IT WAS not my first visit to the Sports Zone, the “most popular sports show anywhere,” as Sadiq, the cerebral yet vivacious morning belt anchor on Lagos Talks 91.3FM, likes to describe the program. But certainly, it was my most enjoyable.
Last Thursday morning, August the 8th, I had to leave home unusually early in order to be on time for the 8.00 am start of the program. Co-anchor Segun Agbede “The Pundit” had graciously invited me the previous week following our brief conversation on the never-ending debate about the status of foreign and home-based players in the Super Eagles. We didn’t agree on the matter: Segun felt the homeboys deserved a more prominent role while I felt differently. But Segun found my arguments reasonable enough for serious consideration and thought I should come to share my thoughts with SportsZone listeners. So, I went.
I was swept off my feet by the reception that I got. First, another co-anchor, Joseph Faulkner who apparently wasn’t scheduled to feature on the day showed up to say he had come when he learned I was coming around. Second, Yemi Adesanya and Femi Farawe, the other analysts on the call, both went on about how much they enjoyed reading my articles in Complete Football magazine many years ago when they were “in secondary school.” Then Segun, ever the wordsmith, said he couldn’t find the right word at that moment to describe me to his listeners so he decided simply to call me “a legend.” I was flabbergasted.
I am a regular listener to SportsZone so I knew very well the position of each guy in the studio on the main issue Segun had invited me to discuss. Apart from Segun himself, Joseph was another diehard advocate for the local players and I confessed during the program that I wished he hadn’t shown up because I didn’t want to cross his path in any argument. Oh, Joseph is such a tough debater; he never ever gives up. Segun is equally a handful in an argument and I had always admired how Charles Anazodo, the main anchor and a tough cookie himself, coped with both Segun and Joseph when they disagreed with him on issues……which was often the case! (Charles was on vacation when I visited).
Yemi is also an advocate of the local players, leaving Femi as the only analyst in the studio whose views I shared. To clarify, Femi is actually a “pro-Gernot Rorh” like me, not necessarily “anti-home based.” But being pro-Rorh has been equated somewhat with being anti-home boys in recent conversations which may not be totally correct.
Anyway, I had come well prepared to explain my viewpoints. When the question was put to me whether I thought the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) was good enough to provide ready-made materials to populate the Super Eagles at the moment, my answer was a straightforward NO. The following were some of my arguments…..
It would appear that the facts of my arguments resonated with the SportsZone team because Segun, Joseph, and Yemi didn’t tackle me rugby-style like I know they’ve done to Charles and Femi quite often on this subject. I thought perhaps they were just being nice to me as their guest, but Segun admitted afterward that my point about the global drift towards a dominant Europe as the capital of world football is indisputable which gives the advantage to Nigeria’s foreign-based players over the local boys.
One point on which my hosts would not be moved at all, however, was the status of current Super Eagles coach Gernot Rohr. Illustrating with Nigeria’s experience with Dutch coaches Clemens Westerhof between 1989 and 1994 and Jo Bonfrere between 1996 and 2000 when we recorded our greatest achievements at the senior level, I argued for continuity with Rorh on the basis that our third-place finish at the last AFCON was not too bad, but Segun would hear none of it. Neither would Joseph and Yemi. All three are simply exasperated by Rohr’s dismissive attitude towards the local players, his refusal to scout in the league at all, and his penchant to select players from the “backwaters of lowly foreign leagues when there are better players at home.”
I agreed that Rorh needs to do more to encourage the homeboys, just like Westerhof did in his own time. But I insisted that it was Rohr’s prerogative to decide which players are “better” for the national team. And if our best players can only be found in the “backwaters of lowly foreign leagues,” (Odion Ighalo in China?; Ahmed Musa in Saudi Arabia?), that tells us how much repair work needs to be done in our football as a whole.
In my opinion, the repair work must begin at the foundation level, the grassroots: setting minimum standards for structured football academies in terms of facilities and personnel requirements; disbanding so-called academies that do not meet set standards; developing a central football curriculum that will define and entrench a national playing culture across all age cadres; organizing specialized training programs for youth coaches; and more. These are some of the developmental functions that the technical committee of the Nigeria Football Federation should engage in at the moment to ensure the future growth of our football.
At club football level, the work is even much more before we can become competitive even for club continental titles again. But if we’re committed, it won’t be long before the results will start to show because, truly, our footballers are naturally talented. What we’re missing are the key supporting elements to grow and nurture the talents.
I say thank you to the SportsZone crew for having me on their program. The home-based versus foreign-based debate in Nigerian football is never likely to end. It will continue to elicit a lot of arguments. The reader here is welcome to join the conversation. Make your comments below…..
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