Agege Stadium Crowd Woes: MFM FC, NFF, LMC and the rest of us!! News

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Agege Stadium Crowd Woes: MFM FC, NFF, LMC and the rest of us!!

By Daily Sports on June 28, 2016

Let me start by apologising for the inability of this column to appear yesterday – Monday being its traditional day of publication. It was due to unforeseen reasons.

This week our focus is on Agege Stadium, Lagos, one of the League venues approved by the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL). If you have been to that stadium, you will quickly come to terms with the reason why we are beaming the searchlight on it today.
I have been there for a game between MFM FC and League Champions, Enyimba. In my earlier write-up on this page, I decried how insecure the stadium is even as I condemned the biased attitude of the referee who officiated that match.
In fact, I prayed from kick-off to the close of the final whistle that Enyimba should not win the game otherwise we would be trapped by crowd unrest. After the game, I asked a colleague: “Who approved this place for games. What kind of stadium is this?”
For the records, Agege Stadium has no reserved and secured area for match officials, club officials, players, journalists and other dignitaries where they can stay without fearing infiltration by unwanted fans. Such is obtainable in other climes.
For your information, Agege Stadium was just hurriedly expanded and renovated to serve as a centre for Eko 2012 National Sports Festival. I wonder why it was approved in the first place to host NPFL matches. If in any way it would be used to host NPFL games, much more work ought to have been done to bring it up to a manageable level than the state in which it is presently.
I have said it times without number that there should be no Nigerian standard in football, because the game has only one globally acceptable standard. The fracas witnessed after the MFM /3SC game was an incident waiting to happen. I can happen anytime the homers lose. It could have been any other team.
As a veteran Sports Journalist, I have followed MFM and its boys in the elite league, and came to the conclusion that all what the NPFL newcomers did in the first stanza was gara-gara, which blindfolded them to erroneously assume that they have arrived. Their game against Enyimba ought to have showed them what the future held as the season progressed.
Let me posit that such illusion may also have made them think that they cannot lose on their home ground. That was what played out Sunday, June 20, when the old war horse, Shooting Stars from the ancient city of Ibadan, came calling. It pained MFM and their fans that one of the whipping sides beat them in front of their fans. MFM FC players are boys and the second stanza of the league is where you do separate the men from the boys. MFM FC Chairman Godwin Enahena and his boys must watch it otherwise their violent supporters would put sand in their garri.
By every standard, Agege Stadium is not fit to host even Nationwide League matches due its porous nature. Nobody cared a hoot to observe this or it has been but the Nigerian factor came into play.
This has been our bane; Nigerian authorities learn or take geology serious the next day after an earthquake. It took the crowd violence for NPFL officials to know that Agege Stadium is unsafe to host matches. Come to think of it, what if any life was lost in the said Agege Stadium mayhem?
Immediately, conflicting signal came from NFF President, Amaju Pinnick, Chairman of MFM FC, Godwin Enakhena, and the Media Officer of the Lagos-based outfit. These are worrisome statements capable of bringing the ‘smooth-running’ season into disrepute if not carefully handled. I saw what just happened coming.
In short, the place is not safe for games as MFM fans are always restive during matches against visiting opponents. The arena was not originally primed for big-time games, if we must tell ourselves the home but bitter truth. This is where the League Management Committee (LMC) with its disciplinary apparatus must stamp its feet firmly on the ground to reassure clubs and their teeming supporters that the league is truly being reformed and steadily winning, too.
Before this column could go to bed, a hurriedly packaged ‘punishment’ was meted out to MFM FC. It was charade as the billionaire team was fined a mere N2m and told to play two home games behind closed doors, while the role of the referee would be investigated. The referee, Abiodun Alaba, has since been prematurely retired by the NFF.

