NFF: Results confusing the realities

 “The reality of life is that your perceptions -right or wrong- influence everything else you do. When you get a proper perspective of your perceptions, you may be surprised how many other things fall into place.”-Roger Birkman

.AMINU MAIGARI, NFF'S PRESIDENT

Some months before he was sacked by Barcelona in 1996, Johan Cruyff was pressed by reporters why the club’s unexpected slump after so many glorious years in charge and the Dutch legend in his usual whimsical style answered: “In the first place, problems are obviously there to be solved but often a result is confused with the situation. Of course, everything is being said and written in a particular way. Little hints are given to see how people react, how they see the situation. To see whether the situation solves itself. That’s why I call them test balloons. ”

For the younger minds, Cruyff is regarded as the best player of his generation having won the Ballon d'Or three times in 1971, 1973 and 1974. He equally had a nearly unblemished record as coach, turning Barcelona to one of the most-feared teams of the 1990s. Parading notable players of that era including the like of Michael Laudrup, Romario, Ronald Koeman, Gheorghe Hagi and Hristo Stoichkov, Josep Guardiola (present Barcelona’s manager) amongst others, Cruyff’s Barcelona won virtually everything on offer: La Liga four times between 1991 and 1994 and they beat Sampdoria in both the 1989 European Cup Winners' Cup final and the 1992 European Cup final at Wembley. They also won a Copa del Rey in 1990, the European Super Cup in 1992 and three Supercopa de España.

Suddenly, the team floundered partly due to injuries to keep players and partly due to some tough luck as he failed to win trophies in his final two seasons and he was widely quoted as saying that:  ‘being calm is the only thing that can help. ’

What Cruyff was driving at was the need for the Catalan to put things in perspective with the view of building for the future but Barcelona’s management then was having none of that and  since the centre can no longer hold between the parties, things finally fell apart.

 Today, Nigerian football is at the crossroad with failure of all the national teams to qualify for any international tournament next year. The Super Eagles missed qualification for the 2012 African Cup of Nations, the Super Falcons and six-time record champions of the African Women’s Championship failed to qualify for the last All Africa Games and were also bundled out of the 2012 Olympic Football Tournament. The virus equally spread  to the Under -23 national team  as the ‘Dream Team’ which hitherto remains the country’s best hope dithered  by failing to qualify for the London 2012 Olympic Tournament after also failing to make it to the last  All Africa Games  in Maputo.

In summary, Nigerian football has been on a freefall and ‘everything is being said and written in a particular way’ with many asking the board of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to resign en-mass since they could not stem the tide of failure.

Agreed nobody is happy with the misfortune that has enveloped Nigerian football recently, but I wonder how the purging of the NFF would solve the problem at hand. Some said that the present crisis in Nigerian football is systemic, so how do we expect a board that is less than two years in office solve those deep-rooted complexity?

The hate-mob that saw nothing good about the previous board of the NFF has started this smear campaign for a total overhaul of Nigerian football yet again. Their warped argument that the only solution to Nigerian football problems was sacking the NFF when the Super Eagles failed to qualify for the 2006 World Cup under the leadership of Alhaji Ibrahim Galadima after his famous extract: “World Cup is not our birthright.” The ‘sack  the NFF’ argument that equally  bandied last year to oust Alhaji Sani Lulu and co in spite of the fact  that their board qualified all the national teams for every available tournaments  between  2006 and 2010.

It is needless to say that such antidote has never helped Nigerian football in the past and it is very doubtful that it would work even now if we hearken to the calling of the doomsday prophets.

We sounded the warning here the last time when  the then  sports minister, Ibrahim Isa Bio went on  political suicide all in the name of restructuring  Nigerian football. He dragged top members of the Lulu-led board to the anti-graft agency but the manner he left his job as the Chairman of the National Sports Commission (NSC) to pursue his failed bid for the Governorship of Kwara State left so much to desire.

Some 17 months later, we were still a point of nowhere with two more ministers, Professor Taoheed Adedoja and Alhaji Yusuf Suleiman promising so much but delivering very little for the beautiful game they pledged to hoist to a greater height.

One of the biggest problems befuddling Nigerian football is the quick-fix approach which unfortunately has led us to this sorry state. Instead of looking at things holistically, the normal recourse is to browbeat the NSC to come down heavily on the NFF  anytime  something untoward happens to the national teams- particularly, the Super Eagles. The avowed critics of the NFF are always quick to compare and contrast Nigerian football with other efficient federations without considering the efforts that had made top football-playing countries well-oiled machinery.

