Hello to you sports lover of  Nairaland.

I know that we all are not happy with the performance of the Super Eagles in the just concluded African Cup of Nations but we need to identify the problem with our football and give possible and a lasting solution to it.

Who is to be blamed between the NFA, COACH AND THE PALYERS?

This is what i have been nursing in my mind.

Start posting NOW!!!

THE SOULTION TO OUR PROBLEM IS SIMPLE SERPARATE POLITICS AND FOOTBALL THEN WE CAN START MOVING FORWARD .
THERE IS TOO MUCH POLITICS IN OUR FOOTBALL AT THE TOP.



THAT IS WHY WE HAVE NO LEAGUE.

MY SOLUTION IS MADE N.F.A. A PRIVATE ENTITY SO THAT IT DOES VE TO RELY ON GOVT. ALL THE TIME AND GOVT. PEOPLE RUNNING THE AFFAIRS.

Problem of Nigerian Football

Nigerians have an unrealistic expectation of the eagles. This is a team that has won Nations cup just twice while Ghana-4, Egypt-5, Cameroun who won their 1st in 1984 have won 4 since then. Nigerians can’t complain that they lose players to European countries like Some African countries. Ghana had Desailly, Asamoah and Odonkor, Algeria-Zidane, Tunisia-Lamouche, Morocco-Djorkaeff, Zaire-Makelele, Mpenza, Luyindula, CIV-Basile Boli, Mali-Tigana, Senegal-Ibrahim Ba, Vieira even Mozambique had Eusebio. They could have argued that if these players had played for us we would have ruled African. No Nigerians player (Save Onyewu) has represented another country at a tourney. (Someone just reminded me of Ogunbiyi and Omotoyossi for Benin republic)


It’s on record that Nigeria has never beaten a top country (Former world cup winner) in any type of game at the senior level friendly of not. The best of Cameroun defeated Maradona Inspired Argentina and Brazil at Confederations cup, the best of Senegal shocked France. Our outings against teams like Germany, Italy, Brazil Argentina, Holland and co only have one result- Losses for Nigeria.
Our pool of star is also blatantly overrated. For in my African all time top 5 no Nigerian featured. George Weah, Roger Milla, Samuel etoo, Abedi Pele and Didier Drogba in no particular order

It’s also on record that no Nigerian striker since we started playing pro soccer has never been highest goal scorer in any top league. What Drogba and Etoo did. The closest was Yekini& owubokiri (For those who consider Portugal a top league) but who remembers Meyong Ze of Cameroun was top scorer in Portugal in 2003/2004. Even in African competitions we had to struggle for over 50 years to win the CAF champions league almost every country won it before us.
Nigeria lost to Italy in 1994, Senegal in 2004 and Ghana in 2008 after the opponent had been reduced to 10 men- what character!!!

We always deceive ourselves with rumours/fables like Okocha taught Ronaldinho football (beggars wish), Finidi was once world best 7 (Who can tell me which authority gave him the award and who are the world best 7 per year before and after him). We apportion blame at the slightest instance blaming the referee almost every time. We have been trying to explain the blatant offside we scored at Atlanta 1996 final game by Amunike

We blame the NFA who remembers that Cameroun won 2000 without a FA. Now Vogts might be sacked he is the scapegoat why didn’t South Africa sack Parreira o. In my opinion we should leave Vogts. Rudi Voller lost scandalously to England in 2001, he was not sacked and 12 months later he played the world cup final. Aime Jacquet lost woefully at Tournoi de France and 5 months later won the World cup. We are going back to the always available but completely ineffective drawing board.

The solution is for us to lower our gaze and have a more realistic expectation of our team Currently only Mikel plays for a top Club in Europe (The Real Madrid, Barcelona, AC Milan, Juventus, Man Utd, Bayern, Liverpool and lately Arsenal avoid Nigeria players like a bubonic plague while they all have Africans from Mali to Angola, even Togolese in their midst.

Now Vogts might be sacked he is the scapegoat why didn’t South Africa sack Parreira o. In my opinion we should leave Vogts.

