Tag: Nigeria Pitch Awards

Nigerian football is in crisis and it is there for all to see that there is no immediate solution in sight with the lingering tussle over the leadership of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) amidst fear of an imminent ban by the world soccer ruling body, FIFA.
Yet football promoter and founder of Nigeria Pitch Awards, Shina Phillips, pulls no punches about the unending imbroglio even as he made a clarion call on President Muhammadu Buhari (PMB) to broker a truce among the contending forces in this explosive interview with MORAKINYO ABODUNRIN. Excerpts…

How will you rate the Super Eagles’ scorecard and performance at the Russia 2018 World Cup?

The Super Eagles is a darling team to all Nigerians and no one can describe the affinity we have for the team even when they are under-performing. Unfortunately, it’s aching that over the last few years we have not been able to produce a team that could match our credential as a strong footballing nation. We should be the king of football in Africa; apart from Cameroon, Senegal and Ghana that have shown some magical stuff on the world stage, we have the talents to best everyone. We have to take our dominance as a superpower in African football to go out there and show that we can contest for the World Cup.  Russia 2018 was a dismal performance by the Super Eagles.  We thought we had built a team until we started getting bad results from late friendly matches. Reasons were given for that since we felt the payers were trying to avoid injuries but I knew we only had a team that could just participate in the World Cup and that has been the bane of the Super Eagles and, unfortunately, most African teams in recent times. We can’t see the justification in preparing and committing so many resources into our teams as compared to teams we have in Europe that have the strong mentality about winning the World Cup. Is anybody surprised that all the four semi-finalists of Russia 2018 are all European teams?  I’m not a pessimist, yet I wasn’t so optimistic that we had a team that can go as far as the quarter finals in Russia because we didn’t have that long-term plan to prepare a team that can win the World Cup. Preparations meet opportunity and I’ll say to the extent we prepared, we exited the World Cup in Russia. This is one World Cup that had showcased surprises; but our focus was that we just wanted to participate and ruffle few feathers. Only if we knew, we would at least play in the semi-finals. At this World Cup we have seen that preparation and determination helped the giant-killers.

In honesty, did you think the Super Eagles were going to win the World Cup in Russia?

Football is not a rocket science and there is nothing impossible or anything that suggested that the Super Eagles can’t win the World Cup with good preparation. With human determination, we can always achieve whatever we want to achieve; it takes determination to climb Mountain Everest and if we have such approach, there is nothing we can’t achieve. It takes just resolve and determination that we want to do it and I think as a brand, Nigeria can win the World Cup. We have proved it over the years at other levels with the U-17, U-20 and Olympics, so what’s stopping us from winning the real thing?  If we’d won the U-17 World Cup; got to the final of the U20 World Cup and won the Olympic Football Tournament, we can win the World Cup with solid developmental plans. There was no strong desire on the part of the payers and the coaching staff to win the World Cup at Russia 2018. It’s never too late to plan for the future and  it would be better  if we can identify the crop of players that can help our course in order to achieve this objective of winning the World Cup. If we’d prepared well, there was nothing stopping us from getting to the semi-finals of Russia 2018 because this was one of the most open World Cup in recent years.  If we have the right players, coaching crew and the administrators are ready to invest on long-time plans, there is nothing stopping us. If we have a common goal from the presidency to the ordinary man on the street and plan well to do achieve it, we can win the World Cup. But that plan has to start from now and I bet you, in three years’ time we would have been able to build a team that will be strong enough to compete against the rest of the world.   At this level of our development, we should not be running from playing the grade A matches that would expose our players to the required standard and level of the top footballing nations. It took eight years for the German team that won in 2014 and having the right psychological frame of mind, we are going to see very soon how they’ll respond to their set back in Russia. If we have well-laid plans and infuse the team together, we would be on the right path; and that, as we can see, took all the four teams to the semi-finals of Russia 2018 even without a magical player as was in the case of Portugal with Ronaldo or Argentina with Messi or even Brazil with Neymar. We can borrow from their templates and build a formidable team for the future.  We still have to look inwards to our domestic league and find the players that can contribute well to this task.

How can there be development and growth of the game under the prevailing chaotic environment?

What chaotic environment are we talking about? Who says the Brazilian, Argentine, Colombian and even the European environments are not chaotic?  We have South American countries that are having it tough in terms of governance and economics yet they are pulling their weight. The reason why things are not working in this country is that we are unpatriotic people and how do you expect such people to give their best in area of sports and even in other facets of our national life?  Once you don’t have love for the country, it’s going to be difficult to die for the country.  I think that’s why an American president said ‘think about what you can do for your country but not what your country can do for you’ and until we have such attitude, it would be difficult for us to make headway.  Of course, administration has been seen as what has bedevilled the development and growth of the game in the country.  But there are bound to be rancour when you have minds that are just political and not patriotic. At the risk of being accused of taking side about what is currently going on, I think Amaju Pinnick is a man with a vision and of course there is nothing wrong that he has an ambition but a lot of people think his ambition is overriding his vision for Nigerian football. I think it’s difficult for anybody to sacrifice all his contacts, which is like social capital for the benefits of the nation, and I’m talking in respect of the sponsors and supporters that the Pinnick-led NFF board has brought for the good of the game; it’s not enough for him to bring the sponsors but he also needs the enabling environment. One thing that is difficult for us in Africa is how to understand, embrace and translate the vision of leaders. Perhaps, Amaju Pinnick’s vision has not been well articulated to some of his followers and because we are in an environment riddled with crisis, things don’t go the right way.

So, how do we get out of this trouble spot especially now when there are cases in court and the NFF seems not to be in control of anybody?

