The Technical Committee of the Nigeria
Football Federation may,. today,
announce Stephen Keshi as Samson
Siasia’s successor.
This is coming after officials of the
federation held discussions with Keshi.
But there are issues that they may
resolve before he would accept the job
wholeheartedly.
The federation plans to appoint him as a
caretaker coach. The appointment
would, therefore, be on interim basis.
Keshi, we gathered, is cold to the offer
although he has, in principle, accepted to
train the Eagles.
However, the offer coming at a time
Togo and Rwanda were also after him,
Keshi is said not to be comfortable with
an interim job.
“It will not make for his absolute
concentration on his job,” his agent said,
adding “it is not about Keshi as a person,
it is about the job.
He needs to settle down immediately to
map out a four year programme or
thereabout and plan how to implement
them in stages. Appointing him interim
coach will not be good for him and will
also not be good for Nigeria. He needs
confidence to build a strong team.”
But a member of the Technical
Committee and one other Executive
Committee member all explained that the
interim appointment had to be made to
avoid the bureaucratic way of
appointing coaches. They assured that
on acceptance of the job, Keshi would
not stay long before he will be
confirmed the substantive coach.
Showing posts with label SPORTS NEWS. Show all posts
Showing posts with label SPORTS NEWS. Show all posts
Monday, 31 October 2011
Why we picked Keshi - NFF
In spite of the spirited and repeated denials by
the chairman of Technical Committee of the
Nigeria Football Federation (NFF),
Barrister Christopher Green, that the
federation has not picked a new coach for the
Super Eagles, members of the executive board
have zeroed in on Stephen Keshi as the
favoured candidate for the job.
Disclosing this to Daily Sunsports, a member
of the board, who does not want his name in
print, said that what informed the board’s
decision was the fact that since the Hawks of
Togo’s former handler contested the position
with sacked Siasia, it has decided against
inviting fresh applications from other
coaches.
He further noted that though the board will
ratify Keshi on Wednesday as Eagles head
coach, there were strong indications that it
would be on acting bases, revealing that the
board was looking into the option of hiring a
foreign coach for the Eagles.
“Well, Keshi is the likely person to replace
Siasia. His choice was based on the simple
fact that he attended the interview with
Siasia. We want to avoid inviting fresh
applications from other coaches. We just
want somebody to start working on acting
capacity until we finally resolve on the
possibility of hiring a foreign coach. For now,
we have settled for Keshi,” our source noted.
Asked why the board sacrificed Siasia despite
divided opinions of Nigerians to his favour,
the board member noted that his greatest
undoing was his arrogance to the technical
committee members and most especially the
clause in his contract.
Admitting that the board was harsh in
inserting such draconian clause in Siasia's
contract, he, however, blamed Siasia for not
appealing for the removal of the clause,
stressing that the desperation for the job
could beclouded his meticulous and detailed
scrutiny of the contract document.“The
reports and recommendations of the
technical committee were very unfavourable.
They said that Siasia was very arrogant. He
talks down on all members of the committee
and that was why they were unanimous in
recommending his sack.
“He specifically gave example of an incident
when the technical committee wanted him to
remove injured Chibuzor Okonkwo since he
has not being playing for Heartland FC, but
he refused. During the match against Guinea,
it was obvious Siasia was biased and
sentimental in his selections. He fielded his
boys,” he noted.
On conditions that would have saved Siasia
from sack, the board member said: “I can tell
you the general feelings of most members was
that if Siasia had resigned immediately after
the match, he would have been retained, but
his over confidence was his greatest undoing.”
the chairman of Technical Committee of the
Nigeria Football Federation (NFF),
Barrister Christopher Green, that the
federation has not picked a new coach for the
Super Eagles, members of the executive board
have zeroed in on Stephen Keshi as the
favoured candidate for the job.
Disclosing this to Daily Sunsports, a member
of the board, who does not want his name in
print, said that what informed the board’s
decision was the fact that since the Hawks of
Togo’s former handler contested the position
with sacked Siasia, it has decided against
inviting fresh applications from other
coaches.
He further noted that though the board will
ratify Keshi on Wednesday as Eagles head
coach, there were strong indications that it
would be on acting bases, revealing that the
board was looking into the option of hiring a
foreign coach for the Eagles.
“Well, Keshi is the likely person to replace
Siasia. His choice was based on the simple
fact that he attended the interview with
Siasia. We want to avoid inviting fresh
applications from other coaches. We just
want somebody to start working on acting
capacity until we finally resolve on the
possibility of hiring a foreign coach. For now,
we have settled for Keshi,” our source noted.
Asked why the board sacrificed Siasia despite
divided opinions of Nigerians to his favour,
the board member noted that his greatest
undoing was his arrogance to the technical
committee members and most especially the
clause in his contract.
Admitting that the board was harsh in
inserting such draconian clause in Siasia's
contract, he, however, blamed Siasia for not
appealing for the removal of the clause,
stressing that the desperation for the job
could beclouded his meticulous and detailed
scrutiny of the contract document.“The
reports and recommendations of the
technical committee were very unfavourable.
They said that Siasia was very arrogant. He
talks down on all members of the committee
and that was why they were unanimous in
recommending his sack.
“He specifically gave example of an incident
when the technical committee wanted him to
remove injured Chibuzor Okonkwo since he
has not being playing for Heartland FC, but
he refused. During the match against Guinea,
it was obvious Siasia was biased and
sentimental in his selections. He fielded his
boys,” he noted.
On conditions that would have saved Siasia
from sack, the board member said: “I can tell
you the general feelings of most members was
that if Siasia had resigned immediately after
the match, he would have been retained, but
his over confidence was his greatest undoing.”
