CAN there be a perfect Super Eagles list for any competition which could meet the expectations of soccer-crazy Nigerians? None that I know of.  Every Nigerian is a potential Super Eagles coach having devoted time to watch the European league matches and they know those who are playing and those who aren’t. Indeed these ardent watchers of the game know the parameters for picking players to play for the countries relying on the templates others use to select theirs’.  Even with the known indices used by others, there are still hues and cries from their nationals if the list falls short of a few names they expected.

That is the essence of coaching. Every coach has his match plans and decides who does what and who doesn’t irrespective of how well he or she plays for her or his clubs. Does this lead us to the controversial debate of who a club and national team player is?  Interestingly, players’ comportment while in camp and how they relate with others matter to many coaches in deciding who should be selected or be dropped. And most coaches don’t have any apologies for very good players dropped if they would cause disharmony in camp or become rebels in the dressing room.  Put simply, some players are bad influences in the camp.  Of course, there can be only one captain on the ship. Any other person goes out.

Global best practices among coaches are such that they lay down markers for picking players known to everyone before the season begins. Most coaches fix their gaze on players who ply their trade in the elite leagues of most of the European leagues knowing that only the best players in the world compete weekly there. Such leagues are beamed live for people to watch making it very easy to monitor the players needed by any manager. Players of countries where their national teams’ coaches have set markers for them know the leagues that they must play in to be selected. If they choose to play in the novelty leagues for the cash, then they know that they won’t be picked even if they score goals in the moon, like one Nigerian coach used to say when asked why certain players were dropped, especially the strikers among them.

Most countries whose coaches or are they called managers appreciate that their domestic leagues are among the best. Such thriving leagues encourage managers to look inward unlike in Nigeria where the Supreme Court has declared the LMC illegality not known to the laws of the land. Countries consider the growth of their domestic game by the number of home groomed lads who eventually play for the senior team. Nigeria’s case is different largely because of our economy which makes it very easy for a lad who scores six goals in a four-month spell with five of them penalty kicks awarded to his side at home to be taken unannounced to Europe in search of greener pastures. This fellow is very unprepared for this trip. But he must embark on the journey knowing what $70,000 is worth at the black market when he returns home.

Such lucky stars whose wages aren’t regular are taken away by shylock agents who don’t tell them the details of the contract they have been led into until such a lad is seeking a movement out of this slavish deal. It is only then he is shown the English version of a deal he struck which was written in a language he doesn’t understand. The player’s future is grounded while the agent walks away looking for another player to throw under the bus. The federation must check these illegal routes through which players are taken to Europe, the Americas, and the Diaspora. It is so bad now that academies are involved in the business of players’ movement out of the country. Where else is this kind of illegality done?

Have we done a justified ceremony for those who said they were retiring, such as Ighalo and Victor Moses, etc all the glitz and glamour would’ve been a moral burden for them to come back, except if we are saying to them that they are indispensable? Odion Ighalo told the world that he quit his former club because they stopped him from playing for Nigeria, which meant that he was even ready to play for Nigeria. Ighalo could be spared because he quit the national team due to death threats to his family. He did that so that the lunatics could back off from his family. This isn’t the case with Victor Moses, who bluntly refused to join the Super Eagles for the 2019 AFCON insisting that he had quit the team. This writer can only hope that Victor Moses isn’t telling us clearly that he can only play for Nigeria at the World Cup – SELFISH! Who wants Moses in the Super Eagles? You tell me.

Who suggested, Ogenyi Onazi for the Super Eagles? Accusing fingers are being pointed to the Technical Committee Chairman. I don’t believe it. The reason is that even Onazi is justifying why he should be back. Since when did a dancer become the judge of his dancing steps. Shouldn’t he wait for his audience to judge you? Truth be told Onazi, you don’t know how to dance again. If you doubt it, anytime a club from Europe calls you, we will give you the Captain’s band.

For crying out loud, where did the selectors see Oghenekaro Etebo play football in the last year to justify his invitation to the Super Eagles? Etebo without a doubt is a very good player but he has not played football in the last year in any stadium where he could be judged. So, how is he a fitter player now than any home-based player in the last 10 weeks? Shouldn’t we pick players on current form rather than what they have done for the country in the past? If we are insisting on retirees why don’t we just invite Austin ‘Jay Jay’ Okocha now? DSTV shows the South African league weekly, please wake me up if you have seen Daniel Akpeyi showcasing his talents. Instead of Akpeyi please, invite the usual Enyimba goalkeeper Noble. How do we want to encourage the local players who are over 50,000, if players who don’t play for their clubs in Europe, walk into the camp and win caps? Have they turned the Eagles camp into a dollar machine or a rehabilitation camp of sorts?

