Topic: The cancer ravaging Super Eagles  (Read 2205 times)

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The cancer ravaging Super Eagles
« on: November 03, 2011, 03:15:31 PM »
By Jonathan Akpoborire, Ex-International

Since the last Nigeria Football Federation elections, there have been so many fall outs regarding football in this country. I don’t even want to go into any details, because they are all sickening. It will be correct to say our football is in disarray.   We have gone through some time now, and I must say that I am still waiting for the improvement the board promised.

After so many years, the Nigerian Premier League is a joke. Since I came back to Nigeria, I have seen so many games in the premier league that offend football. I have seen a team win 13-0 to avoid relegation, and another game that ended 9-0, for a different team to avoid the same fate. And after the last game in that season, the then chairman of the NPL, gave an interview on television, saying Nigerian football was improving.

Oh! I have also seen a game that ended, in favor of the home team, but they later found out the goals difference was not enough, and the players and officials came out again to complete the goals difference, before they went back inside.

The facilities are in very terrible state, although some states have moved forward, with development of their infrastructure, but the quality of officiating in this country is alarming. Actually, “alarming”, is not the right word. The referees association should be ashamed of themselves. Gone are the days of the Okubule’s and the Mba’s.

We all love our national teams, and everyone will agree with me that our standard has really dropped. Why do we fair well in age grade competitions and play badly in Super Eagles? I will not shut up. It is time Nigeria stopped using over aged players for these tournaments. They are killing our Euper Eagles.

We are giving the wrong players the right exposure. By the time a 25 or a 27 year old player plays for our under 17 national team, he is bought by a European club, and placed in their junior academy for another 3 years to watch his developments. And by the time they think he has arrived, he is already 30 or even more, please when will he play for the Super Eagles? That will be when he is about to retire.

I watched Henry Nwosu win the Nations Cup with Nigeria, he just left St. Fimbers college. Tarila Okorowanta, was dazzling people, playing for St Gregory’s college Obalende, Or should we talk about the Samson Siasia’s, the Chibuzor Ehilegbu’s , the Olukami brothers. These names are just a few among a bunch of super stars, who were discovered in youth competitions organized all around the country, by local organizations most notably,Youth Sports Federation of Nigeria.

Then we even had arguably the biggest tourney in campus Lagos Island, where most of our stars grazed the portable field then. We would not forget the Mock Nations Cup, in Ajegunle, the jungle city itself. These are just very few development methods that were all over the country at that time.

All of these competitions and more, died when Nduka Ugbade, and his mates, won the maiden under 17 World Cup in China, in 1985. I was in that team. All hell broke loose because everybody wanted to win and get presents from the government. They all forget that all these tournaments are designed to develop and expose young players. I was one of those beneficiaries. My first game for Nigeria, was against Hungary, in china, in 1985, and my last game for Nigeria, was played in Porthacourt against Eritrea , in 2001. And to be honest, if it were not for injury, I would have played till 2007.

In that maiden team, there was no player from a national league. I had just been registered to play in the Lagos State league then.

Our last under 17 team and the under 20 world cup have been a wasted excise for Nigeria because we played with very over aged players. I believe most of those players will have not more than four years to play in elite leagues around the world. Four years is even been generous.

I hear and read interviews on how the under 20 players should come and replace the Super Eagles players and I laugh at those suggestions because the under 20 player might just be older than the person he is going to replace.

Is it just me, or has everybody noticed that at 30 Osaze Odemwinge is one of our aging stars but still looks younger than most of our super Eagles players?

Please, it’s time we call a spade a spade. I know there will be a lot of people calling for my head for this article, or some people will be saying I am not patriotic. Please when this particular problem is tackled, in the next five years, you would be first to start celebrating our Super Eagles arrival.

The age problem, I have mentioned above is not a matter of speculation please, there are so many facts, that I have at my disposal, and I must say they are alarming.  The football authorities have to get hold of this problem right now, because it’s the cancer that is killing our dear Euper Eagles and of cause the lack of investments in youth programs  by professional clubs in Nigeria.

After all said  and done, I am still folding my hands to watch what the present football administration would do, regarding all  of these problems we are facing. And I pray to God that they finally find a solution to our league because it’s truly the worst league I have ever seen. Where the league winner is not yet known but they have finished playing all the league games

 

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