Sunday, 30 October 2011
Slow death of Nigerian footballNews analysis
Black September was a phrase associated with
the terrorist incident at the 1972 Munich
Olympics. The darkest moment of the
Olympics was painted when 11 Israeli athletes
as well as a West German Policeman and
seven of the 11-man gang of the Palestinian
terrorist group were killed.
“Black October” may be an apt description of
the happenings of October 2011 in Nigerian
football. For four consecutive weekends,
Nigerian teams were battered in fixtures that
would have hitherto been mere walkovers. Even
then, the first weekend had perhaps the
bleakest independent anniversary celebrations
as it was literarily done behind closed doors,
literarily setting the tones for the next
weekends.
The elimination at home of the Super Eagles
from the 2012 African Nations Cup was
followed by a similar ousting, at home, of
Enyimba from the CAF Champions League.
Sunshine Stars also lost at home to signal
their imminent elimination from the CAF
Confederation Cup while the Super Falcons
also surrendered their claims to absolute
supremacy in the continent’s women football.
Their elimination from the All Africa Games
women football event last May has now been
followed up with another ousting from the
Olympic Games.
A miserable football season for the country
finally reached its crescendo at the weekend
with Sunshine Stars of Akure predictably
crashing out of the CAF Confederation Cup
just a day after another musical chair was
observed in the managerial arm of the Super
Eagles. Coach Samson Siasia has taken the
familiar route most of his predecessors have
had to pass through, leaving the helms of the
national team via sack, following a loss on
the pitch. The doors are now invitingly opened
for his successor who will in a short while,
suffer the same fate. It is even been suggested
that the new helmsman to be recommended
on Tuesday by the Technical Committee of
the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, and
possibly ratified the next day by the Executive
Committee, will be an interim coach.
Therefore, we have been forewarned of
another change.
So the Super Eagles, in 18 months since
January 2010, will be having their sixth coach,
making the job, one with a high turnover. For
the purpose of getting the picture clearer, the
following handled the team for the period
under reference: Amodu Shaibu (till January
2010); Dan Amokachi on interim (March
2010 in the game with Congo DR and the
WAFU Cup competition in Abeokuta); Lars
Largaback, March to June 2010; Austin
Eguavoen, August to October 2010 and
Samson Siasia November 2010 to October
2011).
Going through Niall Edworthy’s book, “The
Second Most Important Job in the Country”,
which is the story of England football
managers from 1982 to 1999, the magnitude
of the heat that Samson Siasia and the others
who have passed through the rigours on
managing the Super Eagles will be
appreciated. In one breath, you are hailed into
a position. Then comes a dramatic twist of
fate, when you are hauled out of position.
Coaching job is often seen as a thankless job.
The team takes the glory for victories; the
manager takes all the blames for setback,
which is often followed with a sack. That
explains why coaching is the most unstable of
all arrays of jobs in football business. A
former Scot player and manager, Tommy
Docherty, in the Guinness Dictionary of
Sports Quotations remarks: “There’s a hell of
politics in football. I don’t think Henry
Kissinger (a charismatic former US Secretary
of State) would have lasted 48 hours at Old
Trafford”. That explains the weight of
politics in football and in football coaching.
Reasons for sacking are sometimes very
confusing. More often than not; a coach
heralded with fanfare into position is given
the boot midway into his assignments. This is
exemplified in two of the three times that
Amodu Shaibu had been sacked from the
Super Eagles.
Sometimes it is just to satisfy ego or just for
sheer mob action, especially when the national
team lost an important match. Adegboye
Onigbinde lost his position in 1984 when he
came back from the Africa Nations Cup in
Cote d’Ivoire where the then Green Eagles were
runners-up to Cameroon. Incidentally, that
remains the best achievement by a Nigerian
coach in the African Nations Cup history.
But often, the result that triggered the sack
of a coach is a climax of accumulating
decadence in Nigerian football. The signals
of the slow, but steady decline of Nigerian
football have remained so apparent while the
administrators pretend all was well.
In the past one year for instance, Nigerian
teams only qualified for the Women World
Cup and the Under 20 World Cup, both of
which the Nigerian teams did not go far. All
the four clubs failed the continent. The
Under 17 team did not even qualify for the
continental championship, let alone making
it to the Mexico global final. The Under 20
and Under 17 women teams had qualified
before the present dispensation. Even then,
only the Under 20 women team made it to the
final match.
The domestic premier league had been
running epileptically, having one of the
longest seasons ever. A season that kicked off
amid crisis last November is already
stretching sluggishly into the 13th month.
There is nothing to suggest it will not get to
December before terminating when other
leagues are almost half way into the next
season. Little wonder, Nigerians have turned
their attention to the more entertaining
foreign leagues. No wonder, Nigerian players
who fail to get to the big leagues of Europe will
opt for the lesser ones even in war ravaged
zones of Sudan and Israel than grace the
turfs at home.
Another evidence of the comatose state of
Nigerian football is the inability of the
country to qualify for the African Nations
Championship (CHAN) which is for players
who ply their trade in local leagues of the
respective African countries. With two
editions gone, Nigeria has never qualified.
The Nigerian team was eliminated last year
by the team from Niger Republic, pointing to
the depth that the game has sunk into in
Nigeria.
It has to take the loss of the qualifying ticket
for the 2012 African Nations Cup for the
appalling standard of Nigerian football to get
attention. The national chief coach has to be
the scapegoat. It is hoped that Stephen Keshi,
who appears to be the next in line for the
Nigerian job, will be given enough time to
execute what ever programme he has.
