*#HistoryVille*

FIRST PUBLISHED ON THIS DAY, FRIDAY 17th NOVEMBER, 2023 (LAST YEAR)

*(REPEAT BROADCAST)*


*TIME FOR A SUMMIT ON SUPER EAGLES*

*By FAN NDUBUOKE*

*Something is fundamentally wrong with our football. For a country ranked 153rd by FIFA to secure a draw against the "almighty" Super Eagles in* *Uyo in a World Cup qualifier speaks volumes of how bad things have gone with our football.*

*Yes, there are no minnows in football anymore but it appears sour that present crop of football administrators are hiding* *under this excuse to destroy what is left of the joy and bond of Nigeria and Nigerians.*

*Lesotho with less than three foreign players in their squad cannot come to Uyo and our Super Eagles, loaded with players from the EPL,* *Bundesliga, La Liga and Serie A among other leagues struggle to hold them to a draw thus sharing the points at stake. And anyone in his* *sane mind would expect us to either clap for our football administrators or fold our hands as usual to nod like a helpless lizard.*

*We can no longer keep quiet and watch the sport some of us invested our careers, time, energy and youthful life to* *build with glorious and visible results being destroyed all under the guise of "modern administration", whatever that means. What manner of* *football administration is this?*

*I would have outrightly entitled this piece DISBAND SUPER EAGLES NOW! But on a second thought I felt the title would only present to* *stakeholders the weight of the problem bedeviling the team without giving a background information surrounding the problems and* *the solutions required.*

*For those fronting the ALL EYES ON JUDICIARY campaign as well as the ALL EYES ON INEC, I think it's high time they shifted the* *campaign and narrative to ALL EYES ON SUPER EAGLES or better-still, ALL EYES ON NIGERIA FOOTBALL. May be* *the campaign is even belated. It is necessary to avoid a second dose of World Cup miss...and painfully back to back this time.*

*This was same way we started during the qualifiers for Qatar 2022 World Cup. We were cajoled by the so called masters of football* *administration running our football then to believe that all was well even as we knew the team was headed for* *doom.*

*We pretended all along until Black Stars of Ghana came to Abuja and walked away with "our" World Cup ticket , making over 200 million people look very unserious, ordinary and lacking focus.* *The pains of that drama were too much for the fans to bear as some of them lost their minds and consequently unleashed their anger on the* *stadium , vandalizing it.*

*Of course, we are bad historians. We may have even forgotten the bitter pill the Super Eagles, their manager or coach and the NFF gave* *Nigerians to swallow by not qualifying for Qatar 2022.*

*Needless saying that they forgot or don't care to know that football is a major factor binding the country and ensuring that it's population is* *happy. When the world says, Nigerians are happy people, they are referring to football, nothing more. Not getting it right with football is* *tantamount to inviting doom to the country which is already overheated by happenings from economy to politics.*

*To think that the Golden Eaglets are not participating in the ongoing FIFA U-17 World Cup is to understand the depth of the malady going* *on in Nigerian football in the last 10 years. This was a team that won the World Cup back to back in 2013 and 2015 respectively in UAE and* *Chile, producing players like Kelechi Iheanacho in 2013 and Victor Osimhen and Samuel Chukwueze in 2015. Nigeria* *has won the Uder-17 Word Cup more than any other country in the world. Not even qualifying for the* *same tournament for sometime now is unacceptable.*

*If Golden Eaglets were in the present tournament, who knows, we may have had the opportunity to discover another top quality player* *coming out from the team to hit stardom at the global stage.*

*Back to the Super Eagles. It is an understatement to say this isn't the Super Eagles we used to know and the team didn't degenerated to this* *point in one day. This continuous crash of the team like the naira falling to the dollar didn't start today. We have seen this all along but* *choose to either turn a blind eye or pretend that all was well. When last did you guess Nigeria’s starting Eleven .*

*The dismal performance of Super Eagles is a complete reflection of the state of things in our country in all sectors. From politics to* *judiciary to education to security to economy and sports, just name it. Everything is taking a nosedive if not outright* *collapse.*

*But sports and football in particular would hurt most given their social value to the Nigerian people or the average Nigeria. Takeaway* *sports from the life of a Nigerian and you would have removed a life-support from him. He would be empty.*

*Therefore, those running our football aground are tactically and technically killing Nigerians, perhaps deliberately too. Take a look* *at the Nigerian Professional Football League (NPFL) and the latest TV Broadcast Right saga. The talk over the contractual figure which* *many describe as scandalous and the process of awarding the right are indications that our football is sick.*

*The hiring of a foreign coach for the Super Eagles and the shoddy process plus non-transparent contractual deal which are not disclosed to the public are part of the bacteria causing serious* *ailment on our football. How can it be said that 23 players invited for the Super Eagles and six standby played are all* *foreign based? Is that not tactically destroying our domestic league? Yet you expect such League to attract* *sponsors? Which sane corporate organization will put it's money on a league that would never produce a player or two to feature* *prominently in the national team?*

*In all honesty, only a corporate organization with suspicious board or management would agree to put it's money on such* *league. More so, the league sponsors must know that they take part of shines too when players of the league feature prominently in the* *national team and get to ply their trade abroad for top European clubs.*

*Still on coaching, isn't it shameful that those running football even before now deliberately retire , exclude or ignore the quality coaches we* *have to employ and recycle failures? Yes, we have all round failures handling our various national teams and* *between both genders of the teams.*

*It is ridiculous if not sheer stupidity to handover a World Cup bound U-20 team to a coach who took the same team to a woeful World Cup* *tournament 16 years earlier. And what was the result? Same shambolic performance. Will you blame such coach or those who* *hired him to obviously carry out an undertaker exercise on the team?*

*Using coaches appointments to settle cronies, loyalists, associates, friends and even family members is not in any way or form different from* *putting a knife on the neck of our football and slaughtering it like chicken. Worse still is the fact that the so called* *coaches don't know what a cone is.*

*How else can we describe decline if not to say that it took Nigeria 55 months for Super Eagles to secure a win in an international friendly?* *How else can you describe madness if not to say that the Flying Eagles who ruled Africa in the past have continued to struggle to qualify for the* *FIFA U-20 World Cup and when they do, they crash out in the group stage?*

*How else do we describe dwindling fortunes if not to say that Nigerian clubs go into continental competitions just to make up the numbers?* *When last did a Nigerian club reach the quarter final of a club continental competition? The South* *Africans that came to Nigeria for football tutorials are now ruling the continent . Yet a group of persons beat their hands on their chests to* *claim to be best football administrators?*

*Indeed, we need a Summit on the Super Eagles where major stakeholders would gather and brainstorm on how to get* *out of the woods. Is our football in the woods? Sure it is...and if it is not rescued now it may just be the end of anything exciting* *about it.*

*We may need to revisit the Golden Era of sports in Nigeria particularly in the area of football. The Era of Late Air Commdr. Emeka Omeruah* *when sports thrived and football excelled.*

*There's no gainsaying that maladministration is the bane of sports development in Nigeria. Sadly, the hawks and vultures have taken over* *hence, a summit could be the only solution to return them to the sky and allow patriotic, genuine and experience administrators to revive the* *sector.*

*The sooner this is done, the better for the country.*


*#HistoryVille*