Solving Nigeria's Super Eagles Goalkeeping Wahala*!

The Nigerian national football team, the Super Eagles have at different times been fortunate with very good goalkeepers such as Emmanuel Okala, Best Ogedegbe, Peter Rufai, Aloy Agu, Wilfred Agbonavbare, Ike Shorounmu, Vincent Enyeama, et al but since after the unfortunate circumstances that led to the exit of the mercurial goalkeeper Austin Enyeama, Nigerian football fans have endured the nightmare of several goalkeeping mediocrities.  Just to remember a little exception of some few matches when Carl Ikeme of English Premier League club, Wolverhampton Wanderers FC provided some respite before health-related issues cut short his career. The football world is awash with very talented Nigerian footballers in all positions, except goalkeeping!

 

Several Pretenders After Enyeama's Exit

After Ikeme’s exit, fans have endured the uninspiring performances of Daniel Akpeyi (now retired?), Francis Uzoho, Maduka Okoye, and listless other invitees. What is evident in these men appear similar and makes it difficult to still repose trust in their capabilities. These keepers lack confidence and have not been able to raise their game beyond the little flashes that instigated the trust that got them to the limelight. This assessment is corroborated by their club performances where they enjoy peripheral roles. When Francis Uzoho dazzled everyone last year, during his team's Europa League campaign against Manchester United FC, it got tongues wagging and aroused the optimism that this could raise him to better consistency. Former Manchester United Star affirmed as much but alas it ended as a futile dream.  Maduka Okoye has been elusive since after being blamed for the goal at the 2022 CAF African Nations Cup, second-round match when we lost one nil to Tunisia.

 

Why The Lack of Reliable Keepers?

Unless some disconcerting events abound within the Super Eagles coaching setup, it remains unexplainable how Nigeria still suffers this goalkeeping wahala, whilst several other African keepers, such as Yassin Bonou (Morocco), Eduard Mendy (Senegal), Andre Onana (Cameroon), Mbohi (Algeria) et al continue to distinguish themselves in Europe, Asia, and the Americas. The needful must be done to immediately solve this problem and it remains inconceivable why the Super Eagles cannot have goalkeepers at the level of these mentioned names.

Building Trust

The solution to solving the goalkeeping conundrum remains in building trust and exposing the opportunity beyond the current keepers, who obviously are not the best we have. We must focus on the Nigerian Professional Football League (NPFL) and give ample opportunity to the NPFL keepers, since the available foreign-based options so far identified, have been awful. Football is a global sport with the same rules across the World and little distinguishes the foreign and locally based footballers, as highlighted here by Dutch coach Clemence Westerhof:

‘’The only advantage the foreign players have over the home-based is that the former are more professional minded. They keep in better condition because they know they can easily lose their places in their clubs in Europe if they don’t train hard enough’’.

 

Times have changed and the NPFL players are more focused and proficient because their ultimate ambition is to join a foreign-based club and improve their financial and professional status. The grass-to-grace stories of Kelechi Ihenacho, Victor Osimhen, Victor Boniface, and Gift Orban who emerged from Nigerian football environments without even playing in the NPFL, validate this assertion about the quality of (suppressed talents) players that abound within Nigeria.

 

Several other keepers, such as Bendel Insurance FC, Amas Obasogie, Remo Stars FC Kayode Bankole, and Hapoel Jerusalem FC Adebayo Adeleye are tested first-choice keepers in their teams and consistently showcase their qualities. Their competence makes one wonder why they’re never invited and even when invited are given a cold shoulder to the benefits of the current error-prone keepers. This obviously cannot be based on sporting or performance-based factors. Give them the opportunity and they’d outshine the current goalkeepers and also enhance their opportunities of getting into better foreign football leagues.

The goalkeeping department needs to help instill confidence in our goalkeepers since this is the greatest attribute a keeper needs to reassure the rest of the players. A timid keeper unsettles the entire team!

Note: Wahala Synonym: It connotes something alarming, disturbing, upsetting issues

Despite The Benefits of Bosman Rule To World Football, Most African Teams Remain Broke!