Co-incidentally, the coach with the longest
stay has had the best result so far for Nigeria.
Clemens Westerhof guided Nigeria to 52
matches and succeeded in qualifying the
country for the World Cup for the first time
in 1993. Perhaps the story would have been
different had he been sacked in his first cap
when the loss to Cameroon also knocked
Nigeria out of the 1990 World Cup.
In his first African Nations Cup appearance,
his Super Eagles crumbled miserably 5-1 to
Algeria in the opening game of the 1990
World Cup, the biggest loss Nigeria ever
suffered in the competition in recent history.
He was left to continue and he got the team
to the final match and lost narrowly, 1-0 to
the same home team, Algeria.
Frequent changing of national team
handlers was one of the reasons FIFA chiefs
often give for Nigeria’s poor performances in
the last three World Cup finals (1998, 2002
and 2010) that Nigeria attended. Since 1991,
Wednesday’s possible announcement of a
new national team coach will be the 19th
change of guard! Nineteen appointments in
20 years paint a picture of disorganisation of
the Nigerian football.
In comparison, the countries with the best
achievements in football have had fewer turn
over of coaches. Spain, the current World Cup
holders has six coaches since 1991, while Brazil
who have won the World Cup twice within the
period under consideration, has had seven
coaches as against Nigeria’s 19 changes.
Perhaps, those are non-African countries,
hence the relative stability and consequent
successes.
Egypt is undoubtedly the most successful in
African football in the past 20 years,
winning the African Nations Cup four times,
three of which were back-to-back. Added to
that is the domination of the Egyptian clubs
in both the CAF Champions League and the
Confederation Cup competitions. Yet, the
teams were almost 100 per cent home-made.
The Egyptians, who recently appointed an
American as their national coach, have had
13 changes since 1991. Most of the coaches
have long stint. One of such is the legendary
El- Gohary who was appointed thrice on those
13 changes.
Cameroon, tottering like Nigeria, has also not
won the African Nations Cup since 2002 and
the clubs too, have long ceased to be among
the power-houses of African football. Like
Nigeria, they are big absentees at 2012
African Nations Cup. They also share the
same quality of having a high turnover of
coaches. Since 1991, Cameroon has also
appointed their 20th national team coach.
The foundation of the current state of
Nigerian football had long been laid. There is
no definite football calendar. Fixtures are
constantly altered on the excuse that there
are clubs playing continental matches as if
other African countries don’t have teams on
the same assignment. Yet, those other
countries don’t experience system failure.
Imagine what the scenario would have been if
the bulk of players for the national team were
to be drawn from the domestic league. The
Premier League would have had to be cancelled
outright. What would have been the situation,
this year for instance, if Kaduna United
and Kano Pillars had not been eliminated
early in the continental contests? The
number of outstanding matches for the
Nigerian Premier League would have been
unimaginable.
How then have the English Premiership
(that was repackaged at about the same time
Nigeria’s current experiment on professional
football began) been able to cope with the
seven clubs they have in the European
Champions League and the Europa League?
The eighth club, Birmingham, in the Europa
League, plays in the Npower Football League
Championship. Yet, apart from the
premiership and the other league, these clubs
also feature in the Carlings Cup, making their
calendar even more congested than ours.
Can’t we learn a little from how the league is
organised elsewhere and get ourselves better
organised and make Nigerian football a little
more appealing?
Beyond the disorganisation of the league, had
been the squabbles over marketing rights,
robbing the league of its live wire.
The NFF are more engrossed in a battle for
survival than marshalling plans to advance
Nigerian football. Until the right
atmosphere exists, the downward trend in
Nigerian football will go on free fall. We
don’t need to go far to search for solutions to
the ills that have been ravaging our football.
All that is needed is just go back to the shelves
where past reports are gathering dust and
having undisturbed rest. There is the Amanze
Uchegbulam Report of 1999 which deals with
the composition of the age-graded teams and
the attendant falsification of ages. The
implementation of that report would have
changed the face of Nigerian football today.
One may add: What has happened to the
Emeka Omeruah inquiry into the reasons for
our failure at the 2004 Olympics? It was
meant to provide possible ways to turn around
Nigeria’s flagging sports’ image. Sadly, such
reports that could have helped in saving the
nation the recurring pains occasioned by
constant failure are never implemented.
Before Omeruah’s one-man panel, there had
been the S.O. Williams Panel in the early
1980s. One will not be surprised if another
inquest is established to unearth the cause of
the current free fall of Nigerian football.
Yet, the solutions are in some documents
tucked in various shelves.
In 1989 when Chief Effiom Okon, who is
today the oldest living man to have been
involved in Nigerian football administration,
headed an interim administration of the then
NFA, the management committee set up an
11- point agenda to be carried out. Even
though it is doubtful if they were implemented
before the committee was shoved aside, at least
10 of the 11 points are still relevant in today’s
scenario.
The kernels of these points are hereby
reproduced:
•Examination of historical evolution of
football in Nigeria with a view to providing a
useful document for smooth football
administration. In an encounter with Chief
Effiom Okon who is now 87 years, he
affirmed that the NFA was older than what
the 1945 foundation date is suggesting.
•Working on a good package of incentives
for the locally-based footballers in order to tap
the best in them. It is a well-known fact that
the products of the domestic league have long
been made irrelevant in consideration for
national teams. Even, selection for the
Under 20 teams now extends to players
abroad.
•Drawing up of regulations to check current
and future exodus of good footballers.
Nigerian players now even feel better playing
in war zones of ?Sudan, Israel and other
lesser-known football regions.
