The Nation Newspaper

Category: Ade Ojeikere

Before urchins maim referees

The applause arising from the results of domestic matches in the elite class over the weekend resounds like music to the ears. The novel developments from the league venues raise hope for the beautiful game in the country. Seven matches were played. Four resulted in away victories for the visiting clubs while the other three games ended in draws.

The deafening noise around the centres has had different interpretations from several stakeholders of the game. But one issue laid bare like a sore thumb – what are the measures in place for referees’ safety before, during, and after games whenever club supporters take the law into their own hands by beating up the arbiter if their firm and right decisions deny their club’s victory on the day. I was, therefore, excited to read what the NFF hierarchy told the Inspector General of Police in his office in Abuja.

According to Gusau: “We are here because we appreciate the importance of security in all our activities, programmes and events. This is to physically express our deep appreciation for the job you have been doing in readily sending officers, men, and materials to secure the venues of football matches in the country. Your officers and men have been doing excellent work for us.

“Our country is one of football-passionate citizens. We also plead with the Inspector General to revive the Police Football Team that was very strong in those days, and also to consider giving a special quota to sportsmen and women who want to enlist in the Police Force.”

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I don’t want to believe that the NFF President, Ibrahim Musa Gusau met with the Inspector General of Police, Dr. Olukayode Egbetokun and there wasn’t any robust discussion like constituting a special squad of police personnel to handle the security at the league match venues before, during and after matches. Or does the NFF president not know that the security architecture of the league where 50 baton-carrying policemen are drafted to ensure that there is peace at match venues is highly insufficient? Hence, when there are fracas, there is little these 50 men can do to stem the violence.

Suppose the words credited to the NFF boss were all he told the IG in Abuja. In that case, he certainly hasn’t watched stalemated games to see the dilemma these 50 men have facing over 9,000 irate fans within and outside the stadium premises. I don’t blame the security men who run to safety to avoid being beaten groggy. They are human beings with families back home. Hoodlums and beasts in the stadium shouldn’t take their lives on the altar of a stalemated game.

Dear Dr. Olukayode Egbetokun, the police is my friend hence I’m pleading that the command should have a department where officers are equipped and schooled on how to quell stadium violence. The life of everyone watching football is sacrosanct not to be maimed. Elsewhere, there are several security people dressed in mufti who sit with the fans to easily identify and pick up irritants who foment trouble. These men and indeed women are different from those wearing their uniforms. The notorious fan would be handcuffed and taken into a waiting van or room.

Sir, there isn’t much the police can do to rescue match referees because canisters of tear gas and batons are grossly inadequate for irate fans who wet their handkerchiefs in kerosene to ward off the effects of inhaling tear gas. It doesn’t speak well of adequate security architecture if hooligans succeed in pummeling the referees in public glare. Yet they walk free in such parts of the country only to return and wreak havoc again.

Dear Egbetokun, anytime imbeciles succeed in injuring innocent referees, it smacks of failure of leadership of the police in such parts of the country. Therefore, sir, all clubs must be made to write an undertaking to hand over any idiot caught manhandling referees because those who wreak such havoc aren’t spirits but club supporters of losing home teams. It is also important, Sir that NFF chieftains are directed that all stadiums where matches are played must have effective CCTV cameras which will allow the police to track these irate fans even after the games have been played.

Dear reader, you would want to ask whose duty it is to ensure that referees leave the stadium unscathed irrespective of the results of the matches they officiated on the day. They are chiefly the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), the 36 states, and FCT FAs as well as the hosts of the game in question. Unfortunately, each of these bodies abdicates their duties anytime matches end in fracas. They all allow every party to defend itself with the NFF sitting in judgment, forgetting that the sole body responsible for appointing referees for matches is the federation at the Dankaro House in Abuja.

Commonsense tells us that the NFF should take the blame for appointing inept referees, especially those who handled stalemated games last season and were indicted. Reprieve shouldn’t be granted to such erring referees unless they have served out their ban terms. They should immediately be relegated to a lower cadre to serve as a deterrent to others. Not so for the NFF whose forgiving spirit is questionable. We have had instances where indicted referees returned to handle the top in the second phase. A few are sneaked into fixtures in far-flung areas. You only get to read about them, with the NFF unperturbed, even if the media makes such demons return an issue.

In fact, NFF’s handling of referees’ appointment has been satanic so much so they can send two sets of referees to one game while another game has either no referees or they didn’t get their match appointment on time. Unfortunately, the respective States’ FA members don’t have control over their government’s teams. In fact, club chairmen act as untouchables and always look down on the States’ FAs, except where the club chairman is the State’s FA boss. Hmmmm!

Indeed, clubs act alone. The States’ FA chieftains are Lilliputians before the club chairman, who most times, is an influential member of the governor’s political party. With this kind of anything-goes setting, it is easy for thugs in the stadium to batter the referees and go home as a hero instead of cooling their heels behind bars.

Sadly, since referees don’t have a security arrangement to protect themselves, they are left to sulk and bear the pain from injuries inflicted on them by their assailants.

We have had incidents in the past where referees were ejected from their hotels when the hosts lost games. The ugly scenes of cudgel, rods, sticks, and other destructive weapons are carried by criminals chasing helpless referees around the pitch until they get into the hands of security operatives. Such tapes ought to have been used to arrest the culprits. Not so here.

Pray, does it not worry the NFF that the domestic league isn’t fully live on television typical of what we see in the European leagues and competitions?

I have always advocated here that the best form of security starts by ensuring that competent referees are assigned red-lettered matches. Indeed, only the best set of referees and match commissioners with several independent assessors. The coaches and players sitting on the bench should be warned to be of good conduct before, during, and after games. The referee should be told that anyone sitting on the bench, who constitutes a nuisance, including those whose touchline theatrics could incite irate fans in the stands to wreak havoc, is sent off the pitch.

September 28, 2024
Chop I chop Nigerian clubs

Do the real proprietors (not those who masquerade as club owners who take instructions from their state governors) of domestic clubs in Nigeria care about the returns on the investments in the state-owned teams? Does it worry these State governors that those in charge of their teams run the place like a gaming machine rather than as thriving businesses with succession plans?

No wonder, these governors throw open the gate of stadiums to all and sundry, anytime they are in town with their politician friends. What a country!

Clubs in Nigeria apparently forbid exploring open channels to increase revenues by registering their enterprise in the Nigeria Stock Market. They have this siege mentality of running teams as boys’ clubs where emphasis rests on how well you have ended the season without referencing their books for auditors to peruse and ask critical questions on incomes, expenditures, and other related accounting sub-heads. Need I say that those governors who bankroll clubs heavily do so as a political tool to win votes during elections? The reason when they vacate their positions, the teams crumble like a pack of cards?