Frankly, the only solution in sight is for President Muhammadu Buhari to step into this crisis as the father of the nation.  It’s not enough for him to have some certain people as his eyes and I think it’s about time he called on the stakeholders to a meeting in order to fashion out ways out of this unfortunate crisis.  It will be good for him to feel the pause of the segment that brings glory to the country. Nigerians’ love for football was there for all to see on the day we beat Iceland because a country that had been in gloom suddenly burst into life.  It would be to the advantage of a sitting president if he can look at that facet of our national life and put an end to the crisis. By calling the stakeholders, he would be calling all Nigerians because we all love our football. PMB is a kind of person that everybody would be in awe at his presence and in that case, the truth will surface and we can move from there. The problem largely is our capacity and inability to manage this crisis and I think everybody is not enmeshed in this crisis in the football house, as such we have knowledgeable people outside the football stakeholders that can offer the blueprint and panacea that can take our football to the next level. All PMB needs are technocrats that he can sit down with in order to resolve the issues on ground.

How do we stop this tussle over the NFF’s leadership which has been a recurring problem every four years since 2006?

Frankly, something is fundamentally wrong with the electioneering process that we need to address. That thing that is wrong must be identified and uprooted.

(Cuts in) What do you think is wrong?

I think it is selfish interest of some people over our collective aspiration as a people that has been the problem with the NFF over the years. Every responsible organisation must have an opening for disagreement or disagreement that would lead to agreement when there are genuine motives and love for the game rather than selfish and vested interests. The first step is to identify those vested interests and if President Buhari can call up these vested interests to the round table for honest discussion, we would be on our way to resolving this crisis.  Over the years, these vested interests have metamorphosed into camps and as time goes on, these camps began to fight one another and that is what is happening right now. So, we need to go to the roots and not look at the effects. Those vested interests are people who feel they should not be undermined; they are people who feel they should enthrone and as we all know when there is a clash of the titans, the ordinary man suffers and in this case our football will suffer greatly.

Where do we go from here?

It’s simple and as I said earlier, it’s only President Muhammadu Buhari that cam resolve this crisis.  Regardless of the present situation in the country, President Buhari is highly revered and feared by all. I think he’s in the best position to stop this charade. In his presence, the stakeholders are bound to speak the truth that will end this crisis.  He’s one leader I think nobody would want to insult; he has the aura and I pray he rubs that on our football and brings an end to this unfortunate crisis. With due respect, the Sport Minister (Barr. Solomon Dalung) should also be involved and come out to say all that he knows but, ultimately, it’s President Buhari that holds the ace to end this crisis.  Since the next election is just two months away, I think anybody who wants to run should be allowed and the election should be conducted in the presence of observers from FIFA, CAF and the Presidency and be televised live to Nigerians.

You are a major stakeholder too, how does the politicking in NFF affect your own business?

I have been involved in football business since the 1990s and I had the privilege of making a major transfer from Julius Berger during the time of the late Chief Daniel Idama. And when he saw the transparent manner I handled the job, he said ‘you are not a ‘biribiri’ (fraudulent) agent and he asked me to kneel down to pray for my continuous success in the business. That is indeed memorable for me. Over the years, I have also worked with the NFF in a very transparent and strictly professional manner so that I don’t have problem with who is ever in charge at the Glass House.  I have a track record of doing things the right way and I’m good whether a new king comes in or not, it doesn’t affect my business. I make sure I go through the required due process to get things done at the NFF and in that way there is no conflict with the way I run my business because everything is done in a transparent manner. In 2011, I partnered with the NFF to ensure that FIFA rescinded its decision of not allowing Nigerians to write its agency exams and it was at my behest that this was possible. I actually initiated the plans in 2009 and followed it up for almost two years before I got the approval and that shows I don’t cut corners in my dealings with the NFF.  My style is always to apply the Biblical principle that if you want something, ask for it and if need be, I also apply the pressure marketing that is obtainable in the banking sector in order to get what I want. With the success of the international workshop and training and re-training of agents, FIFA lifted its embargo on its exams in Nigeria. Afterwards, I also felt there was need to applaud the success of our footballers and I came up with   the Nigeria Pitch Awards which I defended in front of all the board members at the instance of the late Deji Tinubu who was then the head of the NFF’s marketing committee. We thank God for the success of the Nigeria Pitch Awards over the last six years.

In conclusion, doing the right thing and in a transparent manner does not affect my business with the NFF.

Organisers of the inaugural edition of the Nigeria Pitch Awards, endorsed by the Nigeria Football Federation, have disclosed that the voting and nomination process is in the final stages.

Speaking in Lagos on Monday, Chief Executive of Matchmakers Consult International Limited, Mr. Shina Philips, said the process, which began on 17th October, is directly handled by BDO Professional

Services. BDO International is the fifth-largest accountancy network in the world, a worldwide professional services network of public accountancy firms, serving national and international clients.

He added: “A hundred nomination forms were sent out to one hundred respondents spread across the thirty six states of the federation. Over seventy per cent of the respondents are sports media personalities. The rest are made up of football administrators, coaches, ex-national internationals and supporters of football.

“There is at least one voter in each state of the federation. In addition, the forms were safely delivered by the Independent Nomination Collation Body. We are pleased with the responses we have received so far. This is a very clear indication that Nigerians are excited about the award.”

The Nigeria Pitch Awards, the first-ever Nigeria Football Awards to be endorsed by the Nigeria Football Federation, will honour actors in all departments on the pitch of play, as well as referees, coaches, administrators, managers, players’ agents, sponsors and football-friendly State governments.

The inaugural edition is billed for Calabar, capital of Cross River State on Saturday, 16th November, 2013 – hours after the Super Eagles’ final 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifying match against the Walya Antelopes of Ethiopia in the same city.