•To draw up a five-year programme to ensure
an orderly progress in our game. This point
speaks clear for itself. We are more
concerned in participation in competitions
more than developing our sports.
•To examine the remote and immediate causes
of recent haphazard preparations for
international engagements and suggest
measures to reduce such trend.
That was a 1989 scenario which is
manifesting in 2011 because no lesson was
learnt from history.
• To draw up necessary Code of Conduct for
all footballers in order to reduce cases of
indiscipline. Perhaps, the Enyeama,
Odemwingie and Mikel Obi cases which
occurred in the course of campaign for the
2012 African Nations Cup would have been
averted.
• To suggest necessary modalities for the
setting up of standard national teams. This
way, someone who had played three seasons in
the domestic league or finished secondary
school three or four years ago will have no
business in either the Golden Eaglets or the
Flying Eagles. We know quite a large number
of them who either retired or reached their
peak before they clock 23.
• To examine various ways of enhancing the
performance of Nigerian football coaches,
including their identification, selection and
retention. The evidence of this problem is
glaring today, 22 years since it was identified
as an issue to be tackled.
• To suggest other ways and means of
enhancing the development and
modernisation of football in ?Nigeria. We
should ask ourselves, what makes the South
African and that of North African football
leagues to tick while that of Nigeria is
flagging? The comparison with other African
countries is deliberate as it will amount to
going to the extreme comparing it with the
Premiership, La Liga and that of other parts
of Europe.
the terrorist incident at the 1972 Munich
Olympics. The darkest moment of the
Olympics was painted when 11 Israeli athletes
as well as a West German Policeman and
seven of the 11-man gang of the Palestinian
terrorist group were killed.
“Black October” may be an apt description of
the happenings of October 2011 in Nigerian
football. For four consecutive weekends,
Nigerian teams were battered in fixtures that
would have hitherto been mere walkovers. Even
then, the first weekend had perhaps the
bleakest independent anniversary celebrations
as it was literarily done behind closed doors,
literarily setting the tones for the next
weekends.
The elimination at home of the Super Eagles
from the 2012 African Nations Cup was
followed by a similar ousting, at home, of
Enyimba from the CAF Champions League.
Sunshine Stars also lost at home to signal
their imminent elimination from the CAF
Confederation Cup while the Super Falcons
also surrendered their claims to absolute
supremacy in the continent’s women football.
Their elimination from the All Africa Games
women football event last May has now been
followed up with another ousting from the
Olympic Games.
A miserable football season for the country
finally reached its crescendo at the weekend
with Sunshine Stars of Akure predictably
crashing out of the CAF Confederation Cup
just a day after another musical chair was
observed in the managerial arm of the Super
Eagles. Coach Samson Siasia has taken the
familiar route most of his predecessors have
had to pass through, leaving the helms of the
national team via sack, following a loss on
the pitch. The doors are now invitingly opened
for his successor who will in a short while,
suffer the same fate. It is even been suggested
that the new helmsman to be recommended
on Tuesday by the Technical Committee of
the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, and
possibly ratified the next day by the Executive
Committee, will be an interim coach.
Therefore, we have been forewarned of
another change.
So the Super Eagles, in 18 months since
January 2010, will be having their sixth coach,
making the job, one with a high turnover. For
the purpose of getting the picture clearer, the
following handled the team for the period
under reference: Amodu Shaibu (till January
2010); Dan Amokachi on interim (March
2010 in the game with Congo DR and the
WAFU Cup competition in Abeokuta); Lars
Largaback, March to June 2010; Austin
Eguavoen, August to October 2010 and
Samson Siasia November 2010 to October
2011).
Going through Niall Edworthy’s book, “The
Second Most Important Job in the Country”,
which is the story of England football
managers from 1982 to 1999, the magnitude
of the heat that Samson Siasia and the others
who have passed through the rigours on
managing the Super Eagles will be
appreciated. In one breath, you are hailed into
a position. Then comes a dramatic twist of
fate, when you are hauled out of position.
Coaching job is often seen as a thankless job.
The team takes the glory for victories; the
manager takes all the blames for setback,
which is often followed with a sack. That
explains why coaching is the most unstable of
all arrays of jobs in football business. A
former Scot player and manager, Tommy
Docherty, in the Guinness Dictionary of
Sports Quotations remarks: “There’s a hell of
politics in football. I don’t think Henry
Kissinger (a charismatic former US Secretary
of State) would have lasted 48 hours at Old
Trafford”. That explains the weight of
politics in football and in football coaching.
Reasons for sacking are sometimes very
confusing. More often than not; a coach
heralded with fanfare into position is given
the boot midway into his assignments. This is
exemplified in two of the three times that
Amodu Shaibu had been sacked from the
Super Eagles.
Sometimes it is just to satisfy ego or just for
sheer mob action, especially when the national
team lost an important match. Adegboye
Onigbinde lost his position in 1984 when he
came back from the Africa Nations Cup in
Cote d’Ivoire where the then Green Eagles were
runners-up to Cameroon. Incidentally, that
remains the best achievement by a Nigerian
coach in the African Nations Cup history.
But often, the result that triggered the sack
of a coach is a climax of accumulating
decadence in Nigerian football. The signals
of the slow, but steady decline of Nigerian
football have remained so apparent while the
administrators pretend all was well.
In the past one year for instance, Nigerian
teams only qualified for the Women World
Cup and the Under 20 World Cup, both of
which the Nigerian teams did not go far. All
the four clubs failed the continent. The
Under 17 team did not even qualify for the
continental championship, let alone making
it to the Mexico global final. The Under 20
and Under 17 women teams had qualified
before the present dispensation. Even then,
only the Under 20 women team made it to the
final match.
