Antelopes of Ethiopia in Calabar on November 16 a mere formality by beating the Ethiopians in Addis Ababa on October 13.
Beating the Ethiopians at home should be a piece of cake, given our players’ talents and exposure. The hosts are minnows in the game. They are renowned marathon runners, not footballers.
It is this edge that should count in the Eagles’ favour, only if they can jettison this silent clamour for a $10,000 instead of the $5,000 the Nigeria Football federation is offering.
A lot was said about what transpired in the team’s hotel, shortly after beating the Malawians last month in Calabar. Indeed, it was said that it took Emmanuel Emenike’s bluff of a purported revolt for others to accept the $5,000 offered by the federation.
After that encounter, it has been discussed in hush tones that another revolt was in the offing. In fact, NFF chiefs have seized every opportunity to reinstate the fact that they don’t have $10,000 to give any player. At least for now, some have added.
While this scenario played out, one waited to hear what the coaches’ views would be. I wasn’t, however, shocked listening to one of the coaches’ insistence that the players must be told what they would be paid now and not days to the game. The message sank. I knew where the problem emanated from.
How can coaches worth their onions be spearheading another revolt? Did it not occur to the coaches that those who led the protest also collected the $5,000 they vowed not to accept? How best can the players show that they understand what is happening after accepting $5000? Shouldn’t the coach concern himself with the team’s tactics and leave the welfare aspect for the administrators?
I had thought that the coaches would have been worried about their unpaid salaries, instead of stoking the fire for another bonus row. Or are we back to the era of the mafias, which many people predicted would be the lot of the Eagles when the current helmsmen of the Eagles were appointed?
The coaches must be told that Nigerians cannot be fooled anymore on this issue. It is about time the Eagles won matches for their fans. Any time the Eagles play badly, the nation mourns. When they win, the country is agog in massive celebrations. Many people have lost their lives in either setting.
No coach should hide under the cloak of asking for what the players would be paid as match bonuses to scuttle Nigerians’ quest for another World Cup appearance in Brazil in 2014. We have learnt our lessons after missing the Germany 2006 World Cup tournament.
It would have been more appropriate if the coaches’ representative had told the radio station in Lagos that he was being owed salaries. Asking the authorities to state what they would give even before the players arrive in the country gives an insight into what to expect. And I hope the NFF and the NSC know who to hold responsible should – God forbid – something goes wrong.
We are the laughing stock every time we wash our dirty linens in the public. We had a lot of these shameful acts under the current leadership in the Eagles. Coaches who are not pleased with what they earn can step aside.
The government rewarded the Eagles and the coaches for winning the Africa Cup of Nations with cash, plots of land and national honours. State governments queued up to reward them too. Of course, rich men and women dug deep into their pockets to splash cash and gifts on the players and coaches. So, how on earth will a coach return to this country and put so high a premium on seeking to know how much the players would be paid?
Is money all there is to life? Is cash the essence of the game? I dare say no. No.
Thumbs up NSC
Sports Minister Bolaji Abdullahi never ceases to amaze me with some of his welfare packages for ex-internationals. He embarks on these novel initiatives without making noise about them. We just wake up to read what he has done.
Again, in Benin City on Thursday, Abdullahi sent one of the big men at the National Sports Commission (NSC) Dr. Bolaji Ojo-Oba to give former Super Eagles defender Sunday Eboigbe N1 million.
Eboigbe has been down with stroke. He was brought to Lagos by the Lagos State governor Babatunde Raji Fashola. Eboigbe was treated and he thanked the governor for helping him out.
This writer is excited by Abdullahi’s gesture although many would say that he spent government cash. True, how many Sports Ministers have done what Abdullahi has done? Take a bow Bolaji, we in the fourth estate of the realm are proud of you.
My prayer is for God to keep Eboigbe alive to heal him. Like the Binis would say, Oba Khato Okpere, Ise.