Again, if we are talking about former Nigerian stars with experience, why don’t we recall goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama instead of Akpeyi. Please don’t tell me that Austin Eguavoen invited those players. We know the undercurrent surrounding the selection of Super Eagles players for big competitions.  And it predates this federation. It is systemic problem, which if left unresolved would affect the country’s outings in future World Cup competitions at the senior level. The Super Eagles should be the platform for the best Nigerians to exhibit their latent talents for the good of the game and to bring joy and laughter to everyone.

Happily, the era of perpetually rebuilding the team has stopped with Gernot Rohr’s exit. Eguavoen has continued from where the German stopped although he threw out those mercantile choices of the past. Thus breathing fresh air with the way the team played her first three matches at the Cameroon 2021 Africa Cup of Nations to qualify for the Round of 16 stages.

THE Europeans know how to make the game of soccer or as some others choose to call it football look beautiful. They recreate life with some of the things they bring to make it attractive and easy for marketing by trained marketers. It is always amazing when the Europeans celebrate the final match of their cup competitions. Trust them to make the event a carnival of sorts with all the trappings (drama, excitement, entertainment, and the thrills and frills) which leaves the soccer lover (s) eager to watch another final game.

Hitherto, many a football fan would have tagged a barren draw game boring with one team parking the bus in front of its goalpost. It was a common belief too difficult to wash off the minds of ardent followers of the game. But Sunday’s Carabao Cup, which stretched on its seams for 120 minutes on a barren string ended in the pulsating 11-10 victory for Liverpool against the current World Club Cup champions Chelsea at Wembley Stadium, goes down in history as one game to debunk such an untested theorem.

Last Sunday’s game was a clash of two teams with contrasting styles of play, making genuine pundits call the game one tie too close by way of predicting its outcome. Fans of the Blues could put their heads on the guillotine to tip Chelsea to lift the Carabao Cup, citing the club’s string of cup victories, since Thomas Tuchel’s reign as the club’s manager. Such fans could easily have forgotten that Wembley hasn’t been a good hunting ground for Chelsea, especially against Arsenal. Conversely, these Blues fans could have submitted too that Jurgen Klopp had lost two cup finals at Wembley, thus throwing the game open to one for the best team on the night to win the trophy, even if such a winner emerges from the penalty kicks – it turned out to be so.

For Liverpool fans, Wembley hadn’t brought good fortunes for the team in recent years. The Reds have rediscovered their scoring range – one in which any team could be beaten groggy by Liverpool when in their element. Manchester United fans won’t forget in a hurry the 5-0 away thumping by Liverpool over the Red Devils at the Theatre of Nightmares (or sorry Dreams). The Red Devils were torn to shreds with goalkeeper De Gea making the 5-0 drubbing not reflect the number of saves he made on the night

Indeed, anyone who predicted that Reds would beat the Blues by what the Special One Jose Mourinho often called hockey scores would amount to taking loyalty to a ridiculous height. And nobody was going to bet on that. A close game was on the cards, although thought such closeness would translate to over 89,000 spectators watching a cup final where everyone on the field after 120 minutes was compelled to score a goal on the pitch, no matter his antecedents from taking penalty kicks.

Traditionally, when it gets to penalty kicks after the regulation time, scorers of goals after 90 minutes lose theirs in the shoot-out exercise. With no goals scored after 120 minutes, such jinxes were thrown into the Atlantic Ocean, leaving the neutrals with an open mind to wait for the eventual winner to emerge.

Chelsea in recent times carved out a strategy where the goalkeeper if he wasn’t Kepa be replaced towards the end of the 120 minutes. It was the Blues’ way of prospecting the penalty shootout exercises preceding Sunday’s final game. It worked for them. After all, nobody changes a winning strategy. And it didn’t matter how well the goalkeeper being replaced by Kepa fared in the 120 minutes tie. Those who faulted Tuchel’s decision are either fair-weather fans of the team or those who are poor with the club’s recent history under Tuchel.

In fact, one of my childhood younger friends Edirin Erhiaganoma tweeted as Kepa stepped onto the pitch that Chelsea had lost the game with that tactical change. Edirin called it a blunder. How prophetic, dear Edirin, though he was challenged with records. Edirin stood his ground and waited for the eventual outcome to prove him right or wrong. As for The Nation newspapers’ education gem, Kofo Belo Osagie, in a post-match discussion inside the newsroom, Monday evening said it didn’t matter who won the penalty shootouts. Kofo’s interest was in supporting all dark-skinned players (Chelsea and Liverpool have them in their numbers) to score their kicks. Part of the drama on the night. Kofo isn’t a racist. She is not known to be a football follower. So, if she expressed such sentiment, it is her right that ought to be respected since both sides had more than enough dark-skinned (to use Kofo’s real words) players. Yes, Kofo chose her words. Dark-skinned can’t be racist. I digress!