When governors lay waste to match venues by throwing the stadium’s gates ajar, why won’t their boys in such managements allow the clubs’ supporters of varying fanatical groups to man the gates?

A tidier setting would have been to sublet the aspect of manning the gates to experts in such business. That way, the clubs would know the games that fetch them money each season and plan to maximise profits each new season. Time was when clubs sold their matches involving rival teams to business-minded people. It helped such clubs increase their revenue outlets. Not so anymore.

It is only in Nigeria that professional league games are played without figures telling watchers of the game the best attendance per week and also releasing the correct figures from the gates. When made public, the figures help investors target their brands and services to stadia whose clubs have massive followership. I cringe when I see the inner perimeter fences of stadia in Europe decorated with adverts with rolls through the circuit to add ambience to the place on match days.

If our club owners had such plans, it would have been easier for them to have sponsors for different expense heads they have which in turn helps in making such a team solvent, irrespective of what their proprietors cough out seasonally.

These are some of the reasons clubs in Nigeria always go cap in hand-for cash seasonally. How would Nigerian clubs be buoyant when their owners pay lip service to such an important aspect of club administration as gate-taking?

At match venues, the entry points are always crowded, yet when you get inside the stadium, you are confronted with empty stands with few people who openly tell you that it is forbidden for them to pay gate fees. Some clubs with good methods of manning the gates, and getting the fans to pay, don’t know when to stop selling tickets to avoid overcrowding the premises.

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Most of the terraces in stadiums in Nigeria are cemented with others having broken seats which could serve as flying objects of mass destruction when the unpleasant need arises. The overcrowding of the stadium speaks to the fact that their owners don’t know the seating capacity of the premises. Other times it is because such clubs’ managements are greedy, with the league body having a department whose duty is to ensure that clubs don’t sell tickets above the seating capacity of the place.

There have been instances where club management top shots wear the jerseys of their favourite foreign clubs to watch their teams on match days. Rather than flood the venues with their club jerseys, apparel, umbrellas, small fans, stickers etc. What you find are hawkers of sachets water, toxic spirits, cans of alcoholic beverages etc. The sports outlets surrounding the club’s stadium hardly sell kits of such teams. Rather the shops are flooded with wears of foreign clubs which some fans buy and flaunt with glee.

Isn’t this the reason Nigerian clubs don’t encourage their players to exchange their jerseys with their opponents after games? Most Nigerian clubs play games without name tags because it is convenient for them to give such jerseys to another player to wear with the organisers oblivious of such a heinous tendency. How many clubs in Nigeria wear home jerseys distinct from their away kits during the season? I support Bendel Insurance FC of Benin City, and the only way I can get the club’s jerseys to buy would be to buy it anytime I’m in Edo State and the team has a game. Not so, if I want to buy Liverpool FC of England shirts.

Except for clubs such as Remo Stars, Enugu Rangers, and perhaps one or two where you can truly buy the club’s jersey on match days, it would be easier for the proverbial Carmel to pass the eye of the needle than to get their clubs’ jerseys to buy. Clubs hide their figures to keep the tax mechanisms in the States otiose. Will State governors allow independently-minded people to run their clubs as businesses, not just a recreational hub?

I lost interest in watching games in Lagos when I noticed severally players hurrying to the stadium because their bus broke down or they were stuck in traffic. This second option of transportation logistic difficulties is common but is handled intelligently by delaying the commencement of such games. It is always laughable seeing players running onto the pitch panting. Let’s not waste space to playback in our mind’s eye how European teams storm the stadium with swagger inside state-or-the-art air-conditioned buses with the players either in suits or the club’s attires for that game. The game’s frills get to you as the buses literally crawl towards the venue’s entrance. Did I hear you say, dear reader, why don’t we have such buses here?

In saner climes, some of the clubs would have gone to Innoson Motors with irresistible packages that would convince the proprietor to do business with them. In no time, Innoson buses would populate such countries as the official buses of the league. Of course, GAC Motor Limited’s management would want to key into the novel developments. The spiral effect of this competition would be massive. My heart sank when I saw the picture of the seemingly rickety bus in which former Nigerian international goalkeeper, Christian Obi lost his life. How could such a bus be cleared for an intra-state picnic let alone a trip outside with the state’s sports ambassadors? Imagine the late Obi sitting inside one of these marvelous buses in Europe, he would still be alive. Good night, Obi, my friend.

Yearly, our representatives in the CAF inter-club competitions complain of the lack of matches to keep their players in competitive form as the reason for their early exits. Why the NFF executive board members have turned deaf ears to this disturbing trend beats one’s imagination. It doesn’t matter if the country’s representatives take turns being eliminated from every round of the competition. What insults our sensibilities is the yearly explanation after the teams must have crashed out that we would do something and nothing gets done about it.

It should worry the current NFF executive committee members that no Nigerian club has won a continental trophy in their reign. Are the members waiting for the time when state governors would decline to sponsor their clubs because of their ill-preparedness? The way things are going, a year would come where there would be winners but no sponsors with our opponents coming to Nigeria to walk over our teams.

September 21, 2024
Truth crushed to earth…

Those who do things unsparingly to suit their interests without reflecting on the consequences, always forget that the law of Karma exists. Simply put, the law of retributive justice. Indeed, those who manufactured the contraption where a relegated team was given the right of first refusal when a vacancy popped up with the disqualification of a promoted team from the lower rung to the elite class, now have rotten eggs smashed on their faces.

The hitherto relegated team due to its shambolic outings last season was beaten groggy at home by a better-prepared and deserving elite side in the first game of the new season. Of course, the cooks of the laughable law must be cursing their tough luck. Would it not have been better and more sensible for them to have promoted the next best team atop the lower league’s table than to reward a failure with another chance to fail again? Shame!

What can’t happen in Nigeria doesn’t exist. These are some of the flaws of the domestic league that dissuade investors from supporting the beautiful game here. A league competition where winners emerge from the boardroom decisions and not from the results of games on the field of play over the season is unacceptable. Rules mustn’t be interpreted when there is a crisis. It smacks of match-fixing. One only hopes there are no two teams with single ownership. Let us set the records straight with the league in its second round of matches this weekend.

The opening two matches for the 2024/2025 edition of the Africa Cup of Nations provided the elixir for growth for the beautiful game in Nigeria. We have long seen worthy domestic league coaches who did well in the previous season being rewarded with a coaching role in the country’s premium team, the Super Eagles. That decision has helped to cement a veritable link between home-based coaches and our foreign-based players, most of whom developed their skills playing on the dusty streets, parks, public fields, and stadia in the country after they were spotted by the eagle-eyed local games masters in the 774 Local Government Areas (LGA) in Nigeria.

