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Super Eagles: Before The Ban By Opeyemi Ajala
Dear Mr. President,
On the strength of your maiden media chat where you indeed placed so much reliance on media feedback to feel the pulse of the nation, that is the sole reason I am putting ink to paper to convey my humble and informed opinion to you on the prescribed 48 months ban from all FIFA (or is it International) organized football as a result of the avoidable sloppy appearance by the Super Eagles in South Africa (incidentally our refusal to defend our Nations Cup title in the same South Africa under General Sani Abacha fetched us the last ban from International football by CAF in 1996)!
“Get it right the first time, and at all the times”
The above stated Total Quality Management (TQM) philosophy appears to be elusive to our football management with regards to our participation at the FIFA organized World Cup competition, since the nation’s debut at the 1994 edition of the World football feast held every four years.
It is on record that the Super Eagles have the highest turnover of handlers from the qualification stage to the main competition! The 1994 World Cup hosted by Uncle Sam’s descendants (USA), which the Super Eagles qualified for after the 1-1 draw in Algeria under the tutelage of the self acclaimed Dutchgerian, Clemens Westerhof was the only time in history of the Nation’s qualification that the same manager ever managed the national team to the World Cup out of four attempts at the World Cup. This celebrated ‘feat’ was not achieved on a platter of gold, as certain elements almost ensured that the Boss (Clemens Westerhof) and the Big Boss (Stephen Keshi – who was a victim of this albatross with the Togolese Hawks en route Germany 2006) were dropped from the party for various trumped of offences ranging from tactical ineptitude to gross insubordination. However, as providence would have, it took the intervention of compatriots from all walks of life not forgetting the erstwhile Chief of General Staff, Admiral Augustus Aikhomu (rtd.) who was very instrumental to the qualification in the first instance, and had always been a great fan of the Super Eagles (he incidentally rechristened the national team from the official Green Eagles or unofficial Papa Eagles to Super Eagles during the state reception for the team after overcoming the Algerian Fenecs in a pulsating Semi Final encounter at the Maroc 88 Nations Cup before losing in the Final to the Indomitable Lions, no thanks to a disputable Emmanuel Kunde’s penalty and having an Nwosu beautiful header overruled) , while his boss (IBB) was simply more comfortable with the then Under 21 side the Flying Eagles who were the perennial Tessema Cup Champions (1983-1989 before the age discrepancies ban). Sanity was allowed to prevail as the Eagles under Mr. Westerhof went on to conquer Africa the following year in 1994, and topped the Group including Former Champion – Argentina, Greece (our conquerors in 2010) and Bulgaria before exiting the Second Round after the extra time loss to eventual runners up – Italy. With these feats – results and continuity as his lieutenant – Jo Bonfere also led the Dream Team to Olympic glory in the same America in 1996, thus making our second golden generation after the Father Tiko and Otto Gloria period of glory from the mid 70s to the early 80s, and the chronicle of these men achievements that bores striking similarities to the length of time stayed on the job are no mere coincident.
Our experience from the France 98 tourney has been deplorable, as the custodians of nation’s football management have always run our football nay World Cup aspirations on their whim and caprice no matter how fallible as against any purported verifiable and documented agenda as practiced in other flourishing football climes. The ‘tour de France’ ride was started by Amodu Shuiabu (his second coming), after the exit of Jo Bonfrere who was not allowed to defend the Continental Crown in South Africa (who were hosting the first Nations Cup in the Southern part of the continent then in 1996 and also ready to host the World in Africa for the first time in June) due to the political altercation between the late Gen. Abacha led Military Government and the South Africa government. Amodu had to step aside for Frenchman Phillipe Troussier who had made his mark in Ivorien Football, inspite of Troussier’s record of gaining qualification for the competiton in his native land with a match to spare could not pacify the dollar spendthrift foreign coach conspirators who sacrificed Monsiuer Troussier on the altar of the need for a ‘World Class Manager’ and if Westerhof could turn to Admiral Aikhomu for succor, Troussier had no such luxury as the then Sports Minister, Chief Jim Nwobodo was his chief accuser. Globetrotting Serb, Velibor ‘Bora’ Milutinovic was hurriedly engaged and hailed as a World Class coach on the strength of taking Mexico (1986), Costa Rica (1990), USA 1994 all beyond the first round of their World Cup sojourn, the humiliations suffered in friendlies were no legible handwritings to the dollar inspired Coach recruiting agents as the team was convincingly beaten by the Danish team at the 2nd round hurdle, meanwhile our uncertified World Class Troussier later took the Burkinabes to the Semi Finals of the Nations Cup on home soil (their best till date) and also on a rescue mission of guiding South Africa to the World Cup after Bafana Bafana’s Nations Cup winning Coach Mr. Clive Barker declined the honour. Troussier also led the Japanese to a second round spot in the 2002 edition co-hosted with South Korea, yet our football Ceasers adjudged the man as non World Class!
