Nigeria
Tools without the right technician
In 2013, for the first time in 19 years, Nigeria lifted the African Cup of Nations, an extraordinary accomplishment given the strength of the teams in the tournament such as Ghana and the Ivory Coast. The next day, the coach who had lead the team to triumph, native son Stephen Keshi, had resigned.
Thus is the nature of Nigerian soccer; success is almost always immediately thwarted by chaos, disruption, and failure. Among the chief culprits of this instability is the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF).
The tools for a strong soccer scene in Nigeria are all there. Passion for soccer is at an all-time high. The talent pool of total players — larger than that of Portugal, Uruguay, Argentina, and World Cup champion Spain combined — is the fourth biggest of any country competing at the World Cup this summer. The 23 players going to World Cup are talented, having won trophies in Portugal, Turkey, Scotland, Italy, England, and the UEFA Champions League at the club.
The looming threat of turmoil casts a dark cloud over these auspicious facets of Nigerian soccer. Corruption within the federation and the domestic league is rampant, with match-fixing, among other ills, plaguing the sport. Mistreatment by the federation — including a refusal to pay players and staff, violation of contracts, and meddling with team affairs — has tarnished relationships with coaches and officials.
The NFF has not properly managed the resources at its disposal in order to foster growth and stability. In 1996, the Nigerian team — limited to players aged 23 or below — won the gold medal at the Olympic games, defeating powerhouses Brazil and Argentina along the way. This triumph forecasted a sustained period in which Nigeria would certainly be the best team in Africa and among the best in the world. However, this dream was never fulfilled, as Nigeria exited in the Round of 16 in 1998, the first round in 2002, and failed even to qualify for the World Cup in 2006.
Shortsightedness and inability to create lasting stability are among the frustrations that those associated with the NFF have expressed. Keshi, who since his resignation has been reinstated as coach of the Nigerian national team, said after leading his team to victory in the Cup of Nations, “Nigerians don’t want me to stay … When there’s an African coach nobody wants to give you time, they want you to have the job today, build a wonderful team tomorrow, and next year win the World Cup.”
In order to build a vision for long term success, the NFF must first focus on eliminating corruption. Entrenched in a political climate in which bribery is widespread, having club soccer teams owned and operated by regional governors is unwise. Private investment is a requisite for Nigeria if it wants to improve its domestic league and create academies adequate for player development.
In the past, Nigerian players have benefitted immensely from private investment going toward youth soccer. The country’s best current player, John Obi Mikel of Chelsea, caught the attention of European scouts after being selected to the Pepsi Football Academy, a sponsor-driven initiative that has produced several national team players.
Additionally, using funds from FIFA’s Goal project for development, Nigeria has begun — and must continue — to construct technical centres in each of its 36 states. These edifices have numerous positive effects: centralizing the development of youth, streamlining the process by which European scouts can identify top prospects, bringing together a region’s best talent to raise the level of play which young players participate in, and lastly, but certainly not least, providing a stable environment in which players have access to adequate resources and nutrition.
While Nigeria has managed to produce several world class players who have carried the team over the past two decades, proactivity is necessary if the federation hopes to remain one of Africa’s elite. In his piece “The Pillars of the Earth,” journalist Simon Kuper details how Nigerians are much more willing to pay to watch English Premier League games on television than to attend a local domestic league match.
BBC writer Andrew Walker adds in his article “Is Premier League Killing Nigerian Football?” that a decline in the quality in the domestic league — which he attributes to unpaid player wages driving talent abroad and the habit of owners fixing matches — has driven away fans, which, coupled with corruption at the club level, has meant that Nigerian club teams are spending less and less on player development.
Introducing private investment into teams and sponsorships within the Nigerian domestic league is the best way to produce accountability and results. While it will never be on the level of the Premier League or other elite leagues in Europe, the Nigerian first division, if stocked with bright, young, domestic talent, will be able to latch on to the passion for soccer present throughout the country and achieve financial stability, a positive step for the short term viability of those clubs and the long term future of the country’s player development.
The NFF must focus on protecting the long term future of the game in Nigeria, not on meddling with team affairs and refusing to give any sense of job security to its coach, who has been universally lauded for his superb performance given limited resources and support from the federation. Actions such as a predetermination to fire Keshi upon the country’s elimination from the African Cup of Nations in 2013 — which didn’t work out too well given Nigeria, to the chagrin of its own federation, won the tournament — in order to hire a European coach ahead of the World Cup only hurt the country’s chances, especially since European coaches do not have a better track record than African coaches with African national teams.
The legacy of the NFF has been one of counterproductivity and the squandering of golden opportunities over the past twenty years. If it continues to thwart the development of the game, not only will it squander these chances, but those opportunities will simply stop coming. Only through sound investment, long term planning, and the elimination of corruption, can the NFF acquire both the tools and the acumen to use them in order to foster the growth of the game and the success of the national team.