My adrenalin shot up watching our foreign-based stars interface with Enugu Rangers FC’s manager, Fidelis Illechukwu, and Daniel Ogunmodede, coach of Remo Stars FC of Ikenne, both on and off the pitch. I wondered what they must have been discussing, especially as most of them would be meeting with the two homegrown coaches for the first time. I know for a fact that our foreign legions’ perception of the domestic league would have changed for good. If we sustain this pattern, in no time our foreign legion would embrace the ideals of the local coaches knowing that they could return home to coach their state’s soccer teams.

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This is one of the best ways to sell the local league to our Europe-based players. In other climes, it is almost customary for their established stars to return to their domestic leagues and end their playing careers in blitz and glory. The multiple effects of having these retirees playing international matches for their boyhood teams are immeasurable. One only hopes that the suggestion to pick Illechukwu and Ogunmodede was Austin Eguavoen’s which I’m sure NFF’s board members embraced wholeheartedly. If yes, a welcome change has been introduced to the Super Eagles, going forward.

This week, this writer thought he could celebrate the NFF for once until they chose to hide under one finger by asking Eguavoen to recant on his decision to step aside (no thanks to General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida, Nigeria’s former military Head of State), having effectively prosecuted the two matches assignment given to him whilst the federation’s chieftains continued to grope in the dark in search of a foreign Technical Adviser for the Super Eagles. NFF’s directive to Eguavoen about his role in the team was unambiguous. He was tagged to perform an Interim Super Eagles role. Perhaps, as a tacit warning not to nurse any ambition of hijacking the job from the European coaches, one of whom, German Coach, Bruno Labbadia took a walk unceremoniously from the job after NFF announced him as the new Super Eagles Technical Adviser.

No prize for guessing right that NFF’s directive to Eguavoen wasn’t documented because Eguavoen equally told the international media that he didn’t lobby for the job. It was normal for Eguavoen to have stated the facts properly. So, for NFF, the interim coach’s statement amounted to the truth and would have been held against him if he refused to quit with good results.

In the eyes of the NFF management, Eguavoen was a placeholder for the next European manager. It didn’t matter whatever he said to the contrary. What the NFF people didn’t take into consideration was the likelihood of the team doing well under Eguavoen’s tutelage to elicit support for his retention. Pronto, the federation whose hierarchy rose from their slumber to pressurise Eguavoen to recant on his post-match interview where he said his two-match mandate had been done and that he would discuss the next move with them.

Perhaps, the NFF people forgot that Eguavoen was the body’s Technical Director, making it absolutely impossible to hold two positions at the same time. They raced to the international media to say that: “He remains with the team and he is an employee of the NFF which has drafted him to the Super Eagles. He remains there until the federation takes another decision.”

Is it now dawning on the federation that he is their employee, yet they celebrated and announced an interim status for a senior staff member? Eguavoen is the body’s Technical Director. NFF knew the fixtures which included the double-header against Libya at the same time as those of Benin Republic and Rwanda, yet they gave Eguavoen a two-game mandate. If indeed, this view is right, why didn’t the NFF ask Eguavoen to handle the four games and not two, if they weren’t being mischievous?

Eguavoen has been the most criticised coach but one who has brought stability into the team in difficult times. Eguavoen is a victim of a game where if the team wins, the players play according to instructions. But when the team fails, the coach must go. Coaches’ cross. If the NFF must be taken seriously, we need to know Eguavoen’s status in the team, especially if he would also prosecute the remaining qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup ticket. Our players must begin to see the country’s qualification matches as a priority. They should, henceforth, report to camp early and not saunter into the camp as if it is a discotheque. Sadly, these latecomers to the Eagles are the first set of players to board flights back to their European clubs to avoid sanctions. Is that fair?

After all, most of them got their exposure to international platforms by playing for Nigeria’s soccer teams at big FIFA, CAF, and other friendly and inter-club matches. Or do they want to be treated as children by sending them back to clubs without fielding them? In fact, our players need these Nigerian games to keep their club places. These European clubs pay so much on the country’s international stars and would waste no time declaring unserious latecomers in their payrolls.

September 14, 2024
NPFL’s kalokalo rules

The domestic league in Nigeria is back. Not without the characteristic upheavals. This new term comes with a great debate about a relegated team buying over the promotion ticket of a team in the lower rung to escape the drop. One can’t understand why a relegated team can’t accept their fate and struggle to return to the elite class the following season. It isn’t rocket science. Leicester City FC are back in the Premier League in England, having been relegated the previous season.

Not so in Nigeria. A team whose owners didn’t care a hoot when their club’s league fortunes were sliding down the abyss is now doing everything under the sun to retain their position by default and people don’t see the misnomer in such an exercise. Where is such a thing done in the world? Who does that?

In trying to justify their decision, the Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL) issued a statement which said: ”Specifically, there is one ownership of Beyond Limits Football Academy and Remo Stars, a club already competing in the NPFL, which constitutes a breach of Rule B11.4 of the NPFL Framework and Rules.

”As a result of this decision, the slot previously occupied by Beyond Limits Football Academy has been relinquished and subsequently handed over to Heartland FC. This decision aligns with Rule A5.2, which stipulates the criteria for club participation. Heartland FC met the requirements set by the NPFL board and was the only relegated club to express interest in filling the vacancy.

”We also need to clarify that there was no slot buying transaction, as such practices are explicitly prohibited under NPFL rules. The NPFL remains committed to upholding a fair and competitive league. While the NPFL rules do not explicitly foresee every scenario, the board has exercised its discretion, as permitted under the league’s governing documents, to ensure that decisions are made in the best interest of the league and its stakeholders.”

The questions to ask NPFL chieftains include wanting to know the essence of demoting poorly performing teams and rewarding those in the lower rung who did well with an elevation into the elite if a relegated side in the previous season decides to buy one of the promoted side’s space? Wouldn’t it have been right to promote the next qualified team in the lower rung than to reward a failure on the altar of dishonourable laws? What happens to the space which this relegated team ought to occupy in the lower rung of the league? Won’t this lacuna affect the structure of the lower division by one in terms of its composition? What rules determine the team that should occupy this unethical imbalance of teams? Are rules not meant for men than men for rules? What this decision represents is that any relegated team with new ownership can escape the drop, if any promoted side can’t fund its campaign in the elite. Isn’t this a tacit invitation to match-fixing soonest?

Dear NPFL, having disqualified the lower side which got a promotion on grounds of single ownership of two clubs, does the rule directly say that such a team should be replaced by a demoted team whose owners have suddenly become rich? Why didn’t NPFL raise the alarm to NFF when it was obvious that Beyond Limits Football Academy would be promoted on grounds of single ownership with Remo Stars?

Interestingly, a country’s growth in the game is most times judged by the number of home-grown players in their senior soccer teams at the World Cup, not by the sickening number of Nigeria-born lads discovered by other football nations. If we can’t run the domestic league on rules universal to all climes, it won’t come as a surprise if we need another 38 years to win any continental trophy with our local clubs.

