Nigeria Football Federation: Anything Goes by Henry Benco

I cant say much but draw a leaf from the bible where a man came to Jesus and asked him: “Master what can I do to inherit the kingdom?”  Jesus replied “You must sell all you have and follow me”. The rest you all know.

What in essence am I trying to portray?  That the presidency has taken everyone aback by the recent preposterous statement issued by the senior media adviser to the president, Imma Niboro that the president has ordered that Nigeria will withdraw from all  international football events till 2012. What a statement from Mr. President!

I stand corrected in all my opinions because they are personally motivated. Folowing are my itemized worries based on the poor performance of the super eagles “without wings” at the 2010 world cup in South Africa .

First: Amodu Shuabu

When all hope seemed lost, coach Amodu delivered a world cup appearance to Nigeria. For this, we remain ever grateful.  Following the qualification, Nigerians became as keen as mustard to see coach Amodu replaced by anything that was not black, and they got Lagerback. Lagerback is a coach who could not qualify his national team (Sweden) for the world cup with the likes of highly-rated  Barcelona forward, Zlatan Ibrahimovic as part of the strike force.

What more can I say? I sympathize with and also congratulate Coach Amodu. I sympathize with him on his eventual sacking as coach which denied him of the opportunity of taking Nigeria to South Africa.  Twice he achieved this feat and twice he was denied the coveted honour.I congratulate him based on how he managed to qualify Nigeria to the world cup after missing out at the 2006 edition. Atleast he deserves some commendation. If no one does,  I hereby do.

Secondly: Lars Lagerback ( meaning taking you back).

During the hot search for a new foreign technical adviser, we all had high hopes that the long awaited magician will come on board to steer the clogged wheels of the Eagles. My hopes and aspiration were however cut short by that name Lagerback. I tried to find to find out the literal meaning of that name, but all I could come up with was “someone who can never take you forward“.  The Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) could not even decipher that.

All they were interested in was to just get us a white man. It did not matter to them if he was an american football or rugby manager. We all suffered the fit. In the preparatory warm-up matches, Nigeria managed to win only one match against North Korea, a team that conceded the highest number of goals in a match against Portugal  (0-7) and 12 in all group stage without scoring a single goal.

NFF in a bid to entice Nigerians, played with countries that cannot boast of any international player, so that if they win all their matches, Nigerians will have high hope and good spirit when eventually the long awaited world cup kicked off. We all know how well we managed to get four draws and a single win in the warm up matches. All well meaning Nigerians knew  at that point in time, that coach Lagerback was not the one.

Coach Lagerback lacks tactics, cohesion and defensive acumen, to mention but a few. Generally, he lacks what it takes to be a coach. At least he has made money from the NFF and Nigerian players who could not but continue to grease his palms in order to feature regularly, just the likes of Yakubu and Kaita.

Thirdly, Nigeria Football Federation

President Goodluck Jonathan has taken the bold step of probing the NFF. However, I think it is going to be business as usual. Probing without indictment or prosecution is not what we need to improve on our football.

To stop Nigeria from participating from international football for two years is solely to the president’s opinion, but I think there are other measures to take in tackling this menance.

To get things right, the president should as a matter of urgency sack both the NFF and its board of directors. He should also set up a panel of enquiry manned by men of impeccable character to investigate and prosecute any body found wanting. He should then disband the super chickens called Eagles. And lastly, the NFF and NFA should be manned by ex- football stars and not politicians.

The problem with Nigerian football and Africa as a whole, is the incorporation of football with national politics.The time to get things right is now.

Article Written by Henry Benco