WHILE
THE COUNTRY GRAPPLES WITH QUALIFYING FOR THE NATIONS CUP, ROT AT THE BASE OF
THE GAME COULD BE REASON WHY WE MIGHT NEVER REALLY MAKE GREAT STRIDES
A young man visited my
family at home on Sunday afternoon and we began to
delve into the matter of the strange defeat of the Super Eagles in Khartoum the
day before.
As we
talked about the fate of Nigeria’s qualification for the Africa Cup of Nations
hanging in the balance and how it seems many players in the national team do
not deserve their place, my visitor opened up on his experience playing in a
youth academy.
While
growing up, this young man realized he had special talent for football and had
his father register him with one of the most famous football academies in the
country.
Every
Saturday, he went to train with many other young boys who hoped to one day
become stars and represent their country on the big stage.
Joseph
(not his real name) told me how he trained so hard that every breathing moment
was used in imagining himself at a top club playing alongside his heroes.
However,
at the academy he realized that no matter how hard he trained, when there was
any opportunity to play competitive matches, himself and his hard working
colleagues were sidelined for new players who emerged out of the blues.
It
dawned on them that many of the players who were featured in their place had
been included very late due to the influence that their parents had with the
coaching directors.
Not
only were these new players favoured, their parents seemed to grease the palms
of the coaches in order that their children could catch the eye of scouts
during those important competitions.
Joseph
spent seven years playing at the academy, training every Saturday and often
twice a week ahead of tournaments, but played less than five competitive
matches throughout.
On
realizing that he wasn’t going to get the push he needed to catch the eye of
the scouts and move into the big leagues, he eventually opted to learn photography
as his life trade.
I was
touched after hearing his story and was saddened at how corrupt football at the
grassroots is in Nigeria.
Like
Joseph, many budding talents have been lost to the corrupt system. When a
talented young boy or girl fails to find someone to give them that edge in a
corrupt system, their talent fades away and they lose interest.
Imagine
how many Jay Jays and Papilos have abandoned their talent because they had no
father or uncle to grease the palms of the academy coach who could field them
in a competition where they would have caught the eye of a Nigeria Premier
League club’s scout.
So we
end up with less than talented players on the youth national teams who have
gotten there mainly because their agent or parent paid nicely to the coach in
charge.
Fingers
have always been pointed at national team coaches for asking for bribes from
players and players’ agents in order to receive call ups. However, nothing has
ever been proved because players are afraid to speak out or rock the boat.
No one
wants to be accused of bringing down another man even in the face of blatant
abuse of power. Hence, the cycle continues as we wallow in silence.
Inadvertently,
Nigeria ends up with mediocre players who have learnt from their youth that the
best way to achieve success is to grease the palm of the coach and you will be
called up to his squad.
Like
Austin Okocha tweeted on Saturday, “Nigerian football has died long ago we’re
only just witnessing its obituary”
It is
killed by every academy and national team coach who insists on fielding
undeserving players after collecting gratification from their parents and
agents.
They
are the ones killing the dreams of many young Josephs out there, inadvertently
shortchanging our country’s football development.
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