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.

I have always advocated here that the best form of security starts by ensuring that the competent referees are assigned such red-lettered matches are handled by the best set of referees and match commissioners with several independent assessors. League matches can’t be played to attract sponsorship from the blue chip companies without television coverage.

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.

This writer challenged a member of the league board over the possibility of having VAR machines at league venues across the country bankrolled by the committee. The league board 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 league board or the participating teams.

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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 league board 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 league board 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.

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 be resolved amicably for the good of the game.

September 7, 2024
Good for nothing Nigerian clubs

History has an uncanny way of vindicating the just. It takes time for the sins of the past to catch up with those who employed untoward ways to gain success. What our local clubs’ management don’t realise is that a house built on quicksand will always crumble like a pack of cards. Nigeria’s representatives at the CAF inter-club competitions’ scorecards are awful.

Rather than do holistic reforms of their problems they prefer quick fixes. It is in the character of our continental representatives to almost replace the players who won the continental ticket with either recycled old players who failed with previous representatives or recruit players who simply want to play at the continental level. They recruit strangers who don’t know what the club represents.

What stands out clearly which our club managers don’t appreciate is that those who win laurels do so with structured settings not the cash-and-carry style in Nigeria. Some of the African clubs we played against have befitting stadia which they use as venues for their matches unlike ours who play on pitches alien to them. Where lieth the home advantage in these games? Monies accruing to such a team from gate-takings become bonuses to their ‘alien’ hosts, leaving the real owner of the club with less than nothing to show in their books when the auditors visit.

It is laughable that a team such as Enugu Rangers International FC doesn’t have its stadium distinct from the government’s so much that its matches are played on ‘away’ soil. Yet, the owners of the club expect the players and coaches to compete. It won’t happen. It is sad that 34 years after the so-called professional league was inaugurated, you can count teams that own their stadium. What a shame.

When in 1990 some respected Nigerian soccer administrators conceptualised the Nigeria Professional League body, they were responding to the new trends in the beautiful game in other climes. These men couldn’t stomach the mediocrity associated with the Nigerian game. They wanted a departure from the tardy past to embrace the new dawn where very good players could earn a living outside the country. The ‘wise men’ foresaw the future where with a new mentality to matches, the country could one day play at the senior World Cup.

The pioneers’ dreams came to pass in 1994 with Nigeria’s Super Eagles qualifying for the USA ’94 World Cup using players who had been exported to Europe to hone their skills which were still lethargic as a result of obsolete facilities across the country. The elite class was structured out of the old order. Indeed, there was something to fight for while those not listed fought gamely each season to qualify for the elite cadre.

The quasi-professional league witnessed a lot of improvement except that the ownership structures didn’t quite change with most of the teams owned by the government. The few private clubs (Leventis United FC of Ibadan, Abiola Babes FC of Abeokuta, New Nigeria Bank FC of Benin City, Flash Flamingoes FC of Benin City, Julius Berger FC of Lagos, Iwuanyanwu Nationale FC of Owerri, etc) left their marks, although they were eventually emasculated by the government teams which had tremendous cash which their administrators used to corrupt the system. The thought of having four teams in Benin City didn’t excite the fans as much, having only their darling team in the elite class. The private clubs’ owners soon dropped their sponsorship when they couldn’t cope with the malfeasances of the league.

The conspiracy against the privately-owned teams brought back the sharp practices of the competition leading to the dearth of new talents. These private clubs couldn’t enjoy the support of the fans in those cities where the states owned teams operated. Leventis had to manage its relationship with the Ibadan fans. Flash Flamingoes FC went through hell playing inside the Samuel Osaigbovo Ogbemudia Stadium in Benin. The fans’ favourite was Bendel Insurance FC. The defunct New Nigeria Bank FC had a similar problem of acceptance. In fact, games involving these teams and their traditional local rivals threatened public peace as the security operatives had to be at their best before, during, and after matches. In one of such needless skirmishes, Bendel Insurance FC’s chairman, the late Major Ojo lost his life in a car crash very close to the stadium while trying to rescue the matches’ referees from being lynched by irate fans. Gallant soldier, if you ask me. May his soul continue to rest in peace.

The rot in the league was such that we had predictable victories for home teams ably aided by the dubious calls of match referees who most times are cajoled into taking such decisions. Who would blame the referees when their entitlements were being paid by the home sides. Not forgetting the overdose of hospitality to the referees by anxious home clubs eager to win their matches at all cost to justify the huge resources splashed on them by their owners. The administrators further bastardised the league by introducing board room points in connivance with officials in the former NFA’s league department which then was just one scruffy room at the Glasshouse compared with the league’s current digitalised and functional offices. It was that bad.

The league had difficulties in getting television sponsorships after the existing ones opted out because they were not getting commensurate returns on their investments. Urchins, beasts, hooligans, and hostile home supporters made life difficult for the fans, especially the visitors, to watch matches of their choice. Unlike in Europe where fathers come to the stadium to watch matches with their family members, it was risky doing so here and it affected pitching for sponsorships with the blue-chip companies.

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Such hazardous settings soon affected the players’ performance with many of them opting to seek greener pastures elsewhere. This star-trek of players out of the country soon affected the quality of the league. Television coverage which serves as the biggest money-spinner for teams in Europe among other marketing windows couldn’t gain ground in Nigeria. The few who dared to cover matches lost equipment anytime there was violence in the stadium. There were always chaotic settings during matches because the fans took the laws into their own hands rather than allow the referees to do their jobs according to the dictates of the rulebook.

During the trying periods of the Nigeria league, IICC Shooting Stars of Ibadan (3SC) won the Cup Winners Cup in 1976. They were dethroned as champions in 1977, with the games between 3SC and eventual winners Enugu Rangers International very problematic. The second leg game had to be played on neutral ground in Kaduna, no thanks to the lunacy of the irate fans. NNB and Bendel Insurance at different years won the WAFU Cup for keeps with Bendel Insurance winning the Confederations Cup in 1994 along with the WAFU for the third time in the same year. It must be said that 3SC won the Confederations Cup in 1992, the trophy was donated by the late Chief MKO Abiola.

Many have called those victories pyrrhic because it didn’t represent how badly the league was organised. In these years, there wasn’t any deliberate plan to train the coaches, officials and even educate the players about new trends in the game which is dynamic. Even the simplest of tasks in getting the elite clubs to also run youth teams which could also play league games either a day before the main teams’ or at an earlier time on the same pitch their seniors uses. This is how it is done in Europe. It explains the ease with which these European clubs replace their aging stars or those burdened by injuries. These youth teams help the countries by having them pick players for their age-grade teams just as it provides the country’s Football Associations (FAs) data to plan for the future.