As a Liverpool fan, I wanted my team to win to avoid the taunts from friends. Yet, as the Editor of Sportinglife, I’m always happy whenever Chelsea win matches not to talk about trophies. Under such a dilemma, I chose to watch as a pundit, knowing that I could write on it this week. Under this setting, it occurred to me to look at the trio of Mohammed Salah’s, Sadio Mane’s, and Mendy’s performances to hazard a guess on who the 2021/2022 Africa Footballer of the Year would be. Mendy reminds this writer about the great Cameroonian goalkeeper Thomas Nkono who stood in between the goalposts like a colossus.  Nkono had reliable  gloves which he used to save goals for his country during matches. Mendy’s 2020 transfer to Chelsea has been a Hollywood success story. Little known outside France and Senegal before the move, the goalkeeper became a compulsory first choice star at Stamford Bridge. He is unarguably one of the best goalkeepers in the world producing incredible reflex saves manning the goalpost for the Blues. He added an international trophy to his cabinet, winning the African Cup of Nations with Senegal.

To date, Mendy has been decorated as the Best FIFA Goalkeeper, Champions League best goalkeeper of the season, Champions League squad of the season, Ghana Football Awards’ Best African international, and AFCON’s best goalkeeper. Are these awards enough to guarantee Mendy the most votes as the 2021/202 Africa Footballer of the Year? It doesn’t look like a possibility, if the essence of making the game exciting is to score goals with aplomb.

The voting trend in most big awards in soccer globally tends to favour the strikers as if they don’t rely on passes from their mates including goalkeepers. Yes, Mohammed Salah’s opened scoring against Norwich in the Premier League clash which ended 6-0 at Anfield through a goal kick taken masterful from the Reds’ goalkeeper Alisson which Salah controlled expertly before dribbling the Norwich defenders in their numbers, including leaving the opposition’s goalkeeper sprawling on the turf. If scoring goals is the opium needed to be decorated as the next Africa Footballer of the year, then Sadio Mane who has scored 16 goals in 39 games and Salah with 29 goals in 39 games are the top contenders, leaving Mahrez of Manchester City and new Barcelona recruit Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang as also-ran candidates. Pity no Nigerian can displace any of these lads.

Mane looks like the odds-on favourite to retain the award having led Senegal to lift the Cameroon 2021 Africa Cup of Nations, beating Egypt which paraded Salah on penalty shootouts, the Egyptian’s awesome goal-scoring prowess notwithstanding. The trio, Mendy, Mane and Salah have done well in their European clubs. Liverpool where Mane and Salah play are still in the champions League, English FA Cup and the Premier League. Hence the parametres to gauge who among them would be the 2022 Africa Footballer of the Year lie in the wait.

HISTORY has an uncanny way of repeating itself hence the need to warn the Nigeria Football Federation to watch their backs while preparing for the ‘wars’ between two brothers waiting to be part of history. March 25 and March 29 dates would further heighten the rivalry between Nigeria and Ghana. The bitter rivalry between both countries only on the football pitch is such that every minute in the game matters. I make bold to state here that the winner of the games should do their homework very well lest the loser snatches the ticket at the boardroom.

Did I hear anyone reading this column hiss or sigh? Is anyone saying it hasn’t happened before for matches to be decided against Nigeria at the board room? Hold your breath. As they say, all is fair in warfare. So NFF beware of the ides of March. Had Nigeria not qualified for the Russia 2018 World Cup with a game to spare, the drawn game against Algeria in Constantine would have seen the North Africans qualify ahead of Nigeria if that last game was the decider.

Super Eagles right-wing back Shehu Abdullahi had been shown the mandatory two yellow cards, which meant he ought to have missed the dead rubber game against Algeria. Guess what, nobody knew this fact before the game. Not even Abdullahi as he was invited for the game. The coaches and the backroom staff were literally snoring to be bothered about such details. The team’s technical crew ought to have someone documenting such details and another person to reconfirm with the NFF if they received any notification(s) from FIFA and/or CAF on eligible and/or ineligible players before every game.

Former Super Eagles Head Coach, Gernot Rohr didn’t know. He didn’t crosscheck with the federation’s technical committee members because he didn’t believe in them. The federation too didn’t ask the team’s backroom staff about players’ status based on incidents that had happened on the field of play during matches. Danger loomed but we didn’t see it. Many Nigerians celebrated the 1-1 draw against Algeria in Constantine, with a few others happy the country qualified for the Mundial unbeaten.