Without stability in the administration of the game, Nigerian football would continue to suffer. Very recently, I drew  attention  to the fact that a certain Julio Grondona has been running  the affairs of the Argentine Football Federation  since 1979 and was recently handed a record ninth term which would extend his tenancy to 36 years!  Nobody has been  given  a second term in-charge  of the NFF yet the purists want things to evolve as if administering football is as simple as A-B-C. Of course, I’m not an advocate of an endless tenure for anybody occupying the ‘hot’ presidency of the NFF but certainly, there should be a certain form of stability before anything meaningful can be achieved.

Painful as the Nigeria’s situation is, the confusion over the cataclysmic performance of all the national teams recently have blindfolded many to see the efforts of the present board led by Alhaji Aminu Maigari.  Some argued that the board is even an aberration but what kind of jaundiced opinion is that even when a competent court in the land has given them a carte blanche.

 It is there for all to see that the NFF have done their best in the present circumstance and the hard truth is that Nigerian football is suffering from the ills of many years of underdevelopment of the domestic game for instance .Painful as the situation is today, the reality of the situation is that Nigerian football would certainly have to undergo this phase. One notable critics of the NFF usually say that Nigerian football must undergo a crucible of fire before the Super Eagles can repeat their glorious years of the 1990s. Yet, they are not ready to give the NFF space and time to sort things out rather they are looking for the usual knee-jerk approach that has not bring anything worthwhile. 

In spite of that, people who genuinely have the interest of Nigerian football at heart believe this is just a passing phase that would certainly go away if we don’t pull down the roof following these recent failures.

That was the point meaningfully made by erstwhile national team’s coach, Paul Hamilton in a well-publicised interview with Supersports.com: "It's quite unfortunate and sad that we failed again to qualify for the London 2012 Olympics men football event. We have to start off again. Such things have happened to other countries and they later came back stronger. I see our situation as a passing phase”.

" What we are experiencing is part of history, it will get to a point where we will start to laugh again once we are able to learn and put a solid structure in place,” he added.

Hamilton’s is similar to Cruyff’s formula: “In principle, you have to deal with the problem, because you have to deal with results. But I think you have to keep your mind where it should be: the team, on the situation, on one confrontation after another!”

The Maigari board has already won the trophy for improved welfare condition of national team players and would go down in history for sparing nothing in preparations of national teams for any tournament. That is the reality of the situation. The blame should squarely be at the doors of the coaches and players who failed to up their game. 

 

What happens to the so-called reforms of Mr. Courageous?

SULEIMAN(right) with DG PATRICK EKEJI

Since the turn of democratic dispensation, the sports sector has really suffered much with ministers hopping-in and-out of the sports ministry vis-à-vis the National Sports Commission.

At the end of the first term of Yar’Adua-Goodluck Jonathan, four ministers had actually taken their turns and last year, Alhaji Ali Suleiman mounted the saddle.

It is said that thunder doesn’t strike twice but such is not the case with the sports sector following the resignation (or is it sacking) of Suleiman to pursue his ambition to become Governor of Kano State.

This was the same path  some of his predecessors  took: Seidu Samaila Sambawa stepped down to  contest  for  the  Governorship  of Kebbi  State;  that Alhaji Ibrahim Bio also  left the NSC midstream to pursue ambition to become the Governor of Kwara state.

When Suleiman was threatening fire that he has the courage to turn things around particularly within the vexed football arena, I forewarned that the man maybe talking like a typical politician.

“I will not only have the courage, I have the courage to do whatever it takes to manage sports in Nigeria,” Suleiman said. “I am just coming into this circle and I do not belong to any of the feuding parties. I will have to take a decision to tell the world that we cannot allow personal egos to hamper sports in Nigeria,” he added.

I asked then: ‘Can Suleiman walk the talk? Does he have the raw courage to deal ‘ruthlessly’ with the cartel that has hindered the development of sport in the country? Would he last long enough in the saddle before he is pushed off without realising his set objectives? How long can he stave off pressure from principal officials at the NSC who might want to win him over to their side with pecuniary gains? What does Suleiman know about being courageous?’

Suleiman instituted a so-called football reforms committee but hours before the committee submitted his report, Suleiman was already on his way out.  So what happens to the so-called far-reaching recommendations of the committee?  I bet this would rot in the cooler of the NSC like all other previous ad-hoc committees’ report of the past years. Maybe I would be proved wrong this time.