NFF Officials Did Not Set Good Example   

The Managing Director of Complete Communications, publishers of Complete Sports, Mumini Alao, who took a brief break to watch some matches at 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa spoke to TUNDE OYEDELE about the state of football in Nigeria

•Mumini Alao.

What’s your own take about Nigeria’s participation in this year’s World Cup?
Personally, I feel very sad with the way our country participated in the South Africa 2010 World Cup. The Super Eagles performed very poorly, especially with the World Cup staged in Africa for the first time. One felt that South Africa 2010 came as an opportunity for Nigeria to make a big statement as a great footballing nation on the continent. But it was a different story altogether. Even though we couldn’t host the first World Cup in Africa, at least we could have created a record participating in the tournament. Nigeria has a history as one of the highly rated football teams in Africa and for me as a keen follower of the game, this is an opportunity lost for our country and indeed the continent in general. The history will be written that when football came home, Nigeria was nowhere to be found. I think the consolation is that our country qualified for the World Cup because we almost missed going.

So, we can say Nigeria only came to make the numbers in South Africa?
Yes, and I said that based on their performance. We saw the sign that our team might not deliver before the Super Eagles travelled to South Africa. Having said that, I will be blunt to say I feel responsible in a way, because, the football viewing public rely on the Media to play the role of the pressure group. But unfortunately, we were not united on which way to go. The administrators were also confused, leaving Nigerian contingent to come to the World Cup in shambles. We made too many mistakes, starting with the appointment of coaches. It started with Shuaibu Amodu, who was not supposed to be appointed in the first place because he was not the best candidate during the interview. But he got the job. But having got the job, we should have stuck to Amodu to the last because eventually, the coach met all the demands that were made of him. Amodu qualified for the African Cup of Nations held in Angola, he led the Eagles to the semi-finals, won a bronze medal and also got a World Cup ticket for the nation. We should have learnt from our lessons of 2002 and said: whatever happens let him just finish his assignment. That was the second mistake that the country made. Also, we contracted a new Technical Adviser in Swede Lars Lagerback, and based on what befell us in Korea/Japan 2002, we could have known the new coach would not have enough time to prepare the Eagles to deliver at the tournament. And the mistakes did not stop there. The camp of the team was not opened in good time while the new coach had a few days to see the players in training. Lagerback presented the team which he saw as the best for Nigeria in South Africa within the short time he had. Of course, Lagerback wouldn’t have performed any magic with the set of players that Nigeria paraded against such star-studded side like Argentina. It’s a shame really that Nigeria did not win a single match and even managed to draw with South Korea. The performance of the Eagles only reflected the level of preparation that we had for the mundial. The teams that made it beyond the first round up till the finals are reaping from the solid pre-World Cup preparations they had and it’s as simple as that.

While the Eagles were fumbling in the World Cup, the NFF contingent, which had over 400 people, including 31 states Football Association chairmen and secretaries were all over the cities of South Africa having fun and shopping as if there was no tomorrow. The figure was an average of 17 or 18 officials per player in camp. How do you rate the officials?
I will score them zero based on what I’ve heard about our contingent. Unfortunately, this has been the trend, where our officials turn international tournaments into a jamboree. I read in the papers where Ghanaian government told the Sports minister not to travel to South Africa, that his job is at home. I also read in the local papers in South Africa where the zonal government in Kwazulu Province were questioning the legislature how they got match tickets. Listen to that, just football match tickets, the lawmakers were asked to explain whether they bought the tickets with the money from their personal pockets or from the public treasury. These are tickets that go for just $20, $50 or so. Here we are, our own case is different. The officials did not show good leadership example. They were distracting the players with such endless shopping, and were responsible for the low level of discipline in the team because the players had to do the same. They would say, how can the officials only be on shopping spree when they were the ones doing the playing? It’s appalling to hear that the NFF flew in hundreds of people with tax payers’ money. This is money that would have been used to develop Nigerian football. The Football House just spent it on those people just to come and have a nice holiday. It’s just because election was around the corner and bringing them would definitely guarantee the officials their votes. It’s really sad and I’m not comfortable with the trend at all. I will not blame the FA officials because they were invited to a party, but it’s unfortunate that such profligacy was allowed. I think I would have loved a situation where every kobo that the NFF brought to South Africa is accounted for. Good a thing, the government has ordered for a probe of the soccer body. FIFA gave the officials that are there some grants to run football because they are our representatives. So, they should be probed and whoever is guilty of squandering public money should be asked to refund it. If we continue to do this, other officials who want to come out and contest for the NFF posts or other public offices would have a rethink before inviting people to competitions. Even when they lobby him to include them on trips he would say no, that he can’t allow them to go on a jamboree because he would pay for it at the end of the day. People do things and get away with it in Nigeria and that’s why they won’t stop. I’m sure most of the people NFF brought to South Africa were given first class treatment and collected estacodes. They should be made to refund what they collected if they didn’t play any significant role in Nigeria’s campaign in the World Cup.

