials ought to have met with the State Commissioners of Police in stadia where the games would be played before the competition began last week Sunday in Uyo. It is not late to hold such meetings. No Nigerian’s or fan’s blood is worth being spilt on the altar of watching league football.

    After two rounds of matches, the IMC ought to delegate a few people to inspect again all the stadia where games are being played to reassess the state of the playing pitches and the level of security provided for everyone before, during and after matches. No substandard arrangement should be covered up more so as some of the clubs haven’t been able to secure a point on the league table in the last two matches. This is the setting where such teams employ foul and fair means to win their next game, especially if they are playing at home.

    The pitch at Umuahia Stadium looked like a pigsty making lovers of the game wonder who would approve of that facility in this new dawn. It is instructive to hear that the Chief Operating Officer of the league Davidson Owumi is on top of the situation. Football lovers in Nigeria demand the IMC lush green pitch which helps the players to give their best during matches without any fear of sustaining any career-threatening injury. The people who approved such a stadium should be delisted from the operations of the league forthwith.

    The reality check for the teams as they prepare for their third games this weekend is the NPFL tables, especially in an abridged league format where every game counts. The second week’s matches had six victories for the home teams, one away victory secured by Remo Stars which beat Gombe United in Gombe 1-0, and three drawn games in fixtures played on Wednesday and Thursday.

    Indeed, Remo Stars, Bendel Insurance, Niger Tornadoes and Abia Warriors are joint leaders with a maximum of six points from two matches each, though separated by goals differences, leaving age-long Enugu Rangers without a point and the threat of being relegated to the second time in the competition’s history. God forbid. Will Enugu Rangers be relegated? Not likely since the Flying Antelopes played it first home game away from The Cathedral inside the Nnamdi Azikiwe Stadium in Enugu.

    Enugu Rangers rose from the ashes of the better-forgotten Nigeria Civil war to become the symbol of a race  – the Igbo man’s identity. Easily one of the most decorated Nigeria soccer clubs, Enugu Rangers has been renowned battlers of many football wars across pitches in Africa where they have come out victorious. The task of working their socks wet to contest for the title at the end of the abridged league is a piece of cake for Enugu Rangers, otherwise known as the Flying Antelopes. My money on Enugu Rangers is to bounce back very soon.

    Enugu Rangers’ next game is against Sunshine Stars of Akure in Awka and it is a winnable match for the Flying Antelopes since the Ondo State boys are bad travellers.  Another old brigade side in the country’s soccer history is Bendel Insurance, who unlike Enugu Rangers have been relegated twice. The Insurers’ return to the elite class season is quite remarkable having won its first two matches against Akwa United in Uyo and against Plateau United in Benin City on Thursday. The Insurers’ next game is against Kwara United in Ibadan instead of Ilorin Stadium which has been considered unworthy of hosting league matches for now until the state government repairs the problematic areas in the Ilorin Stadium.

    After holding 3SC FC of Ibadan to a barren draw, Kwara United may have tacitly incurred the wrath of the Oluloye fans. But these fans would find it difficult to support one of their arch-rivals Bendel Insurance FC of Benin who are guests of Kwara in Ibadan. Kwara United may also be forced to change the green and yellow jersey if Insurance boys decide to stick to their traditional green and yellow jersey. It could be the Benin side’s first triumph outside of the pitch before the game begins. Who knows? But in football, such frivolities don’t count. Soccer is a crazy game whose results nobody can predict correctly.

    For the second week running, I have remained calm in discussing television coverage for the domestic game because I have been told that there are two Supreme Court judgments. Playing the league without television coverage amounts to winking in the dark. Perhaps, the IMC could instruct all the teams to record their matches and submit a copy of the tapes to the IMC’s secretariat for them to watch and give judgment where there is the need for such an action. The NFF President Ibrahim Gusau could reach out to all the parties to arrive at a workable template for television rights that would take cognisance of the interests of the true owners of the business. Court!

  • NPFL matches are back

    NPFL matches are back

    THE Nest of Champions Stadium in Uyo hosted the opening fixture of the NPFL between Akwa United and old war horse Bendel Insurance FC of Benin, which the Edo State team won 2-0 on Sunday. The biggest poser placed before the Benin side would be if they can stomach a home loss in the second round when Akwa United invade the Samuel Osaigbovo Ogbemudia Stadium. The simple response would be for the organisers, the Interim Management Committee (IMC) to improve on the high standards set in the first game. The other answer would be for the IMC to ensure that there are no sacred cows in the course of the abridged league format adopted this year.

    This writer’s takeaway from the Uyo opener is that Akwa United FC, which is the team of the IMC Vice Chairman Elder Paul Bassey, took the defeat on the chins without resorting to improper means to either intimidate the referees or beat up their players after the defeat. These lessons shouldn’t be lost on the 20 teams, their so-called club owners and the team’s erratic fans who normally cause mayhem whenever their teams lose games. This writer isn’t shocked that Paul Bassey has firm control of the operations of his team unlike some other club owners who instigate the fans even if Gusau is the referee, Gbenga Elegbeleye first assistant referee and Davidson Owumi is the second assistant referee of the game. Some of these club chairmen would use the lackeys to foment trouble. Others, use the frequent complaints from their losing technical officials to instigate the restive fans to start trouble.

