Of Eagles' Failure and the Blame Game

By

Immam Dalhatu Immam

immamy2k@yahoo.com

Nigerians can be funny even when the subject matter is not. This attitude came to the fore once again after the Super Eagles’ failure to qualify for the 2006 World Cup.

Opinions have tilted to one direction as to what really caused Nigeria’s failure to make it to Germany. However what can be adduce from all these write ups is the fact that rather than seek a concrete means of avoiding such disaster in the future, many of the so-called pundits laid emphasis on who should get the blame for the Eagles’ ouster.

No doubt, many felt anger, disdain, disappointment, fury and disenchantment all at the same time after it dawned on us that Angola had defeated Rwanda 1-0 in Kigali to get the all-important three points they needed to make it to the Mundial for the first time in their history.

One could hardly blame the ordinary fan for feeling let down by powers that be in Nigerian football. Apart from religion, soccer is one thing Nigerians feel so passionately about. And yet unlike religion or politics, soccer is the only unifying factor among the diverse ethnic groups that make up the country. So one can sense the feeling of betrayal felt by soccer-mad Nigerians at the turn of events in the qualifiers.

But to any keen observer of happenings in our football, it can be confidently said that the handwriting was clearly on the wall. When the Eagles failed to beat Angola at home after conceding defeat in Luanda, our fate was no more in our hands. We had to rely on Angola losing points which, as it turned out, the Palanca Negras were not ready to do.

The consequences of Nigeria’s failure to qualify for the World Cup is better left imagined. Apart from the financial loss to the Nigeria Football Association (NFA), many of our young players will not have the chance to showcase their talents at the world stage until five years from now, that is at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. That time may be too far to most of the present crop of Eagles’ players.

Super Eagles’ skipper Austin Okocha, still mulling on whether to take part in next year’s African Nations Cup campaign or not, saw his dream of aiming to be the first African to play in four consecutive World Cup finals shattered. This failure may well send the diminutive midfielder into early retirement from the national team. For the likes of Joseph Yobo, Obafemi Martins and Chidi Odiah, the Nations Cup in Egypt provides a veritable avenue to right the wrongs of the World Cup qualifiers.

Thank God, all attention has now shifted to Egypt, with coach Austin Eguavoen assuring the nation that Nigeria will win the event. "It is a big blow that we will not be in Germany next year but what we need to do now is to try and pick up the pieces. We may have lost the chance to play in the World Cup but we still have the potential to win the Nations Cup in Egypt," said Eguavoen, who took charge of the national team in June after the Eagles were held to a 1-1 draw in Kano.

"It’s my target to win the competition using our best players. This time we will not be depending on another team to do us a favour because we have our fate in our hands. We are the best team in Africa today but unfortunately we did not prove that in the qualifying series for the World Cup. Egypt will provide us with another chance to show what we are really capable of," he added.

As is the norm with many man-made disasters in this country, it does appear that no one will be held responsible for this national calamity. What we’ve been hearing since is who should get the blame for the failure. So far, there has been no concrete effort to get down to the root of the problem and address it against future occurrence.

The reasons been adduced for our failure varies from the genuine to the absurd. While some are ever ready to blame the NFA for leadership ineptitude, others lambasted the players for not showing enough commitment. Yet others are angered by the fact God simply don’t want Nigeria to make it to Germany. Many, especially the so-called analysts who see nothing good in local coaches blamed Chukwu for the failure. They may all be right. However, what has defied logic is the insistence on some people to blame the failure squarely on the fact that had the Eagles not played Angola in Kano, they would have made it to Germany. Such statements, to me, missed the point.

Before the Kano match, the Eagles have stuttered in all their home matches in the qualifiers. Against Algeria in Abuja, it took a late Joseph Yobo header to settle the match 1-0 in favour of the ‘holidaying Eagles’ (apology to Okocha). Against Gabon, it took the intervention of substitute Nwankwo Kanu to decide the match. With that frame of mind, the Eagles went into the Kano match not well prepared. The weather only complemented a lacklustre performance. Another thing is that the match was scheduled to take place in Kano at least a month before the d-day. Our players did not finish arriving camp until the Thursday before the match. That means that they had only two days to ‘acclimatise’ in their own country for the match. Similarly, while the Angolans felt at home in the scotching heat, our European players simply fazed away, giving their hosts the opportunity to size initiative and snatch an all important draw.

Of all that was said and done, one fact remains that we Nigerians never gave any respect to the Angolans. What we say today is that we failed to qualify not because the Angolans deserve to be in Germany, but because we did not get our acts together. Such thoughts smack of hypocrisy. As the other qualifiers across Africa has shown, the game of football is no more an exclusive preserve of a few super power countries. At the beginning of the last weekend of the qualifying rounds, no team among the big countries qualified for the finals in Germany. This explains how dicey and fluid the situation was across the continent. The so-called football power house of the continent, Nigeria and Cameroon were also not sure of their fates as the minnows were determined to edge them out.

At the end of the last day of the qualifying rounds, a simple and clear message was sent across the continent that such dominance is about to change as the minnows have emerged from nowhere to book tickets to Germany.

Who would have thought Togo would qualify for Germany 2006 at the expense of Senegal, Ivory Coast at the expense of Cameroon, Angola at the expense of Nigeria, or Ghana at the expense of South Africa? Who would have bet a dime that Nigeria, Cameroon and South Africa would not make it to Germany in 2006?

Despite the pain of not qualifying, some analysts are of the opinion that it is good it has happened now. They pointed out that those charged with the responsibility of running our football have failed and as such they should realize their mistakes and leave. Many of such analysts have turned constructive criticism into personal hatred for some NFA officials.

Agreed Nigerian football deserves more what it is getting from these officials, but one has to acknowledge the fact that progress has been made in many areas. Rather than think this present NFA board can provide all the solution to our football problems, we should view them as part of the solution to the problems. We all know what has been happening to the much-maligned Decree 101. Even in the face of FIFA threats, the National Assembly and the Sports Ministry are yet to come up with a substitute document acceptable to stakeholders and FIFA. That problem is well beyond the NFA. Similarly, despite constant efforts to improve the lots of our coaches and referees, they’ve simply refused to improve. Most of them, as Amodu Shuaibu once pointed out, are not ready to invest into things that will improve their knowledge of the game. They expend their energy on constant criticism of any policy introduced to better their lots.

Not to mention the media whose only interest is what goes into their pockets to the detriment of the entire country. When former Sports Minister retired Colonel Musa Muhammed insisted on holding some people believed to have been cog in the wheel of progress of sports in the Sports Ministry, sports writers rallied against him. Some accused him of being anti-Christian. Not also to mention many who are in the pay roll of some players. Past national team coaches have complained on the antics of some journalists who give them names of players to invite to camp, once those coaches turn down the requests, all sorts of negative things will be written to discredit the coach and his team.

For our football to get out of its present quagmire, a comprehensive overhaul of everything is required. Thank God that the failure came at the tail end of the present NFA board so we will have the opportunity to elect ‘saints’ who will run our soccer affairs. The President should also hasten up and sign the new bill to run our football. It is also time to give much consideration on the development of youth football so as to have reservoir of players to succeed the likes of Okocha and co when they eventually retire.