African soccer, my foot
Truth always sticks out like a sore thumb. It only takes time to know its significance. I laughed my heart out after reading a message emanating from the NFF that its Technical Committee would meet to decide the next Super Eagles helmsman. What that presupposes is that another rebuilding of the team’s structures beckons. According to the federation, the first game of the 2026 World Cup qualifiers between the Bafana Bafana and the Super Eagles will be held on June 7 inside the Nest of Champions Stadium in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.
I was wondering who the members of the Technical Committee were and if they could deliver the right Super Eagles manager in one meeting. Quickly, my mind raced to the fact that Tuesday was meant to sort out the applications, pick the best six coaches based on parameters set by the members, and then send out invitation letters to those shortlisted for a formal screening session by knowledgeable tacticians in the game.
I tried to pick my brain to find out the kind of parameters the technical committee members would list for the new man to provide answers in an interview. In seconds, my mind’s eye brought forth the laughable parameter of knowledge of African football. What is so-called? What are videos for, if not to serve as referrals for those seeking to update their knowledge of any subject? Happily, YouTube among other channels is awash with clips on bits and pieces of African football.
Pray, football has no tribe. It is the same all over the world and the rules are dynamic as specified by FIFA to the over 211 federations affiliated to the world soccer ruling body. Even within the African continent, there are contrasting styles of play among the nations occasioned by each African nation’s preference for European coaches.
How then would some people sit inside the room to pick the next Super Eagles head coach and insist on their knowledge of the African game as a prerequisite? Isn’t it quite ironic that people can be talking about African soccer, yet most of the countries are handled by foreign coaches, without apologies? Do Africans not dominate the big leagues in the world? What else is there to learn about Africa that hasn’t been exhibited by these glorious African youth?
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Another amusing parameter would be to find out if he would be prepared to stay in Nigeria as if he won’t be paid with taxpayers’ money here. Such discussions expose us as being unserious because anyone seeking a Nigerian job must live in Abuja, which is where his employers are domiciled, for instance. The NFF should, therefore, get a befitting accommodation for the next manager in Abuja and possibly in Lagos. What would it cost the NFF to plead with one of its sponsors to buy the coach a car and brand it? I also hope that the new manager’s offices in Abuja and anywhere the NFF men deem fit to have one is readily fitted with state-of-the-art communication gadgets for his work.
Do we need to remind NFF to ensure that it outsources the payment of the new manager’s wages when due? We are tired of the sour grapes between the federation and our coaches over unpaid salaries, allowances, and match bonuses. Whispers in high places in Abuja have suggested that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration would be persuaded to provide the cash to pay the new manager. The government would find a way of the delays which TSA causes to the payment process to foreigners in hard currencies. Sadly, in Nigeria, we develop sports from the top. If the governor or his deputy likes one or two sports, lickspittles around the government would make a scene out of the sports, especially when their principals are around. That isn’t sports development.
Of course, the team needs a better bus, not what they ride in when in camp. One is usually ashamed whenever the team conveying our Super Eagles drives into the stadium. You need to watch how clubs announce their arrival while driving into their stadium’s premises in marvelous buses. In fact, the tense atmosphere in the stadium reaches its crescendo when the two teams are spotted around the stadium. Indeed, what distinguishes the two teams is the colour of their buses. The aerial photography on television while watching at home pumps up everyone’s adrenalin.
Super Eagles’ buses shouldn’t be used for rental purposes by anyone considering its significance. Government officials, their relations eager to create any event of importance should go to the different garages to pay for buses to take their invitees to their home to celebrate. Doing such illegal activities translates to abuse of office which should attract sanctions from the government if brought to their notice.
Sometimes I wonder if our NFF members think, with due apologies to them if they do. Otherwise, how is it that they always make the same mistakes with almost every contractual agreement they sign with our foreign coaches? Where on earth are coaches employed on a part-time basis? Coaching is a full-time job. Not so for NFF. Super Falcons head coach Randy Waldrum renewed a part-time deal with NFF where he called his employers crooks and he still keeps his job. Who does that?
The clubs and countries that sack their coaches have a list of managers whose patterns of play fit with their football philosophy, making their transition smooth whenever the deals are struck. These entities headhunt the coaches who meet their criteria on a scale of preference starting with their first choices. By the time they got to their third candidate, a decision would have been made. Names of likely coaches to replace sacked or released ones start with speculations. Nothing is made public by the prospecting club or countries until the unveiling day. Negotiations are done by those whose duty it is to conduct that exercise and the managers’ agents.
This writer’s problem with the composition of the federation’s technical committee is the skewed perception of the qualities that the new helmsman must have. If part of the criteria of recruiting has anything to do with how well he distinguished himself as a player for club and country, then the King of soccer, Brazil’s Pele would have been lured by irresistible offers to coach his country’s senior team. Again, for anyone aspiring into leadership positions, his integrity should be above reproach. It isn’t negotiable.
Nigeria needs thinking coaches with coaching characteristics reminiscent of Pep Guardiola, Carlo Ancelotti, Jose Mourinho, Sir Alex Ferguson, et al. Coaches who think outside of the box to win competitive matches. Nigeria needs a coach who is interested in improving the quality of coaching in the domestic leagues for the products from that platform to qualify to play at the national team level. Nigeria needs the coaches’ coach not one ‘marketed’ by Nigerians who are European clubs’ scouts and agents for mercantile gains.
Nigeria doesn’t need coaches who are very active in the sale of players to European leagues and other such soccer competitions in the Diaspora. We need to cultivate a synergy between the Super Eagles and the age group teams. That way we are sure of enough new lads to replace those due for retirement and edged out due to injuries or old age. We would be killing the nurseries in the domestic leagues if we continued to parade oldies in the Super Eagles under the guise of their experience in the game. Isn’t it when you introduce kids at an early age that they start to garner the so-called experience? About now we started reaping the benefits of employing foreign coaches for the Super Eagles.