IGERIANS are so
passionately fond of football that any flop of the country�s senior football
team, the Super Eagles, in any international competition, for whatever reasons,
is intolerable to them. The passion for football is such that it has become, for
good measure, a unifying factor among our diverse ethnic groups.
But their enthusiasm is consistently being punctured by the
unstable, crisis-infested football administration by the Nigerian Football
Association (NFA), marked by frequent changes of the Eagles�s technical adviser,
chief coach or manager, and the consequent chequered performance of the team.
Available statistics of the turnover of national coaches for
the Super Eagles speak of an amazing frequency, perhaps second to none in the
world. For instance, between 1988 and 2002, a period of 14 years, an astonishing
17 technical advisers/chief coaches had managed the Eagles. This means an
average of one manager each year.
Deep inside this high turnover of managers of the national
football team is one discernible development � a consistent display of disdain
for indigenous coaches to manage the Super Eagles. It is an unfortunate
development which the football administrators at NFA have done little to sort
out once and for all. Instead, the NFA seems to be the main culprit in this
culture of instability that has never helped the development of football in the
country.
But beyond this is the present furore over a Technical
Adviser to take charge of the Super Eagles in the campaign for the 2006 World
Cup in Germany. The desirability, or otherwise of a foreign technical adviser is
not our worry. Our concern is the valuable time lost in such arguments which
have become nothing but distracting to our quest for a fourth consecutive
appearance at the Mundial.
It is saddening and frustrating that each time the NFA
embarks on the search for a foreign technical adviser, it has not been with the
best of motives to improve the level of our football. Time and again, little
lesson, if any at all, is learned from our endless love for a foreign technical
adviser for the Eagles, even when our experience gives little to cheer about.
For instance, the abandonment of the team by Messrs Bonfrere Jo and Bora
Milutinovic still leaves sour tastes in the mouth.
This is not, however, to discountenance the benefits of the
input of foreign technical adviser to our football, especially the contributions
of Clemens Westerhorf and Otto Gloria. Nonetheless, we had thought that NFA
should have by now, exposed some of our indigenous coaches abroad to acquire the
much - needed technical skills that modern football requires. Neither has the
football body provided the indigenous coaches the essential facilities they need
to excel at the top level.
The present search for a new foreign technical adviser would
have become very imperative if the current chief coach, Mr. Christian Chukwu,
has been found wanting in his ability and technical competence to manage the
Eagles. His record in comparison with his foreign counterparts who had managed
the Eagles in the past, is not in deficit.
Our position in this matter of a foreign technical adviser
for the Super Eagles is that if it is considered exceedingly necessary and
desirable, the country must go for the best, and not for any of the numerous
paper coaches looking for teams to update their coaching C.V.
The NFA and the sports ministry should quickly put this matter behind us. It
is either the association quickly does that with the best only good for the
Super Eagles, or allow the man already on the saddle to continue. Doing
otherwise is indeed, an unnecessary distraction. It could be a recipe for bigger
crisis which may derail our World Cup campaigns. It is time to stop this
perennial search for a foreign technical adviser, and address other critical
problems in our football house.