Thirty four years after the self-acclaimed professional league, we aren’t sure of terrestrial television coverage across the country. Who will bell the cat on television coverage in Nigeria?

August 31, 2024
Unbanned coach for Eagles?

This is my most difficult column largely because of the plethora of issues threatening the sports industry beginning with the laughable stories to the weird. Every day in the last one week threw up puzzling suggestions from spin doctors in the media insulting our collective sensitivity with such an incredulous matter as a coach who served out his FIFA ban becoming the next Super Eagles Manager.

What these intractable enemies of football in Nigeria failed to realise is that the five- year ban was a form of punishment. The reduction of the ban to five years didn’t translate to a slap on the wrist. Rather, it meant that FIFA still had reservations with some of the issues in the case. The NFF would need to sound out FIFA if serving out a ban term translates to such a person being eligible to participate in the world soccer ruling body’s subsequent activities.

Yes, this coach was one of our best in terms of achievements and the quality of young talents he discovered and exposed to international competitions until the ban. But should the expiration of the ban immediately land the tactician the Super Eagles’ job? Do our soccer federation’s chieftains realise that the Super Eagles is Nigeria’s premium sports asset which shouldn’t be toyed with? Did the ban’s reduction mean that the coach was cleared of all the allegations? Perhaps, this is the time for the NFF to assist the coach to lodge another appeal in court against the five-year ban which has now lapsed to free him of all the charges. It is only when such a victory in the court is attained that he can be eligible for the job.

On 16 August 2019, he was banned for life by FIFA from all football activities over allegations of bribery and match-fixing. But the ban was later reduced to five years by the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) after his appeal was heard.

CAS ruled the imposition of a life ban to be disproportionate for a first offence which was committed passively and which had not had an adverse or immediate effect on football stakeholders.

It ruled that a five-year ban would still achieve the envisaged aim of punishing the infringement committed by the now unbanned coach.

The coach got CAS’ favourable ruling because he was a first offender for an offence committed passively which hadn’t poured odium on the beautiful game. Hmmm! Does this mean the coach can handle a big brand such as the Super Eagles? Again, CAS ruled that its decision to impose a five-year ban and not a life ban which was FIFA’s decision was hinged on the fact that the reduction could still achieve the aim of punishing the infringement committed by the coach. What is your takeaway on this, dear reader? You tell me.

What remains unanswered in the CAS ruling is the future of the convicted first offender for a passively committed offence after the ban lapsed.

Another Nigerian coach who got sanctioned is Ladan Bosso. He inadvertently accused English referee Howard Webb of racism in the aftermath of a 4-0 defeat against Chile in the quarterfinals of the FIFA Under-20 World Cup in 2007.

Ladan Bosso took his four-month FIFA ban and N1 million fine with equanimity pointing out that: “FIFA are the mother and father of football in the world and as long as they have taken a decision, I have to comply with what they have said.

“Sometimes you say certain things when you are upset, but I believe that my apology may have made them reduce the ban. Maybe I could have got two years or something like that.”

Bosso had accused English referee Howard Webb of racism in the aftermath of a 4-0 defeat against Chile in one of the quarter-finals of the FIFA Under-20 World Cup in 2007. Pray, Bosso handled another U-20 side the World Cup assignment where he conducted himself creditably. Well, Bosso’s problem wasn’t as grievous as this unbanned coach’s, who indeed was banned for life, until he fought back to get the ban period reduced to five years.

The optics of seeing this unbanned coach sit on the Super Eagles bench isn’t right, given the type of cynical commentaries from the international media whenever Nigeria has a game to play. Rather than being our coach, he could be given roles behind the scenes, if our soccer chiefs feel strongly that he still has something to offer.

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A five-year absence from the pressure heater coaching job isn’t the type of citation any intending Super Eagles coach should flaunt. Nigeria’s chances in subsequent World Cup qualifiers is in a precarious setting with the Super Eagles condemned to win the remaining six games if Nigeria’s flag would be hoisted among the comity of nations in 2026.

The spin doctors have flooded the media with a galaxy of foreign coaches, many of whom were at the last Africa Cup of Nations held in Ivory Coast and failed. Coaches of some of the countries whose outings were miserable have been touted as ready replacements for a coach who took us to the final. The confusion has left the choice of next foreign coach for Super Eagles to guesswork as if that is what prevails in the camps of our competitors. Need I waste space listing all the names bandied in the media, many of them have been denounced by the NFF?

Nigeria’s first game in the qualifiers for the next Africa Cup of Nations is to be held on September 7 in Uyo against the Republic of Benin, a team presently handled by a former Eagles manager, German-born Gernot Rohr. Already, Rohr led his Benin team to beat the Eagles on neutral ground 2-1 in Ivory Coast in our last qualification game for the 2026 World Cup to be jointly hosted by 16 cities in three North American countries: Canada, Mexico, and the American countries: Canada, Mexico, and the United States

The spin doctors who throw up names of likely Super Eagles coach in the social media always forget that the world is a global village. One such flyer is the talk that the NFF is on the verge of naming Swede tactician Andersson as the helmsman for the Super Eagles. Of course, the Swedes on his X handles almost mocking such an adventure while wishing us a turbulent path whenever he assumes work. These idle people who want Nigeria to recruit a defensive minded tactician and expect the country to excel in a game which requires scoring goals with aplomb to decide matches if need be.

Today is exactly 14 days to Nigeria’s first game in the 2025 AFCON qualification series, and we don’t have a coach. Our biggest player in Europe, Victor Osimhen, is in the battle to save his career.

He is certainly not in shape to help the team beat the Republic of Benin in Uyo, September 7.

Will NFF beg Austin Eguavoen to accept the task to save their faces? Eguavoen will as a patriot accept the job. Would it be fair to judge him with a bad result (God forbid)? Who will select the players, now that Aina Ola is injured? Who will replace him? Have the players received their letters of invitation for both games on September 7 and September 10?

August 24, 2024
A vote for Enoh

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu scored the bull’s eye when he released N9 billion to the country’s 84-member contingent for the 2024 Olympic Games held in Paris. The President also provided another N3 billion for the physically challenged athletes for their own Olympics which begins from August 28 to September 11, also in Paris. The President’s approval is the reason we aren’t faced with any scandal of embarrassing magnitude nor have we seen pictures of athletes, their family members, etc, pulling and carrying loads of their purchases out of shops while in France.