Footballs on green grass

When Belgian football player Jean-Marc Bosman took his club side, RFC Liege of Belgium to the European Court of Justice for infringing on his rights to transfer his services to French club Dunkerque, nobody expected the immense transformation the verdict would bring to World football, until the judge ruled in his favor and against RFC Liege, Belgian FA and UEFA. 

 Before the Bosman Ruling, 

‘’A football player could only move to another club with the agreement of both clubs. Usually, this agreement was only reached by the setting of a "transfer fee", whereby the buying club actually purchased the player from the selling club. This applied regardless of whether or not the player’s contract with the selling club had ended’’. 

 Secondly, the ruling affirmed that quota systems for foreign players who could participate in a match were also held to be illegal.

Article 39 of the EU Treaty, effectively removed this impediment which the quota system created, and consequently, clubs now had the opportunity to recruit as many foreign players as they wanted, provided they came from within the EU States. With this barrier broken, the movement of EU players across the leagues, increased. 

 The consequences to football clubs especially in Europe were that clubs now need to sign players for longer contracts than before; otherwise, they will risk losing their players on free transfers. Unfortunately, smaller clubs cannot afford to sign longer contracts with players (especially young players) who may not fulfill their potential. Therefore, the good players at smaller clubs will usually be able to move to a bigger club on a free transfer. This law hugely stirred the traffic of players from Africa and South America into Europe. Most South American players who could trace their ancestry to Portugal, through colonialism, circumvented the law to easily qualify for EU passport status. The African players, they were taken by football agents to the smaller leagues to enable them to qualify for EU passport status and move to the bigger leagues after some time. This factor immensely transformed world football and made Europe the go-to destination for the most ambitious footballers. 

Former Arsenal FC, coaching legend, Arsene Wenger is known to have contributed to the development of the Sol Beni football facility in Cote D'Ivoire where players were nurtured by European coaches and taken to smaller leagues in France and Belgium for further sales to better clubs. The Kolo and Yaya Toure, Emmanuel Eboe, Salomon Kalou, Gervinho et al emerged from this project. 

One would expect that over twenty years after the Bosman Ruling, African clubs(North African club sides appear to be thriving though) would have explored flourishing collaborations to bring players into Europe and possibly vice versa, with both sides enjoying huge profits, yet the reverse is the case. European clubs buy footballers coming directly from Africa at very cheap fees, compared to the value such players in their country would command. As a result of the poor economy of most African states, these transfer fees end up as huge capital when converted to their local currencies, yet very few African clubs have forged this kind of collaboration to generate huge revenues through player sales. 

Different flags of African nations

 POSSIBLE REASONS FOR THE LACK OF COLLABORATION BETWEEN AFRICAN AND EUROPEAN CLUBS 

 1. Lack of Accountability 

 Just as in governance, the dubious management style of African administrators makes it difficult for most European teams to forge such relationships. The case of the collapse of the collaboration between Ajax Cape Town and Ajax Amsterdam remains fresh. We see African FA's begging for support and owing their coaches despite the grants they receive from FIFA.

 2. Insider theft and brazen corruption 

Huge insider theft and brazen corruption abound in the transfer of African players to Europe and club administrators often connive with football agents to ensure that these players move to Europe as free players, cutting off the clubs and giving little or nothing to the national FA's. 

 3. Lack of Administrative Structure 

 The poor administrative structure of most FA's and clubs and their lack of vision have made it impossible for them to explore such collaborations for the enduring benefits of their enterprise. 

Just like the inept administration replete in several African states, the Bosman ruling has only benefited Africa from the perspective of better remuneration for its players plying their trade within Europe. The same cannot be said for improving the structure and financial capacities of most African clubs and FA's. No wonder FCMG companies avoid sponsorship deals within our local leagues and clubs to avoid unjustifiable financial losses.

• VAR is More of A BusinessThan Football Decision

The Video Assistant Referee technology was formally introduced into the rules of football in 2018, after several mock trials. Hitherto several heartbreaking refereeing decisions have caused pain for teams on the receiving end. Northern Ireland missed the opportunity of participating in the 2010 World Cup through the handball goal scored by French strike, Thierry Henry; Diego Maradona’s hand of god goal against England, in the WC 1986 and Geoff Hurst’s controversial goal against then Western Germany at the 1966 WC final, are part of the listless issues which human refereeing issues have caused in football. Fast forward less than ten years after its introduction, VAR appears to be more of a business, rather than a sporting decision, since it has still not turned refereeing decisions error-free. More so, VAR still relies on human decision-making rather than otherwise. 

