Mourhinho Culture and FIFA Have Destroyed Nigerian Football

There is no gainsaying that Nigerian football has climbed down to its lowest depth in recent times despite a steady increase in financial investments. Apart from a complete absence of developmental programmes by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), the issue of corruption has almost become an acceptable norm in football administration in Nigeria. Unfortunately, not much have been done to check graft in the system owing to the blind and illogical support FIFA gives to national associations. Any member of the board of NFF that speaks out against corruption is either suspended or sidelined by the leadership of the Glass House. To make matters worse, a few corrupt officials in the NFF and NSC openly accuse government of “interference” and go ahead to use FIFA to threaten a ban each time issues pertaining to graft are raised. Enough is enough. Is it not with government money that Nigerian football is run? Why should government not be seen as an active stakeholder in Nigerian football? If the NFF does not want stakeholders to ask questions bothering on their finances, it must do well to source for funds from organisations that do not know their rights or appreciate the culture of transparency, accountability, and due process.

As a Nigerian, I had wished and hoped that Nigeria reached an appreciable level at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. This could not however be because football is a practical thing that needs a whole lot of planning and systematic implementations of associated actions and programmes.

I have said it over and again that the future of Nigerian football should not be built on foreign based players. We would therefore need to improve our local league and also invest in developmental programmes. No doubt, government cannot shoulder this responsibility alone. The organised private sector must be encouraged by way of incentives to partner with government in upgrading facilities and increase monetised benefits of professional players in the local league. With this, the mad rush to Europe will reduce and enable the coaches to effectively monitor and build our national teams around home based players.

Nigerians should ignore the charge of "inexperience" that is always hanged on the neck of home based players. While it is true that experience is vital in football, it is also true that this is the excuse lazy coaches have often times used to cover up their lapses. Knowing fully well that they have nothing to offer, such coaches would always want to ride on the backs of talented players to win laurels. This is what I refer to as the "Mourhinho culture." With the "Mourhinho culture", a coach does not need to develop talents. He only needs to poach. Unfortunately for Nigeria, there are no enough quality players to poach from both the foreign and local leagues. This is the reason why we have not been able to fair well at the world stage despite the fact some our nationals play first team football in major clubs across Europe.

It is very absurd that Nigeria rely on foreign based players for even cadet competitions. This should not have been the case if the quality of our local league is high. Perhaps I should mention here that most foreign based players are framed to value their respective clubs more than country. This could best explain the lack of commitment shown by most players in our national teams.

Another area of serious concern is the quality and integrity of our local coaches. This has most times led to the selection of low quality players. Apart from upgrading their knowledge on latest coaching methods, our local coaches must move away from sentiments while selecting players for the national teams. Chances to play in the national team should be open.