The Algerians had other ideas though they had been eliminated from the Russia 2018 race, they pressed for the three points at the boardroom as if such boardroom victories would lift them over Nigeria, which had qualified for the Mundial, win or lose the last game. Nigeria lost the three points and conceded three goals from that game. Unsurprisingly, nobody was punished. We characteristically swept the matter under the table since the decision didn’t translate to Nigeria losing the group’s qualification ticket.

We are on the verge of securing another World Cup qualification ticket to Qatar this year. We, therefore, need to dust up the records of our players participating in our matches to know those who are qualified to play the first leg tie at the Cape Coast Stadium in Ghana without any baggage capable of ruining our chances of qualifying for the Mundial.  If it means crosschecking our records with what FIFA and CAF have in their books, we should send an email and double-check. Only eligible players should play both ties. The games would count till the death with the losers looking for any loophole to undo the winners.

The import of this writer’s fear finds expression with how Nigeria failed to qualify for the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations competitions with Samson Siasia as coach of the Super Eagles. Nigeria needed a win to qualify ahead of Guinea. It didn’t matter the number of goals. The Guineans needed a draw at the worst instance. Victory would have been a bonanza. Match-day, Nigeria was leading 2-1 until the closing stages of the game when the conflicting interpretation of the rules by everyone connected with football destroyed our dreams of another AFCON appearance.

Rather than control the game and hold on to the prevailing 2-1 result, our players pushed forward to score more goals based on what they were being told from the sideline. Disaster struck. A counter-attack found Guinea’s top scorer Abubakar ‘Titi’ Camara who waltzed past our retreating defenders, dribbling our goalkeeper in the process to score the equaliser. There was pin-drop silence inside the National Stadium in Abuja with the players sprawling on the turf while others wept uncontrollably. We missed out on that year’s Africa Cup of Nations because we didn’t study the rule book to know what it entailed then.

Did I hear ask if the bag of mistakes is empty? How can? With our football federation, it is a case of one competition several problems. You would have thought that a three-time winner of the Africa Cup of Nations would easily know how to register the country’s representatives at CAF. Not so here. We like passing the buck. Rather than have the federation’s technical committee members sit with the foreign coach mostly, to discuss the list of players for the continental series, we allowed the coach to do the registration. In fact, Rohr informed Nigerians about the number of players he registered which he put at 40. It was done singlehandedly, with the backlash leading to Nigeria’s inability to parade Watford FC of England’s striker Emmanuel Dennis at the Cameroon 2021 Africa Cup of Nations.

If the federation had mandated Rohr to discuss his 40-man squad with its technical committee members, questions would have been asked about Ademola Lookman’s eligibility. In fact, the members would have asked for his FIFA letter clearing him to play for Nigeria, as we have now. Rohr would have been asked how he could pick 40 players without including Dennis’ name, given what he did weekly for the now relegation-bound Premier League club. Need I waste space narrating what transpired since this week’s column is meant to remind the federation chieftains to learn from their past mistakes?

This writer is excited over the attempts made by the federation to introduce the technical crew to the players. They must have discussed other logistic details which ensure that the players are adequately motivated and paid their entitlements promptly, not what happened at the Cameroon 2021 Africa Cup of Nations. It is sickening to reveal here that the players, coaches, and officials were paid their entitlements, several days after Nigeria was eliminated from the competition.

It is important that the technical committee sits in concert with the Eagles coach to critically evaluate the players selected for the Black Stars’ tie. We should always qualify for the World Cup given the exploits of our players in their European clubs. Playing at the Mundial should be Nigeria’s birthright, no stories.

Is the federation jinxed? Otherwise, how does anyone explain the shameful treatment handed the Super Falcons at the Nnamdi Azikiwe airport in Abuja on Thursday morning? Nigeria’s women’s soccer side returned to the country in the wee hours of Thursday only to be held down by immigration people over Covid-19 protocols. According to accounts of some of the players who recorded the ugly scenes, they spent over five hours, having arrived in the country at 12 mid-night.

The team’s chief coach, Randy Waldrum, expressed frustration at the situation in a video clip produced and made available by team media officer Oluchi Tobechukwu.

“It is very frustrating. We had a two-hour flight from Cote D’Ivoire but we have already been in this room (at the airport) for more than two and half hours.

“It is very frustrating to come back home and see the players have to go through this. We have already taken this test multiple times to play the game. So, I don’t understand,” Waldrum had lamented.

The questions to ask are: Didn’t the players and officials pass through these immigration people on their way out of the country? Didn’t the immigration people see that the girls wear Nigeria’s colours and had balls and soccer boots to show that they were our football heroines or should I say, ambassadors? Would the immigration people have treated the Super Eagles so shabbily? This incident which is viral already mustn’t be treated with kid gloves.

