It’s Saint Valentine Day. It’s Lover’s Day. No celebration because I will be remembering my son Oloruntoba Falode, who was killed in Dubai in one of the most bizarre circumstances on February 15. My son, you must be wondering? Oloruntoba Falode is Aisha Falode’s son who was pushed down from a 17-storey building in the aftermath of last year’s Valentine Day.
Sad to think it is already one year with no trace of Oloruntoba’s killers. But on Sunday (February 15), I will attend the special one year thanksgiving/remembrance service for Toba at trinity House, Zion Centre, Water Corporation Road, off Ligali Ayorinde Street, Oniru beach Area from 9.30 am. I’m still in shock even though it is over a year since Toba’s demise. I hope I can find the courage to meet with Toba’s mother’s Aisha. Take heart Aisha. Toba is in safe hands and resting in perfect peace. I digress!
Most of our players and indeed coaches think they are doing us a favour by playing for the country. The players reckon that they are leaving their European clubs which have better match bonuses to play for the country for pittance, which is what the $5,000 or $10,000 they get amounts to. Many would have dumped the Super Eagles for their European clubs but for the international clause which makes it mandatory for them to have played at least 75 per cent of their national team’s matches to qualify for a new deal.
Eagles have been tottering because most of the players are no longer motivated to give their best. Many of them have been through two World Cups; others three. These groups have won the Africa Cup of Nations, played in the semi-finals and have at least two bronze medals in their wardrobes from third-place finishing at previous Africa Cup of Nations.
As for the coaches, they have seen it all for club and country. They feel that the country is perpetually indebted to them, simply because they played football in their youthful days. How about the other athletes? What of the soldiers who get killed defending the country? What of the policemen and women who get killed by bandits in their duty posts?
What our players fail to understand is that most of them rose to stardom using our national teams. Rather than damage the podium through heart-wrenching performance, isn’t it advisable that they bow out honourably?
Indeed, it is about time chieftains of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) planned send forth matches for our ageing stars. It is ridiculous and unfair that stars, such as the late Rashidi Yekini, Stephen Keshi, Sunday Oliseh et al were not pulled out of the national team with pomp and ceremony, given their awesome contributions to the game. It is also laughable that the ceremony designed to send forth Austin Jay Jay Okocha from the Super Eagles turned out to be a water polo game than a soccer match because of the waterlogged pitch at the Warri Stadium.
Except we celebrate our stars through such send forth games, those deserving of such a ceremony would remain in the Eagles, not to contribute but to influence the younger players. These long-serving players are the ones who introduce the bad things of the past into the team. Truth be told, Eagles are perpetually enmeshed in crises because of the “landlords,” who remain in the team because of their past contributions, not what they exhibit now.
Except we clear the Eagles deck of its rot, nothing enduring would be achieved. We must punish those who held us hostage at the Brazil 2014 World Cup. It is the only way that we can show them and indeed others that what they did was unacceptable. The bane of the Eagles is indiscipline. They are quick to protest for reasons that bother on a systemic failure. The leaders of these crises should know now that things cannot change. So, if they must be members of the Eagles, they should be made to sign codes of conduct to guide their activities in camp, just as it is done in their European clubs.
The NFF must offer what it can easily afford than playing to the gallery. It is foolhardy to tell the players that they would be paid $10,000 each for matches won and later pay $5,000. And the only way the players/NFF feud can be resolved is for the Glasshouse chiefs to disclose the details of the Code of Conduct to Nigerians. This way, it will be easy to apportion blames during crises.
Nigeria is blessed with talents at the grassroots. The problem starts with having the template to fish out the players through competitions and training programmes. It is through such programmes that games masters are trained to teach the kids the right way to play games not only soccer. With such awareness around the country, it becomes expedient for the NFF through the state FAs to have data bases for the players discovered. Those exceptional ones can be nurtured and exposed to all the national teams.