No cases of doping. No organised protests by disgruntled athletes on competition days to lampoon the government. No sexual escapades between athletes and their officials. Athletes’ welfare packages came as promised. No doubt, the Sports Minister Senator John Enoh did his job by ensuring that no busybody made the trip to Paris. Enoh hasn’t spent one year in office, so he should be saved from being axed. Indeed, the traffic of sports ministers who have been replaced over perceived poor outings by our athletes is legendary, resulting in uncountable policy summersaults that have left the sport in a coma. One only hopes Enoh would have the guts to dissolve the sports federations and insist on having members who know their onions. The reconstitution of the federations would determine the quality of members for the next Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC), whose members didn’t inspire the contingent to glory.

Again, it is important to state that the 36 states’ governors and Abuja’s Minister pay the athletes’ wages and should take the big stick for under-developing sports in their abodes in the last six years. When last, and how regularly did the states organise sports competitions to keep the athletes in competitive form? The schools which these state governments control hardly have playgrounds for their pupils to recreate. Available spaces have been built up for schools under the guise of providing free education for the masses.

The synergy of yore between States’ Ministries of Education and their Sports Ministry that oiled the operations for school sports, competitions such as the Principal’s Cup, Governors Cup etc, which created competitiveness during competitions in the different states is now comatose. It is the reason for the current search for athletes have been targeted at Nigeria-born kids in Europe, Americas and the Diaspora.

The sports ministry warehouses the good athletes discovered from the states and fields them in the different competitions. The Sports Ministry owns no athletes. The dearth of sports in the States is the major reason for this fiasco in France.

Expectedly, the long knives are out. We wait. But I ask, how much is N9billion when converted into Euros? Precisely 5.2 million Euros at the prevailing market rate. Compare this 5.2 million Euros to the fact that each gold medalist in Australia received the equivalent of $1 million for their efforts. What stands out here is that winning any medal for Nigeria at the Olympics should be the product of well-thought-out plans and good seed money to the Sports Ministry by way of a refundable loan over a period of time.

This seed money from the government should be followed by asking the relevant bodies or individuals what has happened to the Sports Trust fund or is it the Sports Lottery Scheme or both? We need to reintroduce the Dinner with President Model where the number one citizen would announce the refundable overtime seed money just as he would tell the corporate firms in the country to support sports with good cash.

Sports is a money spinner making it imperative for the President to inform the blue-chip firms what they stand to benefit from spending shareholders’ money in sports in the form of tax reliefs etc. It is at such sports business forum that the President would spell out the modalities involved to ensure that monies earmarked to improve the industry are not misapplied. Of course, the President’s speech would spell out measures for punishment, including prison sentences and forfeiture of stolen wealth. Such pronouncements would help embolden the firms to be involved in the new direction for the industry. No firm would commit shareholders’ cash without such reassurances revealed by the President, not even the minister.

With the quantum investment from the corporate world, money to prosecute programmes for the athletes would be available beginning with the restoration of some of the moribund sports competitions in the country. With a solvent sports ministry, the National Sports Festivals would be held biannually and athletes discovered sent to periodic training camps within the country and overseas to participate at big sporting events such as the Olympics.

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It should be noted that big sports events have a circle of two years such as the Africa Cup of Nations, four years for the World Cup, the Olympics and the Commonwealth Games, making it absolutely impossible for the government to fund them adequately. Therefore, the government should reconstitute the Sports Lottery scheme or whatever name it may choose to mop up cash into its vaults for the training and expose of newly discovered sportsmen and women. The absence of competitions in the country has affected the development of the industry. We also need to improve on the curriculum of Colleges of Education, Teachers Training schools, where people can be trained as Physical and Health Education (PHE) teachers, who would be posted to the primary, secondary, tertiary institutions to expose the young ones to the rudiments of different sports. Such an assemblage of youth can function as the nurseries for the industry.

It is the government’s duty to make the citizenry healthy and strong. One of the ways to do this is to build sporting infrastructures fitted with supersonic equipment to train under the guidance of trained PHE teachers. Such recreational facilities could help remove the youth from societal vices and dissipate such energy in sporting events across the 774 Local Government Areas in the country.

It is important to stress here that immediately after the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games, the Jamaicans went back home to do a rethink, using the American models of grooming athletes from the schools. The Jamaicans sent their sportsmen and women to America. They even brought the good coaches in America to create the structures for growth in Jamaica which they stuck to religiously. The myth surrounding the Americans in world athletics (track and field events), especially in the sprints was broken by the Reggae boys and girls.

It is important to state this fact for a country that had the world record holder in 100 metres hurdles for women, Tobi Amusan, what special grant did she get distinct from others? I ask repeatedly, when did Nigeria release funds for the athletes? Isn’t it common knowledge that if you go to the market late in the evening, you can’t get fresh fish again but scattered ones? Indeed, 18 months to the Olympics, the country’s potential medalists need to be given grants early to start specialised training with their coaches. This would help set the right motivation for our athletes to deliver on the biggest stage.

Nigeria’s sports administrators 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? You tell me.

August 17, 2024
Sports isn’t witchcraft

The ongoing Olympic Games have lived up to its reputation of humbling unprepared countries such as Nigeria. Previous champions in earlier editions at the Olympics were left wheezing for breath as new kids emerged in an astonishing manner. Upsets reigned supreme across all the Olympic sports, with many fairy tales brushed aside when push came to shove. Experience isn’t enough for athletes to grab medals. Not even luck could guarantee victory as athletes spared no trick during the games to earn winning points.

How does one explain the situation where a cyclist was bold enough to tell the world that she forgot her bicycle in the camp hence, she had to borrow it from her German counterparts? She revealed further that her race was called earlier than anticipated. Nobi juju be that? The questions to ask would be where were her coaches and handlers not to know when her event was scheduled to be held? Shouldn’t she have been assigned a vehicle for training for daily practice before the event was held?

Nigeria’s female basketball team, D’ Tigress was one of the fairytale teams in Paris, beating world number three in the female version of the dunking game, Australia, losing to the French and beating Canada to earn a place in the quarterfinals against the United States of America (USA) on Wednesday night. Nigeria lost 74-88 with Kalu, Musa an Okonkwo raising hopes of the D ‘ Tigress being a team to look out for in the next edition of the Olympic Games. Of course, the Americans knew what to expect from the Nigerians and resorted to the three-pointers while ensuring that Kalu was closely marked to stop her making the big three-pointers which she did with aplomb.

D’ Tigress’ quarter-final feat was the first time any African team (male and female) would qualify at that level. The Nigerians planned for this showpiece by reporting early to the camp in Germany where they had top-quality friendly games against Serbia and Germany which they lost. But the vital lessons arising from their losses were not lost on them. They went back to the courts to brush off the rustic aspects of their game. Of course, no prize for guessing right that the Australians were beaten in the opening game of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games’ basketball event in Group C.

