Football

Football, Nigeria & Vision 2020

Andrews Solicitors

In football terms, the meeting of Manchester United and arch rivals Chelsea on 21 May 2008 in the UEFA Champions League final in Moscow put down many significant markers in the history of football. It was a first time two English club sides were meeting in the tournament of that proportion. That game is usually and customarily described as the biggest club game in the football calendar. Over 200,000 people were reported to have visited Moscow on the day of the game. Television audiences were rumoured to be in the neighbourhood of 500 million people. The reality is, therefore, that in the sporting calendar of 2008, it was probably the single biggest event that will take place on one day in this year. Its commercial effect on the city of Moscow ran into several million dollars with businesses from television, merchandising, food and beverages seeing the kind of quantum leap in their outputs that would probably never occur gain in that city.

As is typical with Nigerians, that game would have had consequences of serious proportions both in relation to the working day; traffic; people’s general demeanour and planning. In the event, the game as a spectacle did not let those sentiments down and will remain, for some considerable time, a game for which purists of football will remember for the foreseeable future even with the absence of John Mikel Obi, the one Nigerian who, for footballing reasons could have played a part in the game itself.

The significance of this event was also certainly not lost on Nigeria, ourselves a huge footballing nation in relation to history and a country where, because of the population, and the significance of the sport, following has attained obsessive proportions. Already in Nigeria, Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool represent probably the most supported football clubs in Africa. Social events are planned around major games involving these clubs. Supporters clubs, associations, groups, gatherings and congregations have emerged and merged, following the fortunes of these football clubs. Europe is now seized with its own tournament, a pre-occupation that has and continues to captivate it for the next few weeks.

As with everything that Nigerians do, the devotion to football is penetrative, comprehensive and obsessive. Providing some of the most loquacious arm-chair “technocrats” in the game, the average Nigerian’s appreciation of the science of football is extremely high. Across the bars, pubs, drinking places, restaurants and clubs in Nigeria during games, you will find a liberal sprinkling of Nigerians whose astuteness in the reading and analysing the game; the players; the coaches and formations is as comprehensive as those in the countries where the football clubs themselves are cited. Watching a game once in Nigeria, the writer was amazed as to how the group of individuals sitting in front of the wide screened television were able to discern not just technically engaging issues like formations but providing incise appraisal about marking, positional changes, dead-ball approaches during the game and spot on predictions of substitutions. The knowledge of the complicated rules that football throws up, from time to time was commonly and impressively available. These features encapsulate a country whose populace has always considered the game of football not just as an appreciated social outlet but as an avenue for creating satisfaction well beyond its entertainment value.

The obsessive pursuit and support of foreign football has not always been so in Nigeria. At least, in the writer’s recollection, the 70’s saw an era that assembled an outstanding group of footballers at club and national levels. Football clubs like Rangers International; ICC Shooting Stars; Stationery stores; Bendel Insurance and Kano Pillars strode the football scene majestically. Some of the footballers that were produced in that era made such substantial and endearing contributions to the grass root appreciation of football that makes light of the of the efforts of their modern day successors. Followers of football from the 70’s through to the early 90’s will remember with fondness goal keeping giants like Emmanuel Okala and Best Ogedengbe, defenders Christian Chukwu, Felix Owalabi; Idowu, Otubusin Okey Isima; and the peerless Godwin Odiye. Mid fielders Muda Lawal; Sylvannus Okpala; Aloysius Atuegbu; and of course, the mercurial attackers like Haruna Ilerika, Segun Odegbami, Adokie Amaesimaka, Dominic Nwobodo. Then came the next generation: like Peter Rufai, Stephen Keshi and Austin Eguavon, Henry Nwosu, Etim Esin, Daniel Amokachi and Rashidi Yekini, at which point it would have been safe to conclude that these players would not be bettered. This generation was replaced by a comparatively talented group of players from Jay Jay Okocha, Nwankwo Kanu, Joseph Yobo, George Finidi, Emmanuel Amunike and a host of other extremely talented footballers, some of whose immense talents continue to grace our television screens from far and wide. These players underpinned the policy of exporting players, an inevitability given the development of world football and power shifting to Europe.

Many of these players started their football life in Nigeria against exposure and experience crafted almost principally for seeking more professionally profitable pastures abroad. Ironically, this has been aided in no small measure by the all-round decline of Nigerian football. Coinciding with the wholesale decline of the Nigerian socio-political and economic ethos, football has been one of the worst affected. Central to the inability to extricate itself from this quagmire - as with every other aspect of Nigerian’s commercial development – is government involvement in football. The structure of football is riddled with the same political and bureaucratic problems that have undermined the development of Nigeria’s growth. The terrain is such that no credible public private partnership (PPP), of the nature that saw football in Europe grow in geometric proportions, can take root in Nigeria. The consequence of this situation is that Nigerian football – like all other sport - will continue to deteriorate until it experiences a substantial injection of both interest and commercial support to rebuild its infrastructural base, engender encouragement amongst its participants and most, most importantly, rekindle the kind of awareness that saw the devotion now being channelled in the direction of foreign football return to Nigerian football.

The Nigerian’s passion for football will ensure that it remains fruitful commercial outlet for those willing to invest in it. Of that, there is no doubt. Nigerians will watch good football and pay good money to do so once their interests are catered for. Better stadia; improved funding for the game as a whole; increase commercial activity in the form of substantial television coverage is all features that will heighten interest in Nigerian football. The football clubs themselves need to restructure themselves in the way they are run. Simply, government must ensure that the game serves as the primary source of income generation. In truth, only the commercialisation (and with it, increased professionalism) will rescue football in Nigeria. As with Europe, this can only happen by the development of new technologies (TV); media companies’ involvement following the realisation that sport is fundamental to their existence; deregulation and privatisation; professional and specialised organisational administration are all key factors. Infrastructural improvement by investment; a detachment that will enable the industry itself to design and articulate means by which its income is both generated and managed are central to this change. Even in the flight of footballers’ abroad, current FIFA regulations, if implemented at grass root level will ensure that the benefit of those who are emigrating continues to be repatriated to the clubs from whence they have come.

A more effective and transparent regulatory environment needs to be created in Nigeria. The clamour for government to give up its asphyxiating role in domestic football has subsisted for as long as can be remembered. If Government is persistent in maintaining its stranglehold control of football, then it must be prepared to inject a corresponding measure of its resources in discharging its duties. If not, it should consider, as with other sectors, a proactive process of disengagement by privatisation. That enabling environment that will attract commercial interest into football to raise it to its previously known heights of prominence will not occur if active steps are not taken by Government to achieve this balance. Sadly, successive governments at Federal and State levels have failed, for years. The outlook does not look any brighter now.

Sport is an integral aspect of Vision 20/20. In simple terms, this ambitious plan, clearly articulated by the government of President Umaru Musa Yar’ Adua, lies in developing a comprehensive plan which will ensure that Nigeria joins the top 20 league of developed countries by the year 2020. Nigeria’s talented footballers place it squarely within that bracket. Its peoples following of the game guarantees it a place at the pinnacle of the world’s league table of supporters. The passion of the Nigerian and commitment to football is a huge resource, indeed as big in the development of sport as financial support. As a source of galvanising support, feelings and sentiments, sport – particularly football – has little comparison. Its potential, effectively directed, has limitless benefits. Persisting inability to harness this resource will continue to leave Nigerians severely short changed. It would be a mistake to continue to ignore football for much longer.