We have wasted seven months since our exit from the 2014 World Cup trying to find out what went wrong with the Eagles in Brazil. The government chose the wrong option by hounding the last NFF President, Aminu Maigari, out of office. The fallout of that decision massively impacted on how the Eagles prosecuted the qualifiers for the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations, which the Elephants of Cote d’ Ivoire lifted in Malabo on Sunday night by beating Black Stars of Ghana 9-8 on penalties after the 120 minutes encounter.
Seven months on, nothing has changed for the Eagles, with no one sure of the next man to handle the team for the friendly games in March. NFF’s Technical Committee boss Felix Anyansi Agwu told the media in Abuja on Tuesday that he body recommended the retention of Stephen Keshi as the chief coach. But the Big Boss said he had not been spoken to about the decision – as at Tuesday.
Agwu ought to have told us if the contract with Keshi is a continuation of the N5 million monthly salary or the improved one of N7 million, which was paid to the coach by Sports Minister Tammy Danagogo? Agwu should have told us the duration of the contract. Will NFF go ahead with its plan of a pay cut for Keshi since the team isn’t busy now? How will the coaches’ salaries be paid? He should have told us these – and more.
Whispers from the Glasshouse suggest that Keshi won’t be given a freehand to run the team, like in the past, as he would have to work in tandem with the NFF Technical Committee. Again, Keshi won’t pick his lieutenants. He will work with assistant coaches picked by his employers. These are very tough conditions. Will Keshi accept the offer?
My suggestion to the NFF is for them to give Keshi the job since they are stuck to him but all our age-grade coaches should serve as his assistants. Keshi won’t frown at the decision to work with Samson Siasia as his assistant coach. Garba Manu will be the second assistant coach. Emmanuel Amuneke should also be in the Eagles’ technical crew since he monitors the youth in our domestic league. A quartet of coaches – Keshi, Siasia, Manu and Amuneke – is one many African countries don’t have. They excelled as Eagles stars and played the game at the highest level, especially Amuneke who played for Barcelona. What this setting does for all our national teams is that the coaching techniques will be the same and it will be easier for the Eagles to fill gaps noticed in the team, using the exceptionally good players in the age-grade teams.
An Eagles bench that has Keshi, Siasia, Amuneke and Manu putting heads together will get results. I also think that Keshi will not discard suggestions from Siasia and/or Manu in the course of matches since he knows their level of competence.
There won’t be any leadership tussle under this arrangement because everyone has his team. What happens is that if the Eagles have a competition and the others are not busy, they will join Keshi in preparing the team. The essence of this arrangement is that the Eagles need a player in any position, Siasia and Manu will contact the player(s) who can fill that position at short notice.
Nigeria is the only country where the senior national team is not measured by the number of domestic league players in it. This doesn’t encourage growth since the exceptional players in the domestic game fall easily for slavish contracts from shylock agents, all in the name of being tagged foreign-based players.
In the event that any of the coaches isn’t comfortable with the arrangement, the NFF should wield the big stick because they are in the national team jobs because of their pedigree as ex-internationals, not because they are not eminently qualified to hold such exalted positions. None of them has a UEFA Grade A licence, which they could acquire if they truly want to be professional coaches. NFF could enroll them for the course and ensure that they complete.
The Eagles need a thinking bench not a docile one from which the players cannot draw inspiration when a game is going awry. A thinking bench is never bereft of ideas to unlock any stubborn opposition.
Nigeria is the only country without a home ground for its national teams. This idea of playing our matches around the country is good, but it doesn’t give our players the home advantage which other countries’ players enjoy when they play in front of their nationals.
One of the things that worked against the Eagles in grabbing the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations’ qualification was the frequent change in venues. When the Eagles made the UJ Esuene Stadium in Calabar home, they never lost a game. The Eagles may have lost to Congo DR at home in the one of the games of the qualification series, but that wasn’t enough reason for the change of venue because that defeat was the fallout of the coach’s clash with the officials of the former NFF, who boycotted the game. Are we set for our dream Super Eagles?