With regard to MFM FC, I must say that the decision is unaccepted because it fell short of LMC’s usual sanctions for teams that experience crowd violence at their venues. The kind of punishment given to past offenders must be dished out to MFM FC. There must not be any sacred cow. Our stand here is that what is good for the goose must also be good for the gander, no more, no less. Let me confess that I don’t have anything against MFM FC; after all, Daily Sports gives the team adequate coverage. I admire the side for their guts that have seen dismiss supposedly great teams in the NPFL, which helped them to gain enough confidence during the first half of the competition.
No single individual or group owns the NPFL. It belongs to Nigeria. This nonsensical decision must be reversed. It is evident that MFM FC was under-punished and it has created a huge gap, suspicion and biased reference point which will likely bring discontent in future.
Why must rules be bent for the Lagos-based team? There must not be any soft landing whatsoever for any team that fail to control their crowd. MFM FC failed in this regard and so appropriate punishment must apply. It may be safe to conclude that this is a clear case of man know man. Shamefully, this is the same syndrome that has held the system hostage in the country. MFM FC have been found guilty and so full justice must take its course accordingly no manner whose ox is gored. The current conspiracy and hypocrisy can only compound matters the more.
A recap: MFM FC hosted 3SC of Ibadan at Agege Stadium in a match dubbed South West derby. According to reports, NFF supremo Amaju Pinnick was in attendance. MFM lost the game 0-1. Following this, the first crowd violence was recorded at the stadium.
Lest we forget, things went the way of MFM FC because less than 24 hours the circle of hypocrisy and fraud which usually characterise our league and administration of football in the country began. This is really unfortunate and regrettable to the most extreme.
What was even more unfortunate was the quick assertion by NFF President Pinnick, being the first to publicly condemn the referee. Pinnick did not only vow to report the referee to the NFF Disciplinary Committee, but also promised that the referee would be banned. When I listened to him, my anger boiled over and I said to nobody in particular, “Who is advising him? When did he become the spokesperson of the LMC? The grave implication of his utterances lingers on.
The truth remains the referee had already been tried, judged and suspended by Pinnick’s uncalled-for reaction. We were told that the referee was being investigated. At the end of the day, Amaju’s declaration was rubber stamped because the chairman of MFM FC, Godwin Enakhena, is his close friend. His team must not lose at home! This is a bad omen for the league, the spectators of whom are yet to make up their minds.
Pinnick’s premature conviction of referee Abiodun Alaba put Tade Azeez, President of the Nigeria Referees Association (NRA), and his men at the receiving end, giving them no choice to defend one of their own or condemn Amaju for pronouncing the referee guilty before trial.
There ought to be a Match Commissioner for the encounter, Referee Assessors and other come and chop officials sent by LMC to match venues who are yet to send their reports before Amaju already sentenced the referee.
Before the pin – not hammer – fell on the club, its Chairman, Enakhena, said he was sure LMC would not sanction his team. He needs not to tell us that as the case has been proved and closed via the little sanction as indicated by the body language of the NFF boss.
Read this cock and bull one from the team’s Media Officer: “The people who caused and participated in the violence were not MFM FC supporters; they were Agege Stadium fans.” It then implies that MFM FC does not have supporters but Agege Stadium fans?
The irony is, when MFM were winning their games, taking on some of the best teams in the league to the cleaners, the supporters were not Agege Stadium spectators, but now that it has turned sour, they are Agege Stadium fans! Pity! Fact is, MFM FC supporters caused the mayhem so the shallow sanction is not equal to the offence.
What is so special that MFM lost a match at home. So what? When crowd violence took place in Jos, it was not Rwan Pam Stadium fans but Giwa FC supporters; when similar thing happened in Sani Abacha Stadium in Kano, it was Kano Pillars supporters, not Kofar Mata Stadium fans. The above teams were visited with heavy sanctions they deserved. Haba! Enough of this conspiracy and hypocrisy!
3SC had been losing matches in Ibadan, so what is special if they go to Lagos and beat MFM FC? We all are watching. I think this will be the beginning of more troubles for MFM FC. God is not a partial God. He does not sleep, slumber or conspire, rather what you sow, you reap!!!
Till next week.

•Victor Enyinnaya can be reached via 08055068145 (sms only) or by e-mail via sportzvictor@yahoo.com.au

Source Daily Sports

Posted June 28, 2016