The Super Eagles’ flight to France was anything but stable, the journey to the Orient was stormy, a re-engaged Jo Bonfrere after the departure of the golfing compatriot Thijs Libregts, was almost costing the nation the ticket to the first World Cup in Asia before he was replaced by the Troika of Amodu (his third coming), Erico and Keshi who ensured Liberia was toppled to qualified for the World Cup, a feat that made the jubilant President Obasanjo to invoke an emotional ‘presidential’ ban on expatriates coaches. But a trip to the Nations Cup in Mali, where the Eagles lost the Semi Finals in extra time to the emerging Senegalese Teranga Lions ended the romance between the Sports Ministry and the Foreign Coach agitators on one hand and the Technical Crew and the players on the other side of the divide, where the then Sports Minister late Mark Aku and his Director of Sports (now DG NSC) Patrick Ekeji orchestrated the sack of Amodu in a move this writer advised against back then under the piece ‘Mali 2002 Post Mortem’ as published in the Sporting Champion on March 1st and 8th respectively. But the argument of gross insubordination to constituted authorities was a ‘high treason’ that demanded outright sack by the decision destroyers, the exit of the troika paved the way for the sudden appearance of the FIFA instructor, Chief Festus Adegboyega Onigbinde who apparently assembled a team lacking in ambition and talent, a team referred to by Taribo West one the team’s most experienced player then as bunch of junks and the Chief’s belated 2010 revelation that certain players were disenfranchised from making the team by powers that be thereby even undermining his position as Coach was untenable as he should have done the honourable then by quitting the team if only to borrow a leaf from the current Portuguese Manager, Carlos Queiroz who as the Coach of Bafana Bafana vacated his role with his famous outburst “If I do not have the full responsibility to select a team and make substitutions, then from an ethical point of view, I cannot fulfill my duties”. This nation has yet to fully recover from the ill judgments of the 2002 (in)decisions, where the team for the first time since USA 94 could not qualify for the 2006 World Cup in Germany as Angola secured the ticket at our expense by virtue of the head-to-head rule, the Angolans made up for the miss of Tunisian 2004 ticket after the Super Eagles edged them out in Benin City no thanks to a penalty ‘Gift’ buried by the rising Osaze to secure a 2 all draw for the Eagles, but the hand writing had always been there, only that our administrators like the biblical King Belshazzar will always require a Daniel to interprete the handwriting on the wall, but the irony is while the King belatedly was ready to fall in line, our own prefer to go down even if not fighting, and this cost us the ticket.
Making up for the Germany 2006 miss, marked the entry of Berti Vogts a World/Euro Champion as a player and Euro Champion as Manger who stormed Abuja from his Scottish nightmare and was obviously over indulged by his employers and in him we had our first Offshore Coach (before Offshore Presidency was added to our lexicon), and the result in the absence of an ‘Acting Coach’ was a Third place miss for a participating Super Eagles (team did not qualify for Egypt 86 prompting the “ our birthright proclamation by the late Group Captain Tony Ikhazoboh) since the team unsuccessfully defended the title in Libya 82, the Eagles directionless under German Vogts at the Nations Cup, and ultimately crashing out at the Quarter Final to host Ghana despite having a one man advantage. It was from this nadir, that the recurring decimal (Amodu Shuaibu) as predicted by this writer in 2002 emerged as the National Team Manager for the record fourth time, and tasked with the twin mandate of a World Cup ticket and a Nations Cup Semi Final finish, both of which were achieved and yet in an unprecedented manner Oliver Twist would not be proud of, the man was demoted, removed, changed, redeployed (every inconsistent word was employed), and as Governor Fashola rightly predicted then that against common logic the Nation will end up engaging the services of a 2010 World Cup calamity, and that was exactly what we had in Swede man Lars Laggerback who could not steer his native Sweden to the World Cup on an estimated $400,000 per annum and now bound to reap $1.3 in five months (translating into $3.1m p.a. – Bora Milutinovic had to quit the Honduran National team over what the public described as excessive pay packet?), a feat Amodu achieved on $180,000 per annum. Since, this is a clear case of rewarding a geometric regression in terms of performance with an unbelievable multi geometric emolument progression from an estimated $400,000 to $3.1m making him the fourth highest paid coach amongst the 32 jostling for glory in South Africa, while Amodu was the least paid before his removal.
