Nigerians are in pain. Two nights ago, the Super Falcons lost and failed to qualify for the FIFA Women’s World Cup for the first time in 35 years. It marked the climax of 12 years of being taken through avoidable pain and agony in losses, and frustration of failure to achieve what is easily within their reach in football.
These are not the best of times for the current administrators running the affairs of the country’s most popular sport. Irrefutably and undeniably, they have failed to deliver on their promise and on the people’s expectations. The defeat of the country’s national football teams are hurtful for a country blessed with abundant talent, a rich history of previous achievements and humongous human and financial resources.
The nightmare may end soon. The tenure of the current NFA board draws to an end next month. This provides the country with a great and timely opportunity for a change of guards, direction and vision.
Nigerian Football: Why a Change of Guard Is Neededd
Sentiments apart, under no circumstances must the ‘failed’ administration be allowed to return to status quo and continue to run the affairs of Nigerian football the way they have done to this point. No one should try to justify it. This is the worst period in terms of results in the country’s football history.
We must deliberately chart another course and create a just, transparent, fair, equitable and acceptable process of electing an administration that will do things differently and pledge to deliver and achieve clear goals. To do otherwise is to knowingly embrace and court more future disaster.
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It is the universal practice in football (as in all of sport) that we do not change a winning team. The converse is that we also must change a losing side. Players are sold and retired, coaches are fired, administrators resign voluntarily or are sacked. Something must give when major failure comes.
Anyone that promotes or applies any contrary measures will be considered an ‘enemy’ of progress and the principles that drive success in sport.
Even as players, we tasted the ‘poison’ and paid the price of major defeats. In 1977, we needed to win or draw a last match to qualify for Nigeria’s first World Cup. We failed at the very last hurdle. To this day, almost 50 years after, Godwin Odiye continues to pay the price of scoring an own-goal that halted our march.
In 1981, we went through a similar ordeal, failing again to cross the last hurdle. For several of the players, that was our last appearance in the national team.
The reality is that failure in major competitions comes with a high price for everyone.
So, administrators must be ready always to pay the price when they fail to deliver. There is no negotiating it, or painting it in attractive colours. There is nothing attractive about losing the way the Super Eagles did in the past 12 years; and the other junior national teams did recently; and the Super Falcons did a few days ago.
The Super Falcons crowned what has been a period of monumental disasters for the country. Two weeks ago, they were considered the strongest team on the continent of Africa for 35 years.
Nigerian Football’s Long-Running Administrative Crisis
The first Admnistrator that refused to admit his administration’s failure, protested and fought to retain his position as Chairman of the NFA at the end of his tenure, was late Ibrahim Galadima. The consequence of that struggle is what Nigerian football has continued to suffer to this day.
Nigerian football has known no peace. The documents for administering football have continued to be altered and manipulated by every administrator after Galadima, claiming independence from government and latching on to an article in the FIFA statute that forbids ‘Third Party’ interference in the internal affairs of a FIFA member.
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The result is the birth of a new power block in Nigerian football. This group has held on to the running of football in a firm grip. That have created their own power block within the Nigerian football firmament – State Football Associations. They elevated their status and deploy their numerical strength to sustain themselves in power, forever!
For over two decades, no one has been able to unknot the stranglehold. Not even government. So, the country has had to live with what is obviously a non-productive mechanism, one that has failed to yield the results that independence from government ‘interference’ promised.
Here we are now.
Questions That Must Be Answered About Nigerian Football
It is not rocket science that there is a need to look again at the architecture of Nigerian football. Who are the primary actors and real members? Who are secondary affiliates, in the system but not primary constituents?
What is the actual status and the role of State FA’s within the NFA statutes and history?
What are the issues and significance of changing the name NFA to NFF? Is the NFA the assembly of State FA’s as the term ‘federation’ connotes? Or are the State FAs classified still as affiliates as in the original articles and documents establishing the NFA.? When did the status of the State FAs change?
Are State FAs registered private organisations with the CAC? What do their articles say are their responsibilities and mandates? Are they in the same class as associations like the Coaches, Players, NAPHER and Referees Associations?
Who are the members? Are they independent individuals, or are they already captured in other associations in the NFA?
Also Read: Heading To The Civil Court To Help Nigerian Football! — Odegbami
What is wrong about the present system and process of elections? What is right? What are the amendments that must be done to reflect equity, transparency, primary and secondary status, fair representation?
Is an agency owned by government that occupies a prime place in the organisation and funding of all sports and associations to be considered a ‘Third Party’ or a stakeholder?
Is it true that there is no template by any international Organisation, including FIFA, for how national associations should organise and run their national sports associations? Every country organises their own in accordance to their geography, laws, culture, government policies, and so on?
The questions are many that must be asked and answered in order for us to move forward in Nigeria. The conversation must involve the National Assembly. They will domesticate the findings and decisions reached into Nigerian law to give them life and teeth.
National Sports Commission Must Take the Lead
The National Sports Commission is not ‘government’. It is an agency of government agency, not a ‘Third Party’ in Nigeria’s sports architecture. It is a primary stakeholder without which Sports development cannot take place in Nigeria.
It must assert itself NOW and take up the mantle to lead the country’s football out of the present pit! They must get the NFF to follow their good advice in the best interest of the country, do what’s right, bury their pride and ‘thirst’, and become ‘heroes’ of football administration even now.
The courts may not be necessary after all!