@dayokanu, do not compare parreira with berti in the sense that you can see the impact of Parreira in the South Africa team (technicality, team spirit and commitment) they are ready to go, playing as a team unlike our own eagles playing individual game, not committed and lack technicality.

Commitment Technicality and stuffs is that what he is paid to do? Or to win.

It takes time to build a team and is from the beginning that you will know a coch who is going tobe successful with the his managing.

Can you compare Arsenal of last season with this season, they are playing wonderfully well but if you could recollect Arsenal fans are not pleases with their team last season but now they are more than comfortable.

Oarreira is also on the path of building a new team for South Africa not relying on any star player, which you yourself can testify to but look at our own coach he only rely on big names, he is not ready to groom our home base boys and also i didn't see the impact of Berti in the Super Eagles that played in Ghana (no team work, rather than individual game).

How long has Berti Vogts stayed in Nigeria. Well he has left so bring anyone you want Tunde Disu or Monday Sinclair.

How can we use local league players when majority of our players do their trade in Europe unlike South Africa.?

You complain he does not stay in Nigeria was Guus Hindick not coach of Australia and stayed in Holland coaching PSV?

Vogts relying on big names ? You mean Shittu or Ejide who are revelations are big names?

You didn't get my point.
Did you enjoy any Super eagles match in the just concluded Ghana 2008?

I prefer watching Angola, South Africa, Egypt and Ivory Coast than watching Eagles because they are not impressing.

Italy and germany are the most boring teams to watch but they are the country who have won most trophies in Europe.

Like you dont get

Can you compare the performance of Eagles in Mali 2002, Tunisia 2004 and Egypt 2006 (Local Coaches in charge) to their performance in Ghana 2008.

Before the Nations Cup he said we should expect Arsenal pattern but what did we see Liverpool Pattern, this shows that he doesn't know what he is doing.

To me Berti is a Failure.

Good reasoning dayokanu !. Nigerians simply do not know what they want. As far as I am concerned, the super Eagles played great games against CIV and Ghana. But for the momentary loss of concentration in defence, Nigeria would not have lost. Everybody is shouting sack berti but I tell you if Nigeria had played exactly the same way and won, Nigerians would have been singing Berti's praises as the most tactical coach in the whole wide world. If Nigeria eventually sacks Berti we will end up spending months debating on who the next coach will be. We have moved from foreign to local to foreign to local,   Nigerians must not continue to deceive themselves about the competence of the our local coaches. They lack the organisational ability as well as the respect to do the job. Let's hope that Berti is given the opportunity to carry on instead of this shadow chasing

Ahidjo,
Berti has already left the job

http://goal.com/en/Articolo.aspx?ContenutoId=592951

I have been waiting for this and thank God it finally happen.

dayokanu,
i think u are a good sports writter and with what i read above, u have won urself the prophet of doom in the nigerian sports programme(football).
where did u place the fifa ranking which has left nigeria above everyother country in africa?
what did u say about caf and here african player of the year awards which nigerians had won on several occassions.
football originated from england and so? nigeria is having a problem in her football which to me is as a result of politics but if we look at it from the other way round, economics accept up and down as a normal economic growth, so? if we re down for any reason, we can be up somtime but we are shld concentrate doing will be searching for the problem and solution.
if fifa and caf believe we are good, who are u to say we are not? u remind me of eguavon in egypt 2006 when he said caf was wrong in recognising mikel as man of the match instead of vincent-that is semi madness.
england could not qualify for euro 2008, brazil was humiliated in germany 2006 so brother, nigeria can have their bad times too unless u are voicing out ur friustration over our bad outing.

@Chidi,
FIFA can rate anyone they want anywhere. Why should you care about FIFA ranking if you are winning tournaments which one would you prefer winning tournaments or

getting top position in FIFA ranking. SO refering to FIFA ranking hold no water at all.