Di Tigress’ two friendly losses served as the fillip for what they showcased before Wednesday’s quarter-final game. Did I hear you, dear reader say ”last bus stop for Nigeria?” The Americans have made basketball their fortress. It is the opium of the Americans. Not forgetting the impact the game has on the average American. The sporting world stays awake to watch the breath-taking games in the NBA which has now dovetailed to the women’s version, WNBA. How else can anyone measure growth in sports other than with Americans’ love for basketball?

Pundits who predicted good tidings for Nigerian wrestlers relied on Igali’s expertise and experience as a gold medalist and an Olympian. But age played a trick on the wrestlers, many of whom should be told that their retirement time beckons. Igali gave them the best of training drills and the required pep talks to galvanise them to glory. But their better days in wrestling are falling short of the basics of the game.

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Igali is the face of the future of wrestling in Nigeria and the sports minister would be energising any new system he is planning to adopt going forward if Igali serves as the pivot. Igali isn’t just anybody in wrestling and his inputs in practical terms have grown the game in Bayelsa State. What wrestling needs now is the spread of the game around the 774 Local Government Areas through regular wrestling competitions to increase the level of interest among the over 200 million people in Nigeria. The old names in wrestling are bowing out gracefully and they could be engaged gainfully as state and national teams’ coaches.

A sport isn’t witchcraft. Winning medals, plaques, trophies, etc in sports comes with a lot of planning targeted at the grassroots in such a country, beginning with the primary, secondary, and polytechnics, universities etc . Sports in other climes are drawn on workable models where camps are situated in catchment areas whose topography encourages the discovery of athletes of particular games. Jos, for instance, should be where Nigeria can identify, train, and expose long-distance athletes to bigger competitions such as the Olympics. Have we exploited that area for rookies in the long-distance races?

The catchment areas serve as the foundation for the games’ growth at all levels. The models provide the templates to make the project work, with the parameters set for the recruitment, training, and re-training of coaches, games masters, teachers’ training schools, and Colleges of Education with specialties in producing good coaches on the rudiments of the game. These educators in sports are sent to the catchment where they would introduce such games to the young ones.

These catchment areas are otherwise known as the nurseries for identifying, training, and exposing the good ones to the bigger platforms starting with the different inter-house sports competitions at primary and secondary schools, Hussey Shield and Lady Manuwa Cups of yore, Morocco Clark Shield, etc.

Isn’t laughable that Nigeria attended the 2024 Olympic Games in a year when the National Sports Festival didn’t take place in the years preceding the Olympics? Wasn’t the National Sports Festival meant to be the cradle to discover new talents in the 774 LGAs in the country? Where are the talents discovered in previous festivals and how well have we nurtured and exposed them since they were discovered?

Pray, we are specialists in recycling athletes. It suits our administrators to celebrate athletes who attended six to seven Olympic Games without winning a medal of any colour. Other countries celebrate athletes who have participated in several Olympics winning gold, silver, and bronze medals. Most of these successful athletes would have won more silver and bronze medals than the gold medal. But the beauty about their medals’ winning feats is that they span through Olympic cycles showing that they went through the mill as young boys and girls when they won their first medals.

Perhaps, the bitter lesson to be learned from the Paris Olympic Games is for the Sports Ministry to host the National Sports Festival in Abuja rather than allow state governors mess up the essence of the competition which to discover athletes who would represent the country in major tournaments. After, all isn’t that the only competition they organised in the past before the festival was bastardised with its rotation around the country which has suffered several postponements due to lack of cash?

Not so in Nigeria where our athletes flaunt sworn- affidavits as their birthday records which all the time fail to stand the test of time. It takes at least two to three Olympic cycles to discover, nurture, and expose talents from the grassroots to stardom. So, when such a talent comes in with fraudulent sworn-affidavits as documents for their ages, it wouldn’t come as a surprise why such a talent won’t blossom. Sports isn’t rocket science? It also isn’t witchcraft.

Nigerians covered their faces in anguish as Ese Brume finished fifth in the women’s long jump event – one of the medals our officials counted for Nigeria before the Olympics. Shocked? Don’t be. Brume has been nursing an injury and wasn’t 100 per cent fit to win any medal. And it showed her performance. Pity.

Will Nigeria win a medal at the Olympics in Paris? You tell me.

August 10, 2024
The broken calabash

The air within sports circles in the country has been fouled. The stench emanating from the broken calabash is suffocating with stampede, arising from people clutching their nostrils while they search the surroundings for unpolluted areas for the breath of fresh air. As people ran for cover, having inhaled a high dosage of unhygienic air, the recurring question has been, who dun nit? Is anyone surprised that the Asians are atop the medals table? One of the benefits of hosting the 2008 Beijing Olympics. They are winning laurels in most of the events. Why won’t they? With some of the best facilities available to them, and popper training, the world will soon be at their feet.

It is the Olympic Games where the scorecards of all the sports federations, especially the Olympic sports, are being evaluated, including the face of the country on the international platforms; the Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC) is not exempted from the grading exercise. Pray, the time for buck passing beckons, people blame everyone else but themselves for a competition they knew about at least four years ago. Frankly speaking, a lot of people in the sports federations and the NOC have overstayed their welcome. They should be eased off if we truly want the desired change in the sports circles here.

Indeed, should Nigeria have attended the Olympic Games in Paris with an 84-member contingent? This writer was asked by a very senior gentleman at The Nation Newspapers on Sunday.

Yes, I politely responded, stating that there were qualification marks Olympic-bound athletes must attain before they could be registered to participate in the Olympic Games. Now, it is obvious that our representatives at the Olympics are not walking their pre-competition talk. Not unexpected with the kind of self-seeking administrators we have in the federations. Pity.

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What were we expecting from boxing, for instance, where the unsubstantiated allegation revealed that the contingent’s chief coach was dropped for allegedly leaking the story of unpaid allowances to the media? He was replaced by a man who served as sparring mate to the boxers. This writer won’t also comment about Cynthia Ogunsemilore’s failed drug test because she hasn’t been found guilty with her second sample still under scrutiny in the laboratory. What is clear from the boxing federation is that the boxers and officials went to Paris as a divided house with nothing to cheer. I hope not.

Basketball at the Olympics isn’t one of the sporting events that pundits expected much from Nigeria. Yet, our men and women have a way of upsetting the Applecart by beating some of the best basketball countries to raise hopes about the future. Why did the D’ Tigress beat the Opals of Australia in the opening game in Group C? They were only continuing the tradition of upsets at the multi-sports event. Unfortunately, the Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF) isn’t the one family of yore that worked for the good of the game. The members are acting like strange bedfellows with the future of the game highly threatened. One hopes that good sense prevails among the members so that they can harvest bountifully from the game, given the abundant talents available to the country in the 774 Local Government Areas (LGAs) in the country.

The Nigerian girls are WNBA-rated girls who have the pedigree and exposure to beat the Australians. Don’t forget that the Olympic Games are a leveller. A platform for upsets from new kids on the bloc eager to change the narratives of their respective sports. The Olympics isn’t a respecter for champions.