The domestic premier league had been
running epileptically, having one of the
longest seasons ever. A season that kicked off
amid crisis last November is already
stretching sluggishly into the 13th month.
There is nothing to suggest it will not get to
December before terminating when other
leagues are almost half way into the next
season. Little wonder, Nigerians have turned
their attention to the more entertaining
foreign leagues. No wonder, Nigerian players
who fail to get to the big leagues of Europe will
opt for the lesser ones even in war ravaged
zones of Sudan and Israel than grace the
turfs at home.
Another evidence of the comatose state of
Nigerian football is the inability of the
country to qualify for the African Nations
Championship (CHAN) which is for players
who ply their trade in local leagues of the
respective African countries. With two
editions gone, Nigeria has never qualified.
The Nigerian team was eliminated last year
by the team from Niger Republic, pointing to
the depth that the game has sunk into in
Nigeria.
It has to take the loss of the qualifying ticket
for the 2012 African Nations Cup for the
appalling standard of Nigerian football to get
attention. The national chief coach has to be
the scapegoat. It is hoped that Stephen Keshi,
who appears to be the next in line for the
Nigerian job, will be given enough time to
execute what ever programme he has.
Co-incidentally, the coach with the longest
stay has had the best result so far for Nigeria.
Clemens Westerhof guided Nigeria to 52
matches and succeeded in qualifying the
country for the World Cup for the first time
in 1993. Perhaps the story would have been
different had he been sacked in his first cap
when the loss to Cameroon also knocked
Nigeria out of the 1990 World Cup.
In his first African Nations Cup appearance,
his Super Eagles crumbled miserably 5-1 to
Algeria in the opening game of the 1990
World Cup, the biggest loss Nigeria ever
suffered in the competition in recent history.
He was left to continue and he got the team
to the final match and lost narrowly, 1-0 to
the same home team, Algeria.
Frequent changing of national team
handlers was one of the reasons FIFA chiefs
often give for Nigeria’s poor performances in
the last three World Cup finals (1998, 2002
and 2010) that Nigeria attended. Since 1991,
Wednesday’s possible announcement of a
new national team coach will be the 19th
change of guard! Nineteen appointments in
20 years paint a picture of disorganisation of
the Nigerian football.
In comparison, the countries with the best
achievements in football have had fewer turn
over of coaches. Spain, the current World Cup
holders has six coaches since 1991, while Brazil
who have won the World Cup twice within the
period under consideration, has had seven
coaches as against Nigeria’s 19 changes.
Perhaps, those are non-African countries,
hence the relative stability and consequent
successes.
Egypt is undoubtedly the most successful in
African football in the past 20 years,
winning the African Nations Cup four times,
three of which were back-to-back. Added to
that is the domination of the Egyptian clubs
in both the CAF Champions League and the
Confederation Cup competitions. Yet, the
teams were almost 100 per cent home-made.
The Egyptians, who recently appointed an
American as their national coach, have had
13 changes since 1991. Most of the coaches
have long stint. One of such is the legendary
El- Gohary who was appointed thrice on those
13 changes.
Cameroon, tottering like Nigeria, has also not
won the African Nations Cup since 2002 and
the clubs too, have long ceased to be among
the power-houses of African football. Like
Nigeria, they are big absentees at 2012
African Nations Cup. They also share the
same quality of having a high turnover of
coaches. Since 1991, Cameroon has also
appointed their 20th national team coach.
The foundation of the current state of
Nigerian football had long been laid. There is
no definite football calendar. Fixtures are
constantly altered on the excuse that there
are clubs playing continental matches as if
other African countries don’t have teams on
the same assignment. Yet, those other
countries don’t experience system failure.
Imagine what the scenario would have been if
the bulk of players for the national team were
to be drawn from the domestic league. The
Premier League would have had to be cancelled
outright. What would have been the situation,
this year for instance, if Kaduna United
and Kano Pillars had not been eliminated
early in the continental contests? The
number of outstanding matches for the
Nigerian Premier League would have been
unimaginable.
How then have the English Premiership
(that was repackaged at about the same time
Nigeria’s current experiment on professional
football began) been able to cope with the
seven clubs they have in the European
Champions League and the Europa League?
The eighth club, Birmingham, in the Europa
League, plays in the Npower Football League
Championship. Yet, apart from the
premiership and the other league, these clubs
also feature in the Carlings Cup, making their
calendar even more congested than ours.
Can’t we learn a little from how the league is
organised elsewhere and get ourselves better
organised and make Nigerian football a little
more appealing?
Beyond the disorganisation of the league, had
been the squabbles over marketing rights,
robbing the league of its live wire.
The NFF are more engrossed in a battle for
survival than marshalling plans to advance
Nigerian football. Until the right
atmosphere exists, the downward trend in
Nigerian football will go on free fall. We
don’t need to go far to search for solutions to
the ills that have been ravaging our football.
All that is needed is just go back to the shelves
where past reports are gathering dust and
having undisturbed rest. There is the Amanze
Uchegbulam Report of 1999 which deals with
the composition of the age-graded teams and
the attendant falsification of ages. The
implementation of that report would have
changed the face of Nigerian football today.
One may add: What has happened to the
Emeka Omeruah inquiry into the reasons for
our failure at the 2004 Olympics? It was
meant to provide possible ways to turn around
Nigeria’s flagging sports’ image. Sadly, such
reports that could have helped in saving the
nation the recurring pains occasioned by
constant failure are never implemented.
