Nigeria football at cross roads (2) News

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Nigeria football at cross roads (2)

By Daily Sports on October 3, 2016

Today, Sports Pulse is bringing the concluding part of our story with the above title. Dear loyal and ardent readers of this column, you have been my big source of strength even when I am so down to write week in week out, your SMS spiced with encouragement were received. For Jubril Aliyu, Johnbull Adebanjo, Ebube Ikeaka, Osagie Osunbor, Justina Isioma, Adeoye Adeyinka, Abduallahi Masari, etc, I did not play the game to the highest level but was in my college junior team. I say a big thank you.

As we did say last week here, England is noted for her fast breaks from the wings to the pullouts. Brazil, the land of samba football is well known for their compact midfield play where at any time of play about seven players occupy a particular zone providing an alternative for their mates with the ball. They are not in a hurry and play entertainment football.

The Germans are there for their power football that wears down any opposing team. For the Italians, its hard tackle the country believes that football can only be played by tough boys and not the chicken hearted. And so they scare you to the marrow even before the game begins.

Unlike their African counterparts, Cameroon, they show you their muscles to weaken your spirit. France admires their velvet football, preferring to add beauty to the game amidst forays from penetrating passes. The Spaniards football is all about holding the ball and dictating the pace. They believe that the man who has the ball will dictate the time and set the agenda for others or opponents to follow.

But what do we have in the country? A mixture of fluctuating football culture that has no visible pattern. That is why our homegrown players in the Nigeria Professional Football League find it extremely difficult to blend within our foreign player within a very short period of time.

Shamefully, the Nigeria Professional Football League, which should ordinarily provide the needed platform for our home based professionals to vividly actualise their potentials, is a show in absurdity. The inability of our league to provide alternative for our foreign legion has heightened the quest for Golden Fleece or greener pastures.

Let me confess that the enabling football laws and environment in the country which should protect the players, have sadly made them slaves in their supposedly homeland. The players are the cows that are milked dried. In short, willing horses that are being rode to untimely death. This can happen only in Nigeria.

As we have severally said in this page that until a special football platform conference is put in place where stakeholders will passionately, patriotically, honestly and positively deliberate on the future of Nigeria football, we will still be at the crossroads.

Of obvious truth is that ‘it is only in Nigeria football that a trader, accountant, hairdresser, lawyer, sportswriter, hotelier, engineer, fashion designer, musician, and all manner of people are stakeholders in the world acclaim sport. The failures that ran our game suddenly brought to football administration, the notoriety of being an all comers’ game; hence many things have gone astray with the smooth running and growth of the game.

To put it mildly, never do wells in their respective professions found their way into the topmost corps by their political god fathers that dump them in football arena for rehabilitation, they don’t know their left from right, hence they brought the multi dollars industry to its knees, yet they are walking freely on the street where they reside. Haba!

These quacks contributed in no small measure to cause the pains the game has been undergoing for a long time now. The installmental death of Nigeria football is better imagined than described, as it will be boring to both the reader and the writer, a chilling story to say the very least. It has brought more pains than joy to over 150 million fans of the round leather game in the land. The sport that rallies us together is being destroyed installmentally. Then the multi dollar question: Who will bell the cat. But bear in mind that our collective joy is fast fading away. Your guess is as good as mine.

It won’t amount to overstatement or predicting a doomsday if we wake up one day and Nigeria football fades out. However, another respite may present itself if the country manages to pick a ticket for Russia 2018 World Cup summit. This is one sport that binds us together as a country; these dubious few that have held our game hostage must not be allowed to bring more pains to Nigerians like the politician who deliberately plunged us into avoidable economic recession. Keep shooting hard 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 October 3, 2016