We are expecting the Ghanaians in Abuja for the March 29 World Cup qualifier. They mustn’t face this kind of embarrassment.

I’m not a prophet of doom nor am I any of those prophets prophesying on Nigeria’s chances of victory before each game. I also don’t pretend as if I know it all about the beautiful game. I only like to speak to certain double standards whenever they happen. I’ve been pinching myself to find out if I’m in a trance over the swiftness in which NFF strengthened the Super Eagles on frivolous grounds that the team needed technical sagacity, whatever that means.

The question this writer would want to ask my friends at the federation is where this latest technical sagacity was when Gernot Rohr toyed with our sensibilities, losing to the Central Africa Republic inside the Teslim Balogun Stadium in Lagos, drawing 4-4 against Sierra Leone inside the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium in Benin City, etc? This federation almost pulled down its house when sports minister, Sunday Dare ordered the sacking of the German. In fact, the release virtually hinged the German’s sack on Sunday Dare, just as they pointed to Nigerians who to blame if the Austin Eguavoen led side fumbled at the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroon.

What the federation’s eggheads didn’t say in this new technical sagacity jargon is to prepare Nigerians’ minds for a likely fiasco against the Black Stars in the two-legged Qatar 2022 World Cup qualifiers in Ghana and Nigeria and boldly identify who to blame if things went awry in Cameroon. I will never wish the Super Eagles bad luck (tufiakwa) in any game because Nigerians come together as one Nigeria devoid of our ethnic, political, and religious biases.

The truth about football is that it is so apparent to everyone when a team plays well and when it doesn’t, just like how woeful the Ghanaians were at AFCON 2021. It was obvious that the Eagles wouldn’t roughen feathers in Cameroon against well-organised countries with rich football pedigree given the way we prepared for the competition. In fact, with a few weeks to the 2021 AFCON matches, not a few knew who would be Nigeria’s coach following the exit of Rohr. They also told us about an observer role for the Portuguese.

It is obvious that this federation still wants the Portuguese, especially if Nigeria doesn’t beat Ghana resoundingly to grab the sole qualification ticket to the Qatar 2022 World Cup. They have laid the mines for disaster in this new arrangement by referring to Emmanuel Amuneke as the Chief Coach in a release on Monday, only to mouth to Nigerians again that Amuneke is Austin Eguavoen’s first assistant coach. Wasn’t Eguavoen the chief coach in Cameroon? The federation seems to have forgotten that Rohr had said that there was no position such as Technical Adviser in the Super Eagles and that he was the team’s Head Coach. Is this how we allow foreign coaches to constitute their backroom staff? Why do we act differently with the local coaches? Colonial mentality.

What has happened to the golden rule where foreign coaches pick their assistants and brazenly reduce the Nigerians selected to work with them to ball pickers during training sessions? Need I waste space mentioning instances where Nigerians working with foreigners talk about their sordid times with these fellows? Most of them are dead (God rest their souls). I don’t want to disturb their quiet by dragging them into this federation’s latest quagmire.

I don’t need to be a seer to know that Eguavoen and Amuneke sincerely won’t be together no matter how hard the NFF tries to make us believe. Eguavoen’s ego has been bruised with Amuneke’s inclusion, knowing that the former Golden Eaglets’ Coach rejected the N3 million a month job when it was offered to him before AFCON 2021. Amuneke was quoted to have doubted the federation’s sincerity to give him a free hand to work. He further urged the federation to inform him with a formal appointment letter which should be directed to his lawyers. I would choose to refer to Amuneke’s decision as being a thoroughbred professional coach. NFF, have you addressed all these requests by Amuneke?

No sentiments should be shown in sporting decisions. Would the federation classify Eguavoen as a failure to necessitate any addition to his technical crew without his consent? Who do we blame if the country fails to qualify for the Qatar 2022 World Cup? Eguavoen? Certainly not, given the way the former Eagles captain restored the Nigerian playing style in our first three matches in Cameroon. The new argument that the decision to drop two coaches to appoint Amuneke to save costs is laughable because the wages of the two assistant coaches are less than what the former Eaglets coach would be paid. How can the federation say they are cutting costs when they allow the coaches to invite 28 foreign-based players to camp, knowing that only 20 of them can prosecute a game? Who do they think they are fooling?

If the federation were so determined to have Amuneke in the technical crew, they could easily have done that by removing coaches who Eguavoen felt he wouldn’t miss if axed. After all, Rohr had several coaches who we were told he paid their wages. Indeed. Besides, England has 12 backroom staff whose roles are defined and don’t overlap. If the federation wanted to be prudent in their spending, then they ought to have dropped Salisu, who is also the CHAN Eagles coach, and replace him with Amuneke.