Before Omeruah’s one-man panel, there had
been the S.O. Williams Panel in the early
1980s. One will not be surprised if another
inquest is established to unearth the cause of
the current free fall of Nigerian football.
Yet, the solutions are in some documents
tucked in various shelves.
In 1989 when Chief Effiom Okon, who is
today the oldest living man to have been
involved in Nigerian football administration,
headed an interim administration of the then
NFA, the management committee set up an
11- point agenda to be carried out. Even
though it is doubtful if they were implemented
before the committee was shoved aside, at least
10 of the 11 points are still relevant in today’s
scenario.
The kernels of these points are hereby
reproduced:
•Examination of historical evolution of
football in Nigeria with a view to providing a
useful document for smooth football
administration. In an encounter with Chief
Effiom Okon who is now 87 years, he
affirmed that the NFA was older than what
the 1945 foundation date is suggesting.
•Working on a good package of incentives
for the locally-based footballers in order to tap
the best in them. It is a well-known fact that
the products of the domestic league have long
been made irrelevant in consideration for
national teams. Even, selection for the
Under 20 teams now extends to players
abroad.
•Drawing up of regulations to check current
and future exodus of good footballers.
Nigerian players now even feel better playing
in war zones of ?Sudan, Israel and other
lesser-known football regions.
•To draw up a five-year programme to ensure
an orderly progress in our game. This point
speaks clear for itself. We are more
concerned in participation in competitions
more than developing our sports.
•To examine the remote and immediate causes
of recent haphazard preparations for
international engagements and suggest
measures to reduce such trend.
That was a 1989 scenario which is
manifesting in 2011 because no lesson was
learnt from history.
• To draw up necessary Code of Conduct for
all footballers in order to reduce cases of
indiscipline. Perhaps, the Enyeama,
Odemwingie and Mikel Obi cases which
occurred in the course of campaign for the
2012 African Nations Cup would have been
averted.
• To suggest necessary modalities for the
setting up of standard national teams. This
way, someone who had played three seasons in
the domestic league or finished secondary
school three or four years ago will have no
business in either the Golden Eaglets or the
Flying Eagles. We know quite a large number
of them who either retired or reached their
peak before they clock 23.
• To examine various ways of enhancing the
performance of Nigerian football coaches,
including their identification, selection and
retention. The evidence of this problem is
glaring today, 22 years since it was identified
as an issue to be tackled.
• To suggest other ways and means of
enhancing the development and
modernisation of football in ?Nigeria. We
should ask ourselves, what makes the South
African and that of North African football
leagues to tick while that of Nigeria is
flagging? The comparison with other African
countries is deliberate as it will amount to
going to the extreme comparing it with the
Premiership, La Liga and that of other parts
of Europe.
Preliminary Round 2 qualifier2013 Nations Cup must for Eagles - Yobo
Super Eagles’ skipper, Joseph Yobo, has
reiterated his team's determination to make
the 2013 Nations Cup a must after Nigeria
crashed out in the qualifying race for the
2012 edition in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea.
The Fenerbhace player said Eagles would do
everything to redeem their image by scaling
the first hurdle in the 2013 Nations Cup
preliminary Round 2 qualifier against
Rwanda next year. Yobo, who is yet to
overcome the shock of not qualifying after
the Guinea 2-2 draw in Abuja recently, said he
would strive to make the disappointment a
thing of the past, depending on the calibre of
technical crew expected to handle the team.
Only few days a go, coach Samson Siasia was
dismissed by the Nigeria Football Federation,
(NFF) over poor performance and with its
intention to hire the former skipper of the
team, Stephen Keshi, as his replacement.
Yobo is already looking forward with great
optimism to see Nigeria out of its present
predicament and forge ahead in the
series.“We have been thought many lessons
by our opponents in recent times. The
smallest country can surprise you. All the
same, we should put our failure to qualify for
the 2012 edition behind us and move ahead in
the competition,”he said.
Last Thursday, Yobo led his Turkish club,
Fenerbahce, to play a 2-2 draw away duel with
Besiktas to still maintain its number one
position on the table. With 18 points from 8
matches, Fenerbahce is billed to tackle
Kardemir Karabukspor today, to further
amass the 3 points at stake to lead
Trabsonspor and Orduspor the two clubs
contesting number one spot with Yobo's team.
Meanwhile, the Nations Cup two rounds of
matches will be played to reach the
tournament, and teams which failed to
qualify for the 2012 edition will have to
negotiate one extra round of qualifiers.Hosts
South Africa qualify automatically.
With the Super Eagles failing to qualify for
the 2012 edition, the country joins 45 other
teams which will have to play an additional
round of games. The 16 teams that qualified
for the 2012 edition get an automatic ticket
from the first two rounds and enter directly
in the final round of qualifiers that begins
after Next year's tournament.
The draw was conducted Friday by the sub-
committee of the Africa Cup of Nations
organising committee in Malabo.
The matches are to be played in the first half
of 2012 with exact dates to be communicated
later.
reiterated his team's determination to make
the 2013 Nations Cup a must after Nigeria
crashed out in the qualifying race for the
2012 edition in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea.
The Fenerbhace player said Eagles would do
everything to redeem their image by scaling
the first hurdle in the 2013 Nations Cup
preliminary Round 2 qualifier against
Rwanda next year. Yobo, who is yet to
overcome the shock of not qualifying after
the Guinea 2-2 draw in Abuja recently, said he
would strive to make the disappointment a
thing of the past, depending on the calibre of
technical crew expected to handle the team.
