Melvin Amaju Pinnick, NFF’s president, was startled that I stayed away from the crowd at the Onikan Stadium, Lagos, after the unveiling of Sunday Oliseh as the Super Eagles coach when my colleagues were flashing their business cards and taking the coach’s numbers.
Pinnick felt I wasn’t sure if Oliseh would attack me after the kind of questions I asked him at the interactive session. The NFF President insisted that I worked with Oliseh since he was now a mature person. I pleaded with Pinnick that I was only meditating. Not convinced he offered to give me Oliseh’s numbers. I looked away as Pinnick was surfing his phones for Oliseh’s numbers.
Vintage Pinnick, he retorted: “Ade something dey under this silence. Abi, you and Oliseh get wahala bifor? But, Oliseh no show say e know you bifor because I ask am when you ask your questions that jolted us all? Ade, tell me wetin happen make we resolve am. Oliseh na nice guy, walahi.” I smiled and pleaded that my decision be respected. Pinnick walked away.
Indeed, during the Vincent Enyeama and Oliseh brouhaha, I called Pinnick to seek his views on the matter. He talked a while and gave the phone to Oliseh, who stated his side of the story. And I went to town with all the sides. Trust me, I seized the opportunity to get more exclusives.
Ten minutes later, Pinnick called. “Ade na wa for you sef. You just wan get exclusives. You and Oliseh no yan at all pass tori for your papers. I come ask Oliseh if e know you but he no fit figure who you be. I go give you all him numbers make una dey for the yan. Na good person. Mature.”
I laughed aloud and told Pinnick that the leopard cannot change its spot. He understood and dropped the phone, knowing that I would do justice to the stories, having also spoken with Enyeama, who again couldn’t figure out who I was.
I have never had an encounter with Oliseh but I didn’t enjoy how he treated people dismissively. I reckoned it was his style and always kept my distance.
When I heard his outbursts on Youtube last Sunday, I wasn’t shocked. He only acted to type. As far as he was concerned, the calabash must been broken, so that its content are emptied with its foul smell- no matter whose ox is gored. But Oliseh wasn’t man enough to announce his resignation. And I wonder how he intends to work with people he has maligned.
My take on Oliseh’s childish rant is that he feels that the money may have been released to the NFF and someone was deliberately holding on to it. He reckoned that throwing down the gauntlet would stop the trend. What Oliseh didn’t consider was that the Buhari administration isn’t one to pander to the tantrums of sports men and women, including their coaches, like the Jonathan government did several times. This new administration is meticulous and knows what approvals have been done and would turn the blind eye to frivolities like the Oliseh rants.
I’m not surprised that Oliseh has apologised. He may have realised that the lack of cash at the NFF wasn’t because someone kept it in his accounts to yield dividends. Rather, the new government is careful to stop the leakages in the system.
I hope Oliseh will be courageous to name the journalists who came to him to pay them to publish good stories. No media person would seek financial aid from the Super Eagles coach, who is always in the news for the right and wrong reasons. Besides, Super Eagles have a credible media officer, Toyin Ibitoye, who picks his calls – no matter how late. Indeed, Oliseh helps the journalists with his posts about his movement on the new media, making it easy for journalists to do stories on him, for anything else to balance their reports. I therefore challenge Oliseh to name those who asked him for cash.
Now that Oliseh’s apology has been accepted by the NFF, what would he be telling his backroom staff, some of whom he accused of being witches and wizards? Will Oliseh ban his lieutenants from putting their hands inside their pockets for fear of avoiding being hyponotised? Why does Oliseh want the Eagles to play in Port Harcourt again? Did he not say that he contracted virus from staying in Port Harcourt and Abuja? Will Oliseh have the face to confront Governor Nyesom Wike after his virus claim? Again, will Oliseh blame anyone if the fans in Kaduna boo him during his stay in Kaduna, after his objection to the Super Eagles playing against Egypt in the city? I hope Oliseh isn’t losing his popularity with soccer crazy Nigerians.