Unfortunately, the two coaches who did the spying job on the opponents resulting in the remarkable group stage’s matches are gone on the altar of being prudent. This is very interesting. What manner of strength is anyone introducing into the Eagles when the experts in drawing the roadmap which the coaches must use have been left on the lurch. Matches are won from the bench based on scripts written by the teams’ technicians who sit at the stands to watch out for the oppositions’ flaws for halftime talks.

I sincerely hope we have not paved the path to disaster on March 27. I also foresee a situation we would press the panic button in the event that Black Stars beat us in the first leg by inviting the Portuguese to take over with all manner of permutations (God forbid). Did the federation consult the players for their assessment before sacking the two most qualified coaches? That is how it is done in saner climes. The person who instructed that the Eagles should play against Ghana in Abuja has solved one of the greatest problems with the team. In Lagos, the players had a field day sleeping with women so much that they organised a party with the coaches knowing. The matter wasn’t allowed to escalate yet it showed in the way the players performed in their last game in Lagos.

I hope that the security arrangement in the Abuja Hotel would be water-tight to check our players’ excesses. These are big boys with tremendous cash in their pockets. They could easily pay for Suites in the hotel where they are camped and do whatever they choose to effortlessly. Black Stars are always at the spoilers’ best if their next fixture is Nigeria.

And this…

Is it true that the federation is pleading with Eguavoen to write a letter to the federation to employ a certain 22-year old into his technical crew? Yet, the body wants to cut costs.  This allegation had better not be true.

I believe in God, the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and the earth… Other things are the creation of the mind or more or else hallucinatory images occurring in the minds of those prophesying. Most times when I read predictions made so authoritatively about sporting events, I wonder if these prophets think that other countries don’t worship God Almighty. I read one of such disturbing prophesies this week urging NFF to retain the services of Austin Eguavoen which in any case is given, if Nigeria hopes to beat the Black Stars of Ghana in the two-legged clashes slated to hold on March 23 in Accra and March 29 in Abuja, in one of the Qatar 2022 World Cup qualifiers for sole qualification ticket.

The prophet who has a right to air his views no matter how myopic told his interviewer that Ghana would beat Nigeria if Eguavoen fielded the Super Eagles captain Ahmed Musa in the two matches against Ghana. I was tempted to laugh the predictions off but on second thought I decided to put the revelation in the public domain to see if the Prophet’s prophesy would come to pass. I wonder how the prophet would want Musa to feel by this prediction? Musa has won many games for Nigeria, scoring goals with aplomb. Musa is Nigeria’s highest goal scorer at the senior World Cup scoring against great football nations such as Argentina with Lionel Messi playing. Why he could suddenly become a bad dream for the Eagles is laughable given who Musa is and what he stands to represent. I read the story online and felt strongly to share it with you, the dear reader so that we can fast and bind such bad predictions. I’m not a prophet, but I predict that Musa will be among the scorers for Nigeria in both matches against the Black Stars in Accra and Abuja.

What this Prophet’s prophesy reminds football lovers is to challenge the Eagles to take the two games seriously and beat Ghana very well such that the prophet would recant by saying he was misquoted. The prophet couldn’t have been looking for attention or seeking cheap popularity –  no. He is well respected in the world and had made predictions that came to pass. But this one on sports, we shall jump over it in glory.

I’ve chatted with Eguavoen very well even before he got this job and what my reading of his mind looking at his body language is that he would retain Okoye in goal. Eguavoen won’t bench Okoye because of the goal he conceded against Tunisia, since he believes that soccer is teamwork. If the midfielders did their job by marking the goal scorer when Nigeria lost possession in that game, perhaps they would have helped the defenders to provide the shield the goalkeeper needed. Okoye saw the ball late just as nobody expected the Tunisian to shoot from the distance. Had Okoye saved that ball, we would have lacked adjectives to describe the save. So, Okoye stays, although Francis Uzoho was brilliant against Guinea Bissau.

The Eagles’ defence at AFCON wasn’t that efficient with occasional slips which weren’t punished. Ola Aina didn’t quite recover from his high pressing game from the flank leaving spaces, one of which was punished by the Tunisians for the only goal in one of the Round of 16 games which ended Nigeria’s campaign in the continental soccer fiesta. William Troost Ekong’s game improved although his combination with Kenneth Omeruo wasn’t as enterprising to instil confidence in the midfield. Wilfred Ndidi had to fall deep into the Eagles’ defence to plug the loopholes in the defence. It is expected that the return of Balogun if match fit would give the team’s central defence the steel to lock out the Ghanaians in both legs at Accra and in Abuja for the ticket to the Qatar 2022 World Cup.