What is VAR? 

Simply put, it involves the use of live television/video monitors to review the infractions during live football matches. It is managed by a human video assistant referee. 

Its use covers the following below; 

 There are four categories of decisions that can be reviewed.

[1] Goal/no goal – The attacking team commits an offence, ball out of play, ball entering goal, offside, handball, offences and encroachment during penalty kicks.

(2)  Penalty/no penalty – attacking team commits an offence, ball out of play, location of offence, incorrect awarding, offence not penalised. 

(3) Direct red card – denial of obvious goal-scoring opportunity, serious foul play, violent conduct/biting/spitting, using offensive/insulting/abusive language or gestures. 

(4) Mistaken identity in awarding a red or yellow card. 

THE FALLACY OF VAR 

- It is still based on human decisions and judgment as evident from its failure during the two most recent matches between Tottenham Hotspur FC vs Liverpool FC, in the English Premier League. (1) (2). Human error remains in its use.

 - Its sustenance has increased media broadcast time and worsened the health of players through the longer time they spend on-field, against the stipulated time for this game. Averagely, every football match has been made to have an increased time of 10-15mins, as a result of VAR checks and reviews. The writer believes the former assertion is the most critical reason for its introduction. An increased broadcast time to advertisers is big money to the managers of football across the world! 

 - Human error can never be removed or isolated from every human action and/or activity and accordingly, VAR technology can never be a solution to solving human errors in football and/or any other sport. 

 Irrespective of the efforts to make football error-free, it can never completely determine the final outcomes of games as was evident in the 1999 UEFA Champions League final between Bayern Munich FC and Manchester United FC, wherein the English team won by two extremely late goals after staying behind for virtually the entire game! The celebrated VAR Wahala* was created during the English Premier League, week 7 match between Tottenham FC and Liverpool, the latter still lost by an own goal scored by its own player. This shows that beyond team superior tactics and quality of players, teams also lose matches genuinely by human error, as highlighted here by Joel Matip’s goal against his own team, at the last minute of the game! The beauties of man’s successes and failures; victories and losses, can never be isolated from our actions! A second thought about the use of VAR would help. We had models such as Pierluigi Collina distinguish himself as a referee and its still possible to have more focused umpires.

 • Wahala – A Nigerian pidgin English word to connote ‘’problem’

• The Saudi Arabian Football Revolution And Its Future

The entire world football was open to the spectacle of magnificent stadiums, hotels, and hospitality, last year when the kingdom of Qatar hosted the FIFA World Cup. It was the first time that such a huge world sporting tournament had ever been brought to the entire Middle Eastern Region of the World. It was a culmination of Qatar’s long effort to showcase their nation to the world using the entrepreneurial sagacity of their leadership. They have scored several business branding pluses using their flagship brand asset, Emirates Airlines. This organization has executed several corporate agreements with big sporting establishments, such as Real Madrid FC, AC Milan FC, Arsenal FC, Olympiacos FC, Chelsea FC, Benfica FC, and Hamburg S.V. for a country of its size, much has been achieved by them to establish their nation, as a business-friendly, liberal-minded Islamic state, without the restrictions existing within the economies of several of its neighbors. 

BACKGROUND TO THE SAUDI ARABIAN FOOTBALL REVOLUTION 

These foreign and economic policies of the Kingdom of Qatar, have never been a secret within the entire Middle East region and it was obvious that its success would encourage others to follow suit at the ripe time. In the past two decades funding from the Middle East has been used for investment into popular football club sides such as Manchester City, FC, Paris Saint Germain, and lately Newcastle United FC. 

The emergence of Crown Prince Ibn Salman as a critical driving force in the political and economic policies of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia soon brought these expectations to manifestation. He’s consistently attracted high-profile wrestling and world boxing title matches to Riyadh and the new strategy of attracting quality world footballers to his country is another new dimension to the quest of making the Middle East a veritable location for sports and entertainment. The success of the Qatar FIFA World Cup appears to have further exposed the Middle East to several world football stars. The Erik Ten Hag and Cristiano Ronaldo imbroglio created a perfect opportunity to launch the Saudi Arabian football revolution in the most auspicious way. The latter led the pack of established footballers and coaches to arrive in Saudi, after the 2022 World Cup, and within a twinkle the total numbers make the Saudi League more star-packed than most leagues in Europe and obviously the United States of America. 

 WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD? 

It is obvious that the lure of money has attracted fantastic players such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar, Sadio Mane, Fabinho, Alexander Mitrovic, Edward Mendy, Jordan Henderson, et al but surprisingly, the organizers have not complimented their strategy with the requisite media blitz and strategic broadcasts of their matches. Whilst money played a very important role in attracting the first football explorers, it might not be able to sustain the long-term relevance of this league. The big leagues in Europe also pay well, though, not like the Saudis. The lure of important trophies, such as the Ballon d’Or, UEFA Champions League, the EPL, LaLiga, German and even French league trophies still appear more attractive than whatever the Middle East can give and it would be no surprise, if this revolution collapses within a decade or less; or rather becomes a retirement destination for fagged players to earn their last pay! 

  Argentine World Cup Captain and multiple Balloon D’or winner, Lionel Messi have chosen the American League over Saudi Arabia, and this trend will continue for sometime, just the same way Edson Arantes de Nascimento Jnr(Pele), supported the failed American Football League launch of the mid-1970s. Overall, the soccer revolution has good prospects of being used to launder the Middle East as a liberal, rather than ultra-conservative society for everyone.

Erik Ten Hag Needs to Go!

Manchester United FC coach Erik Ten Hag has ticked all the boxes to get sacked for good reasons. His team lost at Old Trafford to Manchester City this night by three goals to nil! Their fifth EPL loss this season from ten matches!

Coming from Ajax FC of Netherlands, with a somewhat good resume, everyone expected him to take good advantage of his upgrade and give the club fans some very good results. He’s never been short of quality players since he arrived and the summer purchases were not abysmal, but the outcomes have been relatively unsteady! The team took the third position last season and qualified for the UEFA Champions League, possibly as a result of the stuttered performances of other teams.

 

ERIK TEN HAG’S MANAGEMENT DEBACLE

He started by starting up a quarrel with club legend, Ronaldo de Lima, who had to leave the club to avoid further embarrassment, stripped Henry Maguire, as club captain, before casting his caustic gaze on David de Gea, one of the best goalkeepers to have adorned the Manchester United FC jersey. His disagreements with Jordan Sancho, leaves a question mark about his man-management style, but more worrisome, is the team; their style of play, consistency, and series of bad results. Sports pundit and former Arsenal FC player, Paul Merson, alluded to the Ten Hag’s shambolic team style after Manchester United’s loss to Crystal Palace on 30th September.

 

They escaped defeat to Galatasaray FC on 3^rd October, saved by Scott McTominay’s very late goals against Sheffield United FC and Andre Onana’s last-minute penalty save against Copenhagen FC, in the UEFA Champions League now getting walloped by EPL Champions, Manchester City FC. Onana’s save helped reignite hope in their qualification phase of the Champions League. Before his penalty, save, Andre Onana, was close to becoming the star boy for their losses, but like the writer had earlier predicted, he got a respite after the two-week international break.

 

SAVE MANCHESTER UNITED FC,

What is evident about Manchester United FC is that the club needs to be rescued from the clueless rigmarole of Erik Ten Hag; otherwise, the new investors would find the team in the English Championship League by July 2024. Injuries to some senior players cannot be an excuse for their lack luster and insipid performances, since all clubs endure such issues, and having a large squad like what Manchester United FC has, compensates for this. The players have not lost form, but suffering silently…

Not much has been revealed outside the Manchester United FC dressing room for obvious reasons, but more revelations would emerge about several disconcerting events that have so far rendered the team comatose. The quality of the team squad remains at variance with their on-the-field results and unless drastic action is taken, the outcome wouldn’t be favorable to the current vision espoused by the club owners.

Erik Ten Hag remains the major culprit of the downslide of Manchester United FC and as a mark of honor, should be told to resign to enable the team to recover from their bad start. The longer he remains helm, the further down the ladder the team would go!