Oliseh isn’t mature. And it is evident by his recant on utterances that he willingly posted on YouTube. Nobody will take him seriously. He has lost face with his employers, who would be wary of him. I digress!
It is easy for critics of the NFF to ask what marketing initiatives the body has to generate cash to run its activities. What most critics lose sight of is that we have 11 national soccer teams across the genders, such as Super Eagles, CHAN Eagles, Dream Team VI for the Olympics, Flying Eagles, Golden Eaglets and Sand Eagles for the men. The boys have the U-13 and U-15 categories.
The women national teams include Super Falcons, Falconents and Flamingoes. Most times, at least two of them prosecute tournaments about the same time that you wonder if we shouldn’t streamline the competitions that we attend. But the flipside to this question is what the players of the dropped team would be doing beyond kicking the ball within their localities? If you look at the performances of the 11 national teams, it would be difficult to drop any of the three female teams because they are better rated than all the male teams, except the Golden Eaglets, who have won the U-17 World Cup five times.
Will it be right to drop the biggest brand in the Nigerian market, the Super Eagles? I don’t think so because graduates of our age grade teams need to find expression of their talents with their mates in other climes playing for the country’s senior team at the FIFA World Cup. The Dream Team side has been Olympic champions in 1996 in Georgia, Atlanta and runners-up in 2008 in Beijing. The U-20 side has been many times African champions and finalists at the U-20 World Cup in 1989 (Damman Miracle) and Holland 2005.
Would it be right, therefore, to scrap the Sand Eagles? I don’t think so because they have been to two Beach Soccer World Cups like the Super Eagles. It is instructive to say that this team achieved their feats without having a league series in the country.
So, how much does the NFF need to run football with these 11 teams? Of the 11, only the Super Eagles are marketable. The rest don’t pull the fans to the stadium like the Eagles. Nigerians adore the Super Eagles more than others, although they sit up late to watch them when they are winning games. Yet, their preference is the Super Eagles.
Only telecommunication giants Globacom has been consistent in bankrolling our soccer teams. Several attempts have been made to get sponsors by both the government and public spirited people. Nothing has come out of such an exercise simply because private sector operators would like to know what is in sports sponsorship for them to leverage their goods and services.
Now that we have forgiven Oliseh, we need to review some of the clauses in his contract that gave him the impression that he is untouchable. Asking coaches to rub minds with technical bodies is not a Nigerian concept. It is a way of helping the coaches to resolve some knotty issues with the team. Such a coach is at liberty to accept or reject such suggestions, since the buck stops on his table.
Besides, it is about time the sports minister included the salaries of coaches in the National Sports Commission (NSC) staff salary vouchers. That way, it would be easier for the coaches to appreciate the enormity of the changes introduced by the Buhari administration. It is obvious that NFF cannot find the cash to fund 11 national teams adequately. And it appears that we are scared to prune the teams to a manageable size because of the popularity of soccer in Nigeria.
Oliseh’s grouse with his employers stems from lack of funding. Once we can develop a system where our coaches’ wages are duly paid, the furore of the last 12 days won’t happen.
Even if the NFF gets a N10 billion yearly sponsorship package, it won’t solve the problem of funding when one game involving the Super Eagles, for instance, costs close to N70 million. The reason is that the Eagles and those teams with foreign-based players are paid in foreign currencies. Multiply $5,000, which is the least amount paid for winning matches to the players, by 23 and the number of matches the Super Eagles will play. Won’t this make N10 billion otiose?
Camping of Super Eagles players in high brow hotels is standard, especially for security purposes. Besides, these boys are rich and are exposed to such exquisite treatments in their clubs. They cannot settle for less with Nigeria. Sadly, the value of the naira to foreign currencies leaves much to be desired.
The NFF must learn to meet its obligations to the coaches and players. Yet, both parties should always remember the rosy periods and learn to bear with their employers when things go awry as they often would.