Joe Aribo earned his stripes in the four games he played. But the return of Oghenkaro Etebo to the team’s midfield is the elixir needed to crush the Ghanaians in March. Unfortunately, Alex Iwobi who would have brought width into the side’s midfield play has been red-carded and ruled out of the game against Ghana. It remains to be seen who Austin Eguavoen would deploy in the midfield to complete his 4-4-2 formation which opens up towards the flanks. It is looking like Simon Moses would drop into that role against Ghana now that is looking very likely that Napoli FC of Italy’s Nigeria’s Victor Osimhen would be fit for the two-legged ties.

Samuel Chukwueze who ought to have paired his Golden Eaglets’ mate Osimhen up front was a huge disappointment for the Eagles in Cameroon during the Africa Cup of Nations. He was rightly substituted in all the games that Nigeria played. Chuwkueze was awful in his performance and pundits won’t be surprised if Eguavoen looks in the direction of Odion Ighalo to pair Osimhen in the team’s attacking onslaught. Onuachu, if he is fit could help the Eagles roughen the Ghanaians, leaving Chukwueze holding the short end of the stick in terms of likely strikers to pair Osimhen upfront against the Black Stars. Pundits won’t be surprised if Eguavoen drops Taiwo Awoniyi who flattered to deceive all through the competition, although like Chukwueze and Sadiq Umar scored a goal each for Nigeria. It won’t be out of place if Eguavoen pairs Osimhen with Umar in the team’s attacking formation going by his performance against the Tunisians when he was introduced into the game, although he didn’t impress everyone in the third game against Guinea Bissau which Nigeria won 3-1.

Eagles stars must approach the two matches as if their lives depend on it. It is the ambition of any serious-minded professional player to participate in the senior World Cup. Need I restate how former Nigeria international Austin Okoha used the France’98 World Cup to earn a mind-boggling contract with Paris Saint Germain (PSG) in Paris?

Beating Black Stars in Ghana on March 23 is a task that must be done. It will reduce the tension on the players if Nigeria beats Ghana in the first game. At the Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroon, the Eagles had no leader that the players deferred or one who inspired the others with his performance of the field. This is the distinguishing line that has set Nigeria apart when you consider the fact that is the only team to beat the Egyptians in the competition. Against Ghana, the Eagles need a leader on the pitch to direct the affairs of the team.

For the Egyptians and Senegalese who are in Sunday’s finals of the Africa Cup of Nations, Mohammed Salah and Sadio Mane are their leaders whose inspirational displays galvanise the others. Both men who play for Liverpool in the English League are their country’s captains. Again, the Eagles lack team spirit and the winning mentality to always change the momentum of the game. Our players are established stars in Europe to know those in the opposition to mark out as we did to Salah in the opening game. We left the Tunisians to play their game forgetting that they had blocked off Moses Simon. Common sense ought to have told our players to unlock Moses from the Tunisian shackles by marking them one-on-one. It would have thrown the game open.

Egypt and Senegal who are in Sunday’s final game have been tactically disciplined and kept their shape in terms of their formations and how they wanted to play. It is the reason the two countries are in the AFCON final on Sunday.

Why do we take pleasure in making simple things which others do seamlessly look very cumbersome here? How can anyone justify the non-payment of Super Eagles’ match bonuses, even after the country’s ouster from the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations holding in Cameroon? Are we saying that we didn’t know that the Africa Cup of Nations would be held between January 9 and February 6? Could it be said that Nigeria’s participation at the 2021 AFCON wasn’t included in the fiscal budget for the year? If yes, how come we couldn’t pay the players, coaches, and backroom staff their bonuses which they ought to have received immediately after the games. For decency sake, the sharing of the bonuses would be done inside their captain’s rooms after each game in which they won?

I hope we haven’t forgotten that it is the same set of boys who would prosecute Nigeria’s Qatar 2022 World Cup qualification matches against the Black Stars of Ghana in Accra and later in Abuja.  How do we expect the boys to believe us on matters of their welfare? We shouldn’t forget that the lifespan of any sportsman or woman to be actively involved in sports is between two years and 12 years,  after which the call of nature would set in forcing him or her to either retire from the game into something else or become a coach. That is if such athletes are injury-free.

Over time, such failure of leadership has brought furore in the Super Eagles leading to skirmishes too many to mention here. Buck passing has often characterised attempts to pinpoint those responsible for such a charade. We end up either sweeping such shameful incidents under the carpet or making someone along the line of approval the fall guy. He is either sacked or taken to another ministry. Yet the problems persist. In the past the NFF would have been the fall guy. It would have meant another round of throwing missiles at the Sports ministry. The incumbent minister, Sunday Dare has stopped the NFF cum sports ministry brouhaha with the right synergy. Dare meets with the football chiefs where previous competitions are analysed and solutions found to avoid another fiasco.