Table tennis is one of the best games in the country given the competitions played yearly in the country in the last two decades or more. It is easily the busiest sport locally which has produced potential world beaters in the male and female categories. Indeed, the table tennis federation has the best template which has continued to produce fantastic young kids who have represented the country creditably. But this idea of the experienced hands dominating the game needs to be discouraged.

August 3, 2024
Clapping for our opponents

I don’t envy the honourable Sports Minister Senator John Owan Enoh. The amiable politician would find out in the coming days the true picture of how well or how badly our Olympic Games’ bound sports federations have fared in the last four years.

Enoh would also find out that there is a distinct difference in fielding athletes who qualified early for the Olympics and those who went through several expeditions of qualifying competitions before they could make the cut-off points.

Enoh is in Paris to learn. He has done well by providing what the contingent reasonably wants. Kudos to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for releasing N12 billion to the 88-member contingent, another of Tinubu’s magic wands which ought to motivate the athletes to give their best during the competition.

Tinubu has shown that he is grounded in the act of motivating people. Sports has never had it so good – N12 billion for the Olympics? Please don’t wake me up until the medals start flying in. Not drug tainted medals o!

Indeed, after the Olympics, Enoh won’t want to see many of the cringing sports administrators who have been hovering around him like nectar on hibiscus. He would have been wiser, but won’t be able to do anything with the spilled milk. Enoh would, however, be able to correct some of the mistakes from the Paris Olympics by insisting that only goal-getters win the sports federations’ elections for a better tomorrow at the next Olympic Games in 2028.

What this means is that the minister would have realised that the latter groups (late qualifiers) are at the 2024 Olympic Games as also-ran athletes. Most of them struggled to make the games’ mark to survey the boutiques, perfume shops, telecommunications outlets and other merchandising outlets for shopping not to compete for honour for Nigeria – put simply they are in The French capital to ‘See Paris and die,’ as the jingo goes. These groups are in Paris to enjoy the very good French wines and meals since they can’t kill themselves to win medals for Nigeria, experts in fire brigade style of preparing for a competition whose date was known four years ago. They would constitute the crowd of failed athletes who would be clapping for Nigeria’s better prepared opponents who would be sweeping the laurels when pitched against us. They would be ones inferring that our athletes were robbed by the officiating personnel. Forgetting that the rules of all sports keep changing and the Olympic family can’t wait for snoring Nigerian officials to learn the new tricks of each game before utilising them at big sporting competitions.

Nigeria would continue to dance in circles at big tournaments except we learn how to host big sports competitions, going forward. The first benefit is that our infrastructures would be the latest supersonic brands in the market, not the rustic ones you find in dilapidated facilities across the country. Indeed, many young kids watching such competitions in Nigeria would be driven by what they see to embrace the sport. Our sports administrators’ penchant for competing only in foreign lands defeats the essence of sports development in a third-world nation such as ours.

Enoh would find out albeit very late that the country’s hopes at the Olympics would be those forerunners in their different sports such as Tobi Amusan, Efe Brume, and perhaps, a few others in wrestling, who would scale through the qualifiers. Indeed, the Olympic Games is a melting pot of sorts for sports – only good for the best sportsmen and women and also a platform for upsets for those countries who have used the last two Olympics in 2016 and 2020 to discover, nurture, and it is time to expose the new kids on the block at the big stage – the Olympic Games.

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The unwritten Olympic mantra is that it takes at least between two to three Olympic Games’ circles of four years to produce world beaters as athletes. Of course, the very exceptional ones take short circles. Anytime I listen to our sports administrators listing Amusan and Brume as potential medallists, my mind races back to Blessing Okagbare until she was caught in the drug web, thus ending her hitherto illustrious sprinting career. Okagbare had problems taking off out of her starter’s block in the 100 metres for women. Our administrators couldn’t get her a good coach to correct that flaw in her sprinting career.

Countries such as Jamaica and the USA would storm Paris ready to dethrone Amusan in the 110 metres women’s hurdles and Brume in the women’s long jump. They would have studied both girls’ tapes to exploit their flaws to clinch gold medals in both competitions they have dominated in previous Olympic Games. It is important to ask our administrators with experience in handling such matters if they got Amusan and Brume the coaches, doctors, dieticians, nutritionists, video analysts etc who kept a watch on likely contenders in these girls’ events. Or have they left them chasing the gold medal blindfolded as usual? We won’t accept any form of excuses if both athletes don’t enjoy the preferential treatment that top stars such as the former Jamaica’s world record 100 metres champion Usain Bolt enjoyed in his heydays.

Dear reader, I had the privilege of sitting close to the finishing line of the 100 metres final for men at the 2012 Olympics held in London and Bolt’s entrance into any event was memorable – simple, but noticeable even when the buzz around his presence has calmed down with his exit. I sat so close to the finishing line that I stood up to shake the champion who made the sprint race a delight to watch, in spite of his usual late outbursts from the starter’s block.

The bodyguards who accompanied Bolt gave him space which he exploited to salute his fans. He signed several things brought before him by his admirers without any hindrances. His appearance at spots at the Olympic venues in London didn’t cause any stampede. Rather, he came like whirlwind, but this time not scaring people with any dust or litters which accompany whirlwinds. Bolt knows how to take pictures with kids – lovely shots. Bolt was indeed athletics’ King Kong, apologies to fans’ other choices such as America’s Carl Lewis.

The Super Falcons were full of guts and gumption, but a 37th minute strike by Gabi Nunes separated the two-time Olympics silver medalists from the nine-time African champions as the Women’s Olympic Football Tournament got off to a nervy start on Thursday. The game ended 1-0 in Brazil’s favour. Such nail-biting results will characterise the outcome of Nigeria’s participation in the games. The finer edges of victory belong to those who did their homework between four and eight years ago. Not six months ago

I would rather Nigeria returns from Paris without any medal because it wouldn’t be happening for the first time than for our country’s image to be stained by cases of drug-popping athletes. I hope that the country’s doctors haven’t compromised standards for any reason. Nigeria won’t cease to become a sovereign country if our country’s sports ambassadors fail to get a medal in Paris.

Interestingly, Nigeria can beat her chest to say that Amusan, the country’s flag bearer to the Japan 2024 Olympic Games and Brume are sure medal hopefuls based on their pedigree. But, the Olympics is a different kettle of fish. It is the platform for new stars to emerge by beating the established orders.

As for this writer, I also wish to watch Amusan and Brume dancing on the medals podium with Nigeria’s national anthem played to celebrate their outstanding outings. I would be equally happy if our wrestlers could make a statement about their arrival in Paris by winning at least two gold medals, a silver and bronze medals.

July 27, 2024