 

 

How The Fate Of One Man Transformed Nigerian Football

 

The discovery of Nigeria as a fertile ground for quality footballers emerged from the blues!!

The game of Football has always had great fan bases in Nigeria but never did it have such attraction from European teams as the scenario that provoked it from 1986 up to this moment.

Belgian football agent affirmed as much in his interview, with Mumuni Alao, titled, ‘Belgium Exodus,’ published in the Complete Football Magazine, of November 1988, P10.

 

 ‘’Keshi has shown such tremendous football qualities that today he is one of the greatest and most popular footballers in Belgium. His arrival and impact caught everyone unawares and football managers reasoned that if such a quality player came from Nigeria, then there must be more like him untapped. This has been found true and that is why Nigerian Players are now hot cake in Belgium’’.

 

HOW STEPHEN KESHI MOVED TO BELGIUM

Some untidy circumstances led to Okechukwu Stephen Keshi’s exit from the Nigerian Local League to Cote D’Ivoire, before proceeding to Belgium, in the year 1986. When his sublime skills began to intrigue scouts and football managers in Europe, a boisterous trade developed; the magnitude of players’ movement between Nigeria and Belgium could only be compared to the Trans-Atlantic trade in Palm Oil and Kernel which had taken place during the second half of the nineteenth century.

 

In true perspective, other Nigerian footballers had ventured into professional football in Europe and the Americas, before Keshi’s forays but their venture never attracted as much attention as Keshi. While this is not an attempt to undermine the quality of these players, the fact remains true that their performances never attracted such quest for Nigerian players.

Nigerian football legend Teslimi Balogun, played for Peterborough, in the English League around the early 1950s, Richard Owobokiri, played in Brazil and later Portugal, Okey Isima, in the U.S.A and later Portugal, same for Andrew Atuegbu (USA), John Chiedozie in England etc.

 

It was during the 1985 football season whilst Nigeria was preparing for the qualifying series of two major tournaments, i.e. the 1986 ANC and the FIFA World Cup that a clumsy situation arose that led to the then FA Chairman, Group Captain Tony Ikhazoboh, ordering the suspension of Stephen Keshi, Bright Omokaro, Sunday Eboigbe, etc for their refusal to report early to camp.

Having been shut out from the national team and with the suspension affecting his opportunity to continue club football, fate and possible desperation took Keshi to Cote D’Ivoire where he played for six months with Stade D’Abidjan. From Stade, he joined Lokeren FC of Belgium and within the next two seasons, moved to Anderlecht of Belgium which probably still remains the biggest club in Belgium and a force to reckon with in European football history.

 

THE OUTCOME OF STEPHEN KESHI’S MOVE TO BELGIUM

As a result of his immediate success with Lokeren, the team visited Nigeria for a pre-season tour and they engaged the services of Augustine Eguavoen, Samson Siasia, Peter Rufai, and Etim Esin, all players for some of the Nigerian national teams. In most cases, his personal influence was crucial in creating openings for some Nigerians (and African players). After the success of their first foray into Nigeria, other players joined him in Belgium. Some of these players include, Ademola Adeshina, Yisa Shofoluwe, Osaro Obabaifo, Philip Osondu, Chidi Nwanu, and much later, Victor Ikpeba, Daniel Amokachie et al joined. Their worth grew exponentially and Ikpeba (moved from Standard Liege to Monaco FC, France), Amokachie (moved from Club Brugge to Everton FC, England), and Samson Siasia (from Lokeren to Nantes FC, France) soon got bigger in status.

 

The dispersal of Nigerian players to Belgium soon began to spread into other parts of Europe and it is upon this foundation that professional football was legitimized in Nigeria as a legitimate work industry. According to a report by Poli, Raffaele(2006)'Africans' Status in the European Football Players' Labour Market’, Soccer & Society,7:2,278 —291, six years after Keshi’s movement to Belgium, Nigeria had become amongst the top 5 nations with the largest amount of footballers around the world football leagues!

 Okechukwu Stephen Keshi, captained Nigeria to her first FIFA World Cup Comp.etition, in 1994, served as coach to win the CAF African Nations Cup in 2013, and died in 2016. His fate stirred the groundwork upon which contemporary football in Nigeria was founded