Nigeria won those CAF awards when our players were better than those from other countries. Not that we were better organised. We won in 1994 and 1996 because our

players were superior. but gone are those days when our players are superior. Or do you think the NFA has changed from what it used to be? DO you think the NFA is

worse than in those days we used to win? If we blame politics In 1994 politics was at its highest in Nigerian football when the coach could go to Aso rock directly and we

even had Mafia in the team then. I can remember in those days Keshi and co would arrive Lagos 48hours to the match and they would still whip other countries silly. I

remember a time Nigerian team had to cut track suit to shorts for eagles to play yet we won Burkina Faso 7-0 on that day. It was in those times that NFA official forgot

passport of Under 17 boys in his car boot in Lagos. Yet we won in those days.

Cote D'Ivore is a war torn country, they lost there coach 2 weeks to tournament but because they churn out good footballers, they are able to compete.

You mean a bad outing is winning the Nations cup twice since inception?

Can you bring out any point from what I said and lets discuss it?

The reason for our optimism is that we have reached every semi-final since 1984. We truly are an African power. All other countries respect and even fear us because they always see us in the semi-final or final.

BTW, Ghana only won ANC in the sixties. That doesn't count. Its like saying that Uruguay are a great team cos they won the WC twice. Also, we would have won the ANC 4 times if Abacha had not pulled us out of South Africa in 1996 because that was our golden era. I believe we would have won 1996 and 1998.

To be honest, looking at the present African game, only Ivory Coast should be better than us. We are the only team who have strength in depth except for Ivory Coast. We can produce two or three teams all of whom are playing at a high level in Europe. That is why much is expected of us.

The reason for our optimism is that we have reached every semi-final since 1984. We truly are an African power. All other countries respect and even fear us because they always see us in the semi-final or final.

Reaching semifinals count for nothing when you dont win Brazil did not play any w/cup semi between 1970 and 1990 but when they came out they won it. Better stay in the doldruns and come out strongly than doing nearly misses. We won nations cup before Cameroun tasted it Now they have 4 and we are stuck on 2.

BTW, Ghana only won ANC in the sixties. That doesn't count. Its like saying that Uruguay are a great team because they won the WC twice. Also, we would have won the ANC 4 times if Abacha had not pulled us out of South Africa in 1996 because that was our golden era. I believe we would have won 1996 and 1998.

Meaning those Nations cup Egypt won then dont count, That also means England has never won a world cup before. IF Abacha, what do you mean by that If CoteDIvore did not go to this Nations cup they would have felt they would win easily but you too know the result now.

To be honest, looking at the present African game, only Ivory Coast should be better than us. We are the only team who have strength in depth except for Ivory Coast. We can produce two or three teams all of whom are playing at a high level in Europe. That is why much is expected of us.

Only Mikel plays in a top club hope you know

Watched Everton play against BRANN tonight

Match ended with Everton scoring 6 goals with YAKUBU scoring 3 goals out of the 6.

Only Mikel plays in a top club hope you know

Nigerian don't want to accept this fact. Even Westerhof testify to this by saying that Mikel Obi is the best Nigeria player now.

@ Dayokanu which side are on?

Is politics our problem or the players.

Match ended with Everton scoring 6 goals with YAKUBU scoring 3 goals out of the 6.

But he was more thn dead in the Cup of Nations

amodu:

But he was more thn dead in the Cup of Nations

e easy to score two goals for nationscup?
go and ask kanu

Papilo is a team player, he doesn't worried if he scored or not.

Is not easy to score two goals but for a world class striker like Yakubu it should be easy for him.