Only few days a go, coach Samson Siasia was
dismissed by the Nigeria Football Federation,
(NFF) over poor performance and with its
intention to hire the former skipper of the
team, Stephen Keshi, as his replacement.
Yobo is already looking forward with great
optimism to see Nigeria out of its present
predicament and forge ahead in the
series.“We have been thought many lessons
by our opponents in recent times. The
smallest country can surprise you. All the
same, we should put our failure to qualify for
the 2012 edition behind us and move ahead in
the competition,”he said.
Last Thursday, Yobo led his Turkish club,
Fenerbahce, to play a 2-2 draw away duel with
Besiktas to still maintain its number one
position on the table. With 18 points from 8
matches, Fenerbahce is billed to tackle
Kardemir Karabukspor today, to further
amass the 3 points at stake to lead
Trabsonspor and Orduspor the two clubs
contesting number one spot with Yobo's team.
Meanwhile, the Nations Cup two rounds of
matches will be played to reach the
tournament, and teams which failed to
qualify for the 2012 edition will have to
negotiate one extra round of qualifiers.Hosts
South Africa qualify automatically.
With the Super Eagles failing to qualify for
the 2012 edition, the country joins 45 other
teams which will have to play an additional
round of games. The 16 teams that qualified
for the 2012 edition get an automatic ticket
from the first two rounds and enter directly
in the final round of qualifiers that begins
after Next year's tournament.
The draw was conducted Friday by the sub-
committee of the Africa Cup of Nations
organising committee in Malabo.
The matches are to be played in the first half
of 2012 with exact dates to be communicated
later.
Don’t fall to blackmail of ex-internationals, Chike Arisa warns NFF
WITH Nigeria Football Federation,
NFF, set to announce Samson Siasia’s
successor this week, ex-international
Chike Arisa has warned the football house
to be careful with ex-internationals
angling to take up national teams
coaching jobs.
Arisa who is based in the Netherlands is
livid that ex-internationals now see
coaching of the national team as their
birthright, their background in coaching
notwithstanding.
He fumed that people who have little or no
coaching experience are jostling to coach
the Super Eagles simply because they once
played for the national team.
“We must make it known to them that
the credentials of coaching the Super
Eagles do not include having played for
the national team. No. It does not follow
that way. Enough is enough. They have
had their fair chance and have also
bungled it. We must move beyond that”,
Arisa said on our hotline.
Apparently having followed the Samson
Siasia saga on the internet, Arisa said
that he found insulting statements
credited to some ex-internationals whom
he said flouted the proverb that says ‘’dog
does not eat dog”.
“It is only in Nigeria that ex-
internationals spoil for action because
they once played. That is not reasonable.
Anyone who wants to go into coaching
should first prove his mettle at the club
level before being assigned a massive job of
coaching our national team.
Some of us after playing for the nation
are acquiring coaching certificates and
coaching clubs while others cross their legs
looking for the plum job of coaching a
national team. It is ridiculous.
That is why our football is not growing
because those who administer it fall easily
to sentiments and blackmail by these ex-
internationals”, a highly angry Arisa
said.
Reflecting on the Siasia’s regime, Arisa
said that Siasia was better than most of
those who are lobbying to take over his job.
“Siasia, no doubt, was a good coach but he
failed because he had no training on
player-coach relationship. He couldn’t
manage that.
Thats where he got it wrong and paid the
price. If Nigeria truly wants to rebuild,
they should look for a foreign coach who
is ready to work.
There are very good foreign coaches but
the problem is that our officials corrupt
them with bogus salary only to go back to
get their own share. It’s sad to see the
Eagles and indeed football fall so badly in
a country that is as blessed as Brazil with
talents. Definitely, ex-internationals
would not lead us to the promised land”,
Arisa emphasised.
NFF, set to announce Samson Siasia’s
successor this week, ex-international
Chike Arisa has warned the football house
to be careful with ex-internationals
angling to take up national teams
coaching jobs.
Arisa who is based in the Netherlands is
livid that ex-internationals now see
coaching of the national team as their
birthright, their background in coaching
notwithstanding.
He fumed that people who have little or no
coaching experience are jostling to coach
the Super Eagles simply because they once
played for the national team.
“We must make it known to them that
the credentials of coaching the Super
Eagles do not include having played for
the national team. No. It does not follow
that way. Enough is enough. They have
had their fair chance and have also
bungled it. We must move beyond that”,
Arisa said on our hotline.
Apparently having followed the Samson
Siasia saga on the internet, Arisa said
that he found insulting statements
credited to some ex-internationals whom
he said flouted the proverb that says ‘’dog
does not eat dog”.
“It is only in Nigeria that ex-
internationals spoil for action because
they once played. That is not reasonable.
Anyone who wants to go into coaching
should first prove his mettle at the club
level before being assigned a massive job of
coaching our national team.
Some of us after playing for the nation
are acquiring coaching certificates and
coaching clubs while others cross their legs
looking for the plum job of coaching a
national team. It is ridiculous.
That is why our football is not growing
because those who administer it fall easily
to sentiments and blackmail by these ex-
internationals”, a highly angry Arisa
said.
Reflecting on the Siasia’s regime, Arisa
said that Siasia was better than most of
those who are lobbying to take over his job.
“Siasia, no doubt, was a good coach but he
failed because he had no training on
player-coach relationship. He couldn’t
manage that.
Thats where he got it wrong and paid the
price. If Nigeria truly wants to rebuild,
they should look for a foreign coach who
is ready to work.