    Credit should go to the IMC chieftains for inviting the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) President Ibrahim Gusau to watch the game. The setting where the top echelon of the game in the country sits at the stands would embolden the match referees to interpret the game’s laws without being intimidated by the fans’ antics before, during and after matches. The IMC’s decision to get a firm to pay referees’ indemnities directly to them is the fillip of growth that the domestic league craved in the locust years of the defunct LMC.

    The impudence to beat match referees before, during and after clubs’ roughnecks, especially after the prompting of some of the so-called club owners arose from the fact that they pay them their indemnities, house them in hotels and provide other logistics such as body-nobi-wood. With such extra hospitality packages, these ill-prepared clubs want victory at all costs. The steel that the new league needs are adequate monitoring of key games by the NFF President and the television. On no account should certain referees be assigned to matches involving some ‘privileged’ teams.

    There isn’t any rule that stops the IMC through the approval of the NFF to play games at noon or like they say in the European leagues’ parlance early kickoffs for high-risk matches. Nothing prohibits league games to be played under the floodlights at night in stadia such as the Nest of Champions Stadium in Uyo. IMC chiefs in conjunction with the NFF President should visit the States’ Commissioners of Police to collaborate with the two bodies to ensure that the lives and properties of people who come to the stadium to watch matches are protected. Any criminal caught taking the laws into his hands should be prosecuted in the law courts.

    The session between the States’ Commissioners of Police should centre on increasing the number of policemen and other security apparatuses in a bid to quell any mayhem. Gates at the different stadiums should never be manned by home clubs’ supporters. Clubs must get credible firms to handle the issue of manning the gates such at the end of matches, it would be easy to know what was realised from gate taking. This idea of State Governors or their sport commissioners throwing the gates open for the home fans to back their teams is barbaric and risk to the ticket paying fans’ whose lives are endangered by the mammoth crowd.

    Would it be asking for too much if the CPs are challenged to have a unit that trains security personnel on the knotty issue of crowd control? The idea of selling match tickets at entry points in the stadium is old fashioned and catalyst for violence before, during and after games. Tickets should be sold far away from the stadium to help the security operation have a clear sight of what happens as the fans troop into the stadium. Tickets could also be sold at designated malls and collapsible sheds built by the hosts to sell them.  If the gates are properly manned and sales monitored with those found culpable made to face the wrath of the law, the IMC should be able to know the fans who watched at the games at different stadium.

    It is unacceptable for clubs not to have means of generating revenue from the gates. It smacks of fraud. Isn’t it shameful that we don’t know how much each premier league club is worth? The club appointees aren’t bothered if the clubs are run at a loss. After all government money is cheap.

    Home teams should learn how to open the gates around the stadium at least 15 minutes to the end of the game for easy movement. This is about the safest way to avoid stampede at venues after games. Perhaps, the IMC could at mid-season engage stadium grounds men and security operatives to educate them on the rudiments of their trade. No Nigerian’s blood is worth being shed during avoidable settings leading to stampede.

    Effort should be made by the IMC for the club owners to fit into the stadium where matches are being played CCTV facilities which would assist the security personnel in fishing out the urchins who cause mayhem at match venues. The number of policemen required at venues should be raised to 100 instead of the prevalent one of 50.  There isn’t much that baton wielding policemen can do to prevent rampaging fans of 5,000, for instance.

    One only hopes that the IMC has a legislation which forbids state governors to throw the gates open under the guise of allowing the home fans to root for their team. The repercussions are grave if the home team loses.

    The safety of the fans, players, coaches and officials present at match venues rests with the quality of officiating by the centre referee and his two assistant who must show sufficient understanding in the way they communicate among themselves in making firm decisions. Referees must ensure that all the details needed to make the match venues safe for the commencement of matches are met. There mustn’t be any compromises on decisions agreed at the pre-match meetings in the morning of match days where the officials of the two teams in conjunction with the centre referees and match commissioners run through what ought to be in place for the game to begin.

    The theatrics from the two teams’ benches by the coaches in the course of games is enough to unsettle inexperienced referees and at the same time cajole the fans to throw unto the pitches sachets of pure water to protest referees’ decisions. Centre referees should be the commander on the field, and be quick in giving the marching orders to any recalcitrant coach, official or players fanning the embers of bitterness by inciting the crowd with their theatrics. Referees are the sole custodians of time, the rules and regulations of the game. They have been trained to do so.

    Anyone who is aggrieved should be shown the way out of the stadium for the good of the game. Welcome to the domestic game. The IMC has done well to start the league. I have deliberately left off the issue of television based on two Supreme Court verdicts on the matter.