You mentioned the forthcoming NFF elections, can’t the country get the right people to turn things around or what does the future hold for Nigerian football?
Well, this is the same question often asked by the general public. The NFF statutes have been well manipulated to favour those who cannot do much for our football. The statutes favour the incumbents. That’s why it’s difficult for genuine candidates to come on board. Check out the history of those coming on as board members, many are political appointees with virtually no track record of football instincts or football administration. They either got there because they are close to the government or nominated from their state FAs. And from there, they went for zonal elections and found their way into the NFF. That’s how the statutes block people with genuine interest from getting close to the apex football body. So, this question of statutes must be addressed. There must be electoral reform just like it is done in advanced nations.

Despite the hue and cry over Eagles’ performance, did you see anything new that Lagerback brought to the Nigerian team?
Yes, I think there are one or two changes in the team that played under Lagerback. The Eagles might not have done well in South Africa, but in terms of play, the team were a bit focused but performed poorly overall. The only thing is they were better organised though they played in different tournaments, as we can’t really rate them then same way. The standard of the Nations Cup is different from the World Cup, where the best footballers came to compete. The major element the new coach introduced was basically organisation, but the previous problem was still there. The team was poor, they couldn’t score goals. There was little Lagerback could have done within three months. He had less than average players to prosecute the World Cup and that rightly confirmed what Amodu said that the team he had was a bad one, though he (Amodu) was not the right person to say so as a coach because he assembled the players. Lagerback only came to inherit the squad. Maybe the coach would have done better if he had a longer contract, but I think Nigerians are in a better position to assess Lagerback’s performance as an individual.

What amused you most about the team Nigeria paraded in South Africa; the Kaita saga?
I think that was the way Nigerians reacted after our first match against Argentina. Maybe they had forgotten how the team prepared. I was shocked to hear people praising the Eagles for losing to Argentina. More shocking was the statement made by Yakubu and others after the match that they shamed their critics. Which critics did the Eagles shame by losing their opening match? That’s laughable and it shows they were not serious at all. I don’t think the Eagles failed to make the second round because of Kaita’s red card. Although he was naïve to have disgraced the country, the red card he received should not be blamed for Nigeria’s poor showings. We have seen teams that won such crucial matches despite being reduced to 10 or 9 men. The team was just bad and we should not be sentimental about their performance. That has nothing to do with patriotism, we should be realistic.

With the situation of things, any hope for Nigeria before 2014 World Cup in Brazil?
Yes, there is hope for our country’s football. Nigeria can only overcome this problem of raising bad teams for tournaments if the officials get serious about preparations. Nigeria can get there but we must have a stable technical crew fully supported by the administrators. Apart from that, the NFF needs administrators that are disciplined and there must be transition in the teams, who must graduate from the youth teams. We have the players. Most of the players we can bank on are already in the U-17 and U-20, although I will not shy away from the fact that we have age issues in our youth teams. So they should be drafted into the senior team immediately. We should not wait until the current players outlive their usefulness. They are ripe for the senior team. Again, the country needs football re-education; Nigerian coaches should help themselves by going for refresher courses.

You saw some matches of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, what’s your take on the first ever World Cup staged in Africa?
Africa did not do well as expected, with the exception of Ghana, that reached the quarter-final stage. But the organisation was okay. The host country presented a good show, no doubt about that and it’s understandable because they benefitted immensely from the developmental programme of the colonial masters. The colonial masters helped them put the cities in order with first class infrastructure. South Africa also tried by raising a future team.

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