The delay in the payment of the players, coaches, and backroom staff have arisen from the very strict processes in place at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). Why didn’t it occur to the big men at CBN that time was of the essence if the money needed for the 2021 AFCON was released months earlier instead of this laughable stock where players are made to look like unserious people before their expectant relations waiting for their own share of the players’ good fortunes.

With the Qatar 2022 World Cup about 10 months away, it is important that the relevant bodies brainstorm on the urgent need to outsource the country’s World Cup money, possibly by launching a national Support the Super Eagles World Cup campaign fund where fans of the team can wilfully donate, contribute their quota, not forgetting the corporate world keying into the noble venture. A Presidential breakfast with all the movers and shakers of the country’s economy in attendance would further reassure the, eggheads, to invest in the exercise. Mr President would use the occasion to reiterate the government’s interest in sports and what it has to give sports-loving individuals and firms. Such presidential initiatives would ease the problems of getting the sports marketers to sell their ideas to the corporate world on the need to identify their goods and services with sports, knowing that Mr President is truly interested in that particular sporting activity. The big firm players would during that presidential session express their reservations in areas that threaten their businesses which also affects their turnovers. Of course, the company’s money isn’t theirs but for the public who invest in their companies.

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It should be noted that participating at the Cameroon 2021 Africa Cup of Nations from January 9 to February 6 deprived the players of staying at home with their families or inviting them to Europe to spend Christmas and New Year. It is at such a family rendezvous that the players address their problems. It is at such periods that they provide the cash or make the contact that could resolve pressing issues. Had Nigeria done her bit as it concerns players’ welfare, they could easily have asked their relations to meet them in camp or after training sessions to rub minds on the way forward. It is one of the reasons the players rush to their different homes when they are invited for assignments in Nigeria before heading back to camp. Of course, the time lost in such distractions affects the way we prepare for competitions. Little we wonder why we always totter during competitions, the 33rd Africa Cup of Nations tournament in Cameroon, inclusive.

The Super Eagles are the biggest brand to market if they are excelling in competitions. We need to build this team on solid foundations, but this appears far-fetched, especially with our penchant for foreign coaches, given the potential available at the 774 local government areas. We will forever be rebuilding the Eagles if our foreign coaches live outside the country. Eagles need established nurseries approved by the NFF where players to replace the injured and ageing ones are taught the basic skills of the game, through clinics and competitions. No country measures her growth in soccer by listing 22 foreign-based players with one home-based goalkeeper. It raises the poser over the quality of the youth development programmes and what the federation is doing with its grassroots programmes. Nigeria went to the Cameroon 2021 Africa Cup of Nations with 28 foreign-based players.  Thank God Gernot Rohr has left the team. A column for another day.

We have two dicey Qatar 2022 World Cup qualification matches against Ghana’s Black Stars first in Conakry and the return leg in Abuja. The Ghanaians are down but this is the worst time to confront, especially as it is Nigeria. They would rather any other country beats them – certainly not Nigeria. Ayew Pele, Black Stars’ inspirational captain is out of the first leg but there are others who understand what it entails for them to lose to Nigeria – it is forbidden. It is good to know that the sports minister is insisting on making the MKO Abiola Stadium the home of our national teams. We have in the past years lost the fear factor associated with the Super Eagles playing against any country in Nigeria due to the team’s nomadic movement across the country.

Make no mistake about my intentions here because England Three Lions also play across the country. But big games get played at Wembley Stadium of the Three Lions. Need I waste time mentioning other countries like England? Having a home ground breeds well for the team. Its teeming supporters rally around the players in difficult times and ceaselessly when the players are scoring goals with aplomb.MKO Abiola would certainly be the home for the country’s sports, not just football because Abiola was truly the Pillar of Sports in Africa. Nigerian athletes always prayed for Abiola’s presence anywhere major competitions are being held, knowing the volume of cash he doles out to winners and those who didn’t win laurels. Abiola gave out scholarships as a way of encouraging athletes to combine sports with going to school. I digress!

Nigeria’s sports administrators should stop thinking through their pockets. They should always look at the bigger picture of making the sporting industry the veritable ground for stemming unemployment in Nigeria. Is sports truly “play play” as one governor once described it? Who will challenge us to see sports as a platform to bolster the country’s revenue? Doesn’t the government know that sports is the best vehicle for massive employment? The honourable Sports Minister will need to meet with firms who have embraced sports to know what problems they have with the federations. At that meeting, the firms should be told what they stand to benefit from sports sponsorship.