I sat through Lobi Stars’ 1-0 loss to Wydad FC inside the Nnamdi Azikiwe Stadium in Enugu last week with an open mind. I wanted to spot good players in Lobi on who I could challenge Super Eagles’ manager Gernot Rohr when he picks the players for the two matches against Seychelles on March 23 and against Egypt (an international friendly game) on March 26 inside the late Stephen Keshi Stadium in Asaba.
I wanted to see how playing the game under the scorching sun will affect the visitors more than Lobi players, who incidentally were playing outside their state. The ding-dong nature of the game was not surprising because the fans, who usually should be the unseen 12th man on the field were indifferent, preferring to watch the game without showing emotions.
The Benue State Government should carry the can for not providing the facilities for Lobi to feel at home when playing. Let’s not estimate the revenue that the state has lost from these games. Why sponsor a team when you cannot meet all its demands, dear governor? Mr governor, Enugu Rangers are truly at home during their matches because they play their matches on their ground, with their supporters rooting for them, unlike your team.
So, when the match referee signalled for a penalty kick against Lobi, I watched out for the Nigerian players’ reaction to the referee, keeping another eye on the Lobi bench to see if their officials will storm onto the pitch or turn their faces towards the crowd to incite them into protesting. They watched in awe, knowing the implication of any untoward action. The Nigerians’ reaction to the second penalty decision, even though the kick was lost, wasn’t different from the first. It showed that they knew the rules and accepted their fate with equanimity.
Two penalty kicks awarded against Lobi, and no one went close to the referee to protest? If the referee had done that to any of our NPFL teams, he will be recuperating in the hospital now, with the game postponed until the referees’ reports come. Yet, at the continental platform, these same irritants obey the laws. Why? They know that NPFL organisers are toothless; easily compromised. What a country.
Ironically, Wydad players tried to roughen the referee, who didn’t take any action, knowing that such tantrums will be in his report to CAF. The live telecast of the game compels the match officials to report everything to be in sync with what is the recorded match tapes. Those Wydad players who tried to bully the referee will be punished in the next three weeks. If the referee doesn’t note the incidents, the match commissioner and independent assessor must include them in their reports because it forms part of the duties in the game. Please, don’t ask me what happens in the Nigerian situation.
My thoughts ran wild when I tried to imagine what would have befallen the referee for having the temerity to award two penalty kicks against the home team, with one of the resultant kicks deciding the match. In my agitated state, one reckoned that the game would have ended with the second penalty awarded. Perhaps, the referee wouldn’t have had the gut to sound the whistle for the second penalty, having been bathed with sachets of pure water and pelted with stones from the stands.
The referee would have been kicked around the pitch. He would run into the mob which would have scaled the perimeter fence in the stadium to unleash mayhem. Since there is no effective video coverage, more so when the home team’s recording becomes the only document, it is easy for thugs go berserk. Of course, the visiting team’s video recording is the first document the urchins destroy, knowing that theirs will be doctored to exclude the troubling scenes.
With such distorted document, justice can’t be dispensed. It will shock many readers to hear that some battered referees don’t report such battery in their reports, having been settled. But with recorded video from live telecasts of games, the referees won’t lie on tape, like the say in law. The organisers should get the game back on television, even if it means getting state government owned stations and the private ones to beam games within their locality to cut costs. The benefits of beaming matches live are overwhelming.
One wonders what the organisers show to prospecting firms willing to do business with them? Would it not have been better showing them recorded programmes of the league to appreciate what they stand to gain in a partnership? Will firms be excited to associate their brands with the game when the benefits of such unions are not documented? I’m sure the organisers dare not show games where referees are battered. They also won’t show videos of crowd violence with fans running through teargas.
No fan will dare beat up a referee or cause a breach of public peace, when he knows that the game is live on television and he could easily be spotted by the law enforcement agencies. Match officials will be empowered to interpret the rules of the game when they know that their safety is guaranteed. They also won’t want to misbehave.
If you watch the European leagues, you will notice that the boards within the inner perimeters of the match venues run advertorials of firms which support the game for both the clubs and the organisers. The mileage from such sponsorships is better imagined than illustrated here. A lot of commercial activities go on around the stadium before, during and after games, which invariably improve the finances of the clubs and the organisers.
The organisers need to do a lot to improve the game. They must pay attention to details, such as the grass on the pitches and the quality of equipment used by officials. It was a disgraceful citation for the domestic league watching one of the assistant referees in the game between Heartland FC of Owerri and Kada FC of Kaduna inside the Okigwe Stadium using cardboard paper instead of an electronic gadget to do the substitution of players.
The crowd at the Okigwe stadium was unprecedented but the ugly scenes of watching the reserve referee lifting the cardboard to indicate the need for a change of player on either side, instead of an electronic board, with every substitution, was quite disgusting for a country that has participated in six senior World Cup competitions, since her debut at the USA’94 World Cup. It was laughable watching the reserve referee hurrying to clean off the number of one player replaced for the other. It wasted precious time. How much is the electronic gadget? Can’t the organisers buy these gadgets and give to the state football federations to use during matches?
The myriad of unpleasant stories from the league venues are shameful, especially the ones in which the visiting teams are stopped from training on the match turf, a day before the game. I wonder the type of training the officials get from the NPFL, if what is due the visiting teams are taken from them through sinister methods. The NPFL chiefs should school the state football chieftains on the rules of the game. Visiting teams must train at the match venue 24 hours before the game. They are also allowed to train in the morning of the game. This untoward method of making the visitors play on the pitch on match days only is condemnable. It is just a game, not warfare, more so when the hosts today will be visitors in the next game.
If the league had been effectively run, the pool of players for our national teams would have been easy to assemble, since they will be picked based on their performance during matches. Most of our top stars in the past were selected from the domestic competitions. After all, 80 per cent of the players Clemens Westerhof used to make Nigeria great were from the league centres across the country. It is on record that George Finidi played for Calabar Rovers one weekend only to star for Ajax Amsterdam FC of Holland the next week in the Dutch league.
Domestic league players Westerhof used for the Eagles’ matches were known faces based on their performances. The late Stephen Keshi, the late Rashidi Yekini, the late Uche Okafor, Uche Okechukwu, Daniel Amokachi, Friday Elaho, Samson Siasia, Peter Rufai, Austin Eguavoen, Ben Iroha, Edema Fuludu et al didn’t start playing for Nigeria as foreign-based.
We had a league which identified good players, who were rewarded. All that is gone because our organisers are interested in being members of FIFA, CAF etc committees with the game dying here. It suits some of the league organisers to be match commissioners in the finals of one CAF’s inter-club matches than having a Nigerian side play in such events.
The last time a Nigeria side, Dolphins FC of Port Harcourt, played in any of CAF’s inter-club finals was in 2005 against FAR of Morocco. Dolphin won at home 1-0 and lost the second leg 3-0. Fourteen years after, NPFL chieftains are unperturbed. They would rather be outside this country than remain here to monitor how our teams are faring in the continent. Segun Odegbami, the late Muda Lawal, Adokie Amiesimaka, Christian Chukwu, Kadiri Ikhana, Bright Omokaro, Humphrey Edobor, Jossy Dombraye, the late Haruna Ilerika et al were worthy ambassadors of the league at the continental level.
If our big boys are not doing well in Europe through regular team appearances, the local league chaps can suffice by ruling Africa, given their talents. Nigerian clubs should win continental trophies like the North Africans, if our organisers implement half of what they are exposed to by FIFA and CAF competitions. If they lack ideas, they can quit the office honourably.
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