Tag: FIFA U-20 World Cup

Suddenly, it has dawned on those who make the decisions concerning our football to drop the serial coach of the country’s U-20 side, the Flying Eagles, for another tactician who has qualified the team for the FIFA U-20 World Cup. This hitherto unsung coach in qualifying for the World Cup beat the defending champions of the Africa leg of the competition, Senegal, on penalty kicks 3-1 after a barren 120 minutes draw. A breath of fresh air, many people have said. But the reason one has refused to join the bandwagon of celebrating fans is the thought of the players’ true ages. This has been the albatross of the beautiful game in Nigeria.

Yes, I’m not the players’ parent or guardian to authenticate their ages, but it would help the country’s football in leaps and bounds if we make it our mantra to always parade players with the correct ages – in this case, secondary schools and those being nurtured by credible football academies. It would be foolhardy if any of these players’ age verification documents were sworn affidavits, otherwise known as “Oluwole” in sports circles here.

Any player who produces sworn affidavits as his age certificate should be screened out of the team. Any child born in the last 25 years in Nigeria ought to have an authentic birth certificate,  or those screening the players should insist on the birth certificate. Perhaps, track the players’ ages from their educational background. With a population of over 200 million people living in the 774 Local Government Areas of the country, it is only fair to state here that one of the reasons our football is in a coma rests largely with the dearth of nurseries here. For Nigeria to reinvent its dominance of the beautiful game globally, our football chieftains must eschew the must-win approach to competitions by not encouraging or casting an indulgent eye on our coaches who cheat by picking over-aged players in their squads. This has been the death knell of the beautiful game here.

Nigeria shouldn’t win all the competitions she enrols for, though that is usually the essence of participating. But at the age grade tournaments, whose priority is to discover, nurture and expose budding talents in the country, it is important to deemphasise victories but embrace the big picture of releasing young and trainable boys and girls for the game’s good.

It is disturbing to note that despite all the FIFA U-17 World Cup Nigeria has won. The Atlanta’96 Olympic Games gold medal in the soccer event, we haven’t been able to qualify for the quarter finals of the senior World Cup, which was what Senegal achieved in her debut outing at the Korea/Japan 2002 World Cup which Brazil lifted.

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What am I saying? What made Principal Cup tick back in the years were those school boys who played for our domestic league clubs in the country. They brought the rivalry and stiff competition for first team shirts in these clubs to the Principal Cup which made it very exciting for fans who aligned with the schools-based on their club preferences. That is, if their Alma Mater wasn’t among the competing teams. Such school boys as Henry Nwosu, Haruna Ilerika, Tarila Okoronwanta, late Stephen Keshi, Sam Okpodu, Clement Temile, Davidson Owumi, Edema Fuludu, Friday ‘Elastic’ Elahor, Daniel Amokachi, Yakubu Ayegbeni, Sunday Edema Benson, the late Wilfred Agbonibvare, Ikponwosa Omoregie, Baldwin Bazuaye, Humphrey Edobor, etc.

What this striking relationship with the schools brought to the fore was connections among the fans. I wept literarily watching the absolutely poor display of the Flying Eagles against their South African counterparts. The docile atmosphere around the place where I sat to watch the game explained the disconnect between the team and Nigerians, as many people didn’t know their sports stars. A few of the fans were miffed about the calibre of players Nigeria fielded, with many of them vowing that this squad wouldn’t beat boys of their age in many parts of Lagos and its environs. Indeed, the South Africans were not good. But the Flying Eagles were hopeless with what they displayed throughout the game on Thursday.

Nigeria can produce 200 different sets of U-20 players across the nation, but their innate skills need to be harnessed properly by knowledgeable coaches with the pedigree of grooming boys at that level to trophies. This idea of rotating coaches within the country by way of balancing the quota system is ruinous. This is the difference between our national teams at all levels and genders and those nations that keep on winning soccer competitions.

It isn’t too late to draft a competent technical crew for the Flying Eagles, irrespective of the sentiments of allowing the coach who qualified the squad members to enjoy the fruits of their labour to play at the FIFA U-20 competition. Ordinarily, the U-20 boys should be drawn from recognised soccer academies who are products of the NFF’s youth football ecosystem,, not what we have now. Bad coaching makes good and talented players look ordinary.

Being a good player for the domestic teams and/or playing the game at the highest levels in Europe doesn’t translate to being a coach. You must have enviable coaching credentials and track records of producing teams that play fluid, exciting soccer with boys who score goals with aplomb. Not former games masters. Time was when YSFON served as the template for discovering, nurturing and exposing youth players to the world through different age groups around the country. In fact, YSFON’s exposed kids through such tournaments as the Gothia Cup of yore formed the bulk of those Golden Eaglets players, or should I call them kids who won the FIFA U-16 World Championship trophy in 1985 in China. Nigeria won the inaugural FIFA U-16 World Championship, held in China, in 1985. They defeated West Germany 2-0 in the final with Victor Igbinoba scoring a spectacular long-range shot.

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

The serious-minded soccer nations expose players from academies who also have the template to monitor those who did well and have juicy packages in big clubs in Europe, the Americas and the Diaspora. These academies ensure that the players’ career paths are cut to fit their ambitions. Those of them eager to combine playing soccer with going to school are enrolled to be educated. They also have drawn up training schedules to suit their schools’ curriculum, knowing the importance of education when their career as soccer players are over. Nothing happens in such countries by accident.

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