There are very good foreign coaches but
the problem is that our officials corrupt
them with bogus salary only to go back to
get their own share. It’s sad to see the
Eagles and indeed football fall so badly in
a country that is as blessed as Brazil with
talents. Definitely, ex-internationals
would not lead us to the promised land”,
Arisa emphasised.
Tuesday, 25 October 2011
English FA charges Chelsea over QPRderby
Chelsea were hit with
charges from the English FA over the
conduct of their players on Tuesday
following their stormy west London derby
with QPR which saw them reduced to nine
men.
The FA have also called on Chelsea
manager Andre Villas-Boas to explain his
blistering post-match tirade against
referee Chris Foy and his assistants.
Chelsea’s players have come under the
disciplinary spotlight after several were
seen to surround Foy following his
controversial first-half dismissal of Jose
Bosingwa at Loftus Road.
Villas-Boas later cited the incident as
evidence of Foy’s “card happy”
performance, accusing the referee of
failing to deal with both sides equally as
Chelsea crashed to a 1-0 defeat.
“The FA has today charged Chelsea with
failure to ensure their players conducted
themselves in an orderly fashion,” the FA
said in a statement.
“This relates to an incident involving
Chelsea players surrounding match
official Chris Foy, immediately following
Jose Bosingwa’s dismissal.
“Separately, the FA has written to Chelsea
manager Andre Villas-Boas and asked for
an explanation on his post-match media
comments.
“Villas-Boas has been asked to explain his
comments on match official Chris Foy
and the assistant referees.
“On both counts, the club has until
Friday 28 October to respond.”
Villas-Boas had stood by his remarks at a
press conference on Tuesday shortly
before the FA announced their charges.
“I don’t think I said anything I shouldn’t
have,” Villas-Boas said.
“I would never question the referee’s
integrity. But the fact is that, at the
moment, we are paying heavily in terms
of major decisions.
“Maybe this is what the FA (don’t) want
to hear from me – phrases like, ‘The
referee has influenced heavily three of our
games’.”
charges from the English FA over the
conduct of their players on Tuesday
following their stormy west London derby
with QPR which saw them reduced to nine
men.
The FA have also called on Chelsea
manager Andre Villas-Boas to explain his
blistering post-match tirade against
referee Chris Foy and his assistants.
Chelsea’s players have come under the
disciplinary spotlight after several were
seen to surround Foy following his
controversial first-half dismissal of Jose
Bosingwa at Loftus Road.
Villas-Boas later cited the incident as
evidence of Foy’s “card happy”
performance, accusing the referee of
failing to deal with both sides equally as
Chelsea crashed to a 1-0 defeat.
“The FA has today charged Chelsea with
failure to ensure their players conducted
themselves in an orderly fashion,” the FA
said in a statement.
“This relates to an incident involving
Chelsea players surrounding match
official Chris Foy, immediately following
Jose Bosingwa’s dismissal.
“Separately, the FA has written to Chelsea
manager Andre Villas-Boas and asked for
an explanation on his post-match media
comments.
“Villas-Boas has been asked to explain his
comments on match official Chris Foy
and the assistant referees.
“On both counts, the club has until
Friday 28 October to respond.”
Villas-Boas had stood by his remarks at a
press conference on Tuesday shortly
before the FA announced their charges.
“I don’t think I said anything I shouldn’t
have,” Villas-Boas said.
“I would never question the referee’s
integrity. But the fact is that, at the
moment, we are paying heavily in terms
of major decisions.
“Maybe this is what the FA (don’t) want
to hear from me – phrases like, ‘The
referee has influenced heavily three of our
games’.”
African Handball President dies in NIgeria...Disrupts fiesta in Kaduna
A tragic situation! That was what organisers
of the African Handball Championship had
over the weekend in Kaduna, as the
competition went underway at the Murtala
Mohammed Square.
A day after the commencement of the
championship, the President of Handball
Federation of Cameroon, Jules Bemtille,
slumped and died while jogging in his hotel.
The death, which was confirmed by the
President of Handball Federation of Nigeria
(HFN), Mallam Yusuf Dauda, has since
taken its toll on the competition which
attracted teams from over 15 countries.
Dauda, while confirming the ugly
development in a telephone chat with Daily
Sunsports, said it has virtually spoilt his fun
while throwing the handball fiesta into a crisis
situation.
“What we have here is a big crisis as a result
of the death of the Cameroonian leader of
delegation. He died while jogging in his
hotel,” Dauda disclosed, even as he noted that
he was too busy to give further details.
Nigeria’s Grasshoppers and Niger United
started the competition on Friday with games
against their Congolese counterpart. Four
teams are flying Nigeria’s flag in the
competition, which is the continent’s number
one handball competition at the club level.
of the African Handball Championship had
over the weekend in Kaduna, as the
competition went underway at the Murtala
Mohammed Square.
A day after the commencement of the
championship, the President of Handball
Federation of Cameroon, Jules Bemtille,
slumped and died while jogging in his hotel.
The death, which was confirmed by the
President of Handball Federation of Nigeria
(HFN), Mallam Yusuf Dauda, has since
taken its toll on the competition which
attracted teams from over 15 countries.
Dauda, while confirming the ugly
development in a telephone chat with Daily
Sunsports, said it has virtually spoilt his fun
while throwing the handball fiesta into a crisis
situation.
“What we have here is a big crisis as a result
of the death of the Cameroonian leader of
delegation. He died while jogging in his
hotel,” Dauda disclosed, even as he noted that
he was too busy to give further details.
Nigeria’s Grasshoppers and Niger United
started the competition on Friday with games
against their Congolese counterpart. Four
teams are flying Nigeria’s flag in the
competition, which is the continent’s number
one handball competition at the club level.
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