Dayoku,
i like your views but i would want you to look at the following points;
1. individual football and team football
among the players that represented nigeria in ghana this year, who do u think is not good enough a player to represent nigeria?
on this, i would want to you to know that our players are super players individually but they lacked unity that will bring out team work.
just go back to the good old days and simply look at their celebrations when they score a goal and compare it with what we have in our current eagles.
look at yakubu as a player, a hat-trick in a uefa match an then  watch every other player in the team at their club levels.
2. NFA
abacha''s regime brought out the best of the eagles. and the nfa or whatever/whoever was in-charge then knows abacha himself will not smile over any fumble. look at enyimba fc playing with their governor on the bench and the state account open for them and we saw a nigeria team winning caf champions league for the first time in histroy and winning it back to back and this is called motivation.
make a football worshipper our president tomorrow and nigeria will bring home the world cup. and we do not want to compare such situation where the baba is interested in oil well and buying up all the federal gov owned companies.
3. politics
abacha came to power by force and had no one to please unlike baba who is his efforts to settle thugs will make a taut the nfa chairman as a compensation for his contributions during election. mediocres have taken over our football governing bodies so what do u expect?
4.coaches
after the era of abacha which marked the downfall of our national football, who and who have been our coaches and what have been  the method of their selections ? who selects these coaches and on what pedigrees?
check out the late ymi tella who won the under 17 cup in korea, one could see from distance the relationship between the players and the coaching crew even when their chief coach was sick.
i do hope that with these few points of mine, i have been able to convience and not confuse you as i go ahead to we still have the quality players that can deliever but we need administrative purge that will make room for unity in the team.

moreso brother, the founders of olympic games said, it is not all about inning the game but participating in the game. Fifa and Caf for favouring nigeria when they are not qualified(according to u) must have seen some potentials in them.

you can count how many nations cups without nigeria.

i can reliably argue it that lack of FA can serve as a motivation to the players. the removal of Mensah which left ghana team one man deficit served as a motivation to them against nigeria. nigeria lost in the same manner in 1994 when Italy was reduced to 10 men with the removal of Zola.

Yakubu also scored yesterday against Manchester City.

The problem of Nigerian football is not politics its DECLINING/POOR quality of players

i can reliably argue it that lack of FA can serve as a motivation to the players. the removal of Mensah which left ghana team one man deficit served as a motivation to them against nigeria. nigeria lost in the same manner in 1994 when Italy was reduced to 10 men with the removal of Zola.

Add vs Senegal in 2002

i like your views but i would want you to look at the following points;
1. individual football and team football
among the players that represented nigeria in ghana this year, who do u think is not good enough a player to represent nigeria?
on this, i would want to you to know that our players are super players individually but they lacked unity that will bring out team work.
just go back to the good old days and simply look at their celebrations when they score a goal and compare it with what we have in our current eagles.
look at yakubu as a player, a hat-trick in a uefa match an then watch every other player in the team at their club levels.

Etuhu, Apam, Olofinjana, Taiye taiwo Nsofor. A number of them have declined Utaka, Martins, Yobo

Apart from Utaka thathas lost form before te cup of nations, every other player are performing well with their respective clubs.

Which coach was appointed for the eagles

GOD, i am always happy for the kind of youths we have in this country call Nigeria, guys, just checkout how talented guys and gals are. DAYOKANU, welldone. having red all your posts and views. GOD know you are all right. if we hold the NFA responsible, was it not thesame NFA we had when we were doing well. and for dayokanu that thinks we really haven't donewell to be precise, he is also right statistically. The NFA should free the firm, football is not politics but i also think the Nigerian players don't have the multivation to go farer than where they stooped. for someone like yakubu who has been highest goal scorer for all the clubs he had played for in england, he should do better than what we see. on a good day Nigeria should be able to win Ghana with a man down but with Ghana having a man down still winning Nigeria, the players i don't think were serious enough. See, all the present Nigerian players are playing base on history that was built by another squad, they should create their own history. Another thing i noticed was that the mildfield of Nigeriawas not as it use to be. the only reason Nigeria kills people thosedays was the power in the mildfield. keshi, oliseh, okocha, kanu, amokachi. but now, not to say etuhu and co is bad but need to really improve. players of their quality don't realy play for Nigeria in does days. i don't know why. and for Betti he should be sacked not base on the performances alone, he doesint have history in football coaching. he is technically deficient. even if he stay, he wont make any good to our football. he should have been sign in the first place. sorrybBetti v

?

@ Nouble, I love your analysis