Verifying why Lagerback’s emoluments is an unusual incentive for decrease in productivity, Mr. Lagerback joined the Swedish Football Association in 1990 and worked his way up the ladder before he was promoted from Assistant Manager to joint Manager with Tommy Soderberg in 2000 and became the Sole Manager after Soderling left the team for the U-21 side, in 2004 after which Swedish football witnessed a consistent decline under his sole managerial abilities. The Joint Managerial era recorded 26W 23D 10L and a 44.07%win while his sole managerial era shows a decline to 43.06% win records with 31W 17D 24L .After the 1994 World Cup, Sweden on the strength of the 3rd place finish at the 1994 World Cup was recognized as the No. 3 football country, while Nigeria was no 5 an all time high for both countries. Upon Lagerback’s anointing as the Sole Manager in 2004, Sweden was World No. 13 and it has been a consistent ranking slide for the Swedes under Lagerback (14 - 2005, 14 - 2006, 24 - 2007, 32 - 2008) and an all time low No. 42 in 2009 before his resignation.
During the Joint Managerial era, Sweden qualified for the Euro 2000 and 2002 World Cup without losing a single match! However, Lagerback first tournament as the sole Manager was a 2nd round loss to the host Germany after a goalless draw with debutant 10 man Trinidad and Tobago, 89th minute win over Paraguay in a match that has 50000 Swedes supporters inside the stadium and 50000 outside the stadium (yet Amodu’s last minute win over Mozambique was ‘heartaches’ to his army of critics), before a 2 all draw with England. The second tournament was worse as the Swede exited the first round which made the Swede media to seek his resignation after the respected Swede paper Dagens Nyheter described his team as “the Euro Oldies but not goodies” while lampooning his tactics. He was subsequently awarded a two year contract extension which resulted the unthinkable- the Sweden now inured to qualifying for major tournaments after 5 successive attempts, saw the 1958 finalists placing third behind Denmark and Portugal respectively and meaning the Swede flag was not be hoisted in South Africa. And it is on the verge of these crucial diminishing returns that Mr. Lagerback was engaged on an apparent over bloated wage bill to (mis)lead the Eagles to South Africa. For those, who have maligned Amodu for overlooking the home based, listen to the submission of Mr Lagerback “with National teams, I always feel that a good way to assess your strength is to look at how many players you have playing in the MAJOR LEAGUES” Obviously Glenn Hoddles allegation deserves a revisit after the revelation of an alleged $500,000 scam by the Governor’s Forum Chairman, Dr. Bukola Sararki as it appears there’s more to this ill advised appointment than the mere Power Point presentation we were made to believe. For the twice unlucky Amodu, again another victim of the tyranny of majority reasoning (apologies to late Justice Ejiwunmi JSC), the truth cannot be buried forever, while the foreign Coach (pedestrian or otherwise) at all cost apologists should know that no matter how deep down you dive into the river to eat banana, the peel will ALWAYS stay afloat. This is because the football topography is always subjected to major Managerial earthquake in a World Cup year than the years the Nation does not qualify. It is no rocket science to know that as Vogts descended on us from his Scottish misadventure, likewise should we expect from the over paid Lagerback (even Eriksson was offered less than £350,000 by the Swede FA to succeed him) on the weakness of his Swede backward sliding, and as a Swede daily, Svenska Dagbladet queried on Thursday 19th June, 2008 after the 0-2 loss to Russia that sealed a first round crash at Euro 2008 and routinely followed suit with a first round exit for the Eagles in South Africa with a set of players he obviously did not know but claimed to have full dossier about, the deployment of the effective Central Defender Rabiu Afolabi to the left full back duty effectively exposed his lack of understanding of his players! The Cost Benefit Analysis reveals Lars Lagerback as a colossal failure and it is those who stumbled in judgement and erred in vision by misguiding the government to engage the clueless Lagerback in a corruption tainted interview that should be banned for holding any position of responsibility for two years and not a self imposed ban from organized competition. Were the players responsible for the missing Foreign Currency from the glass house? Who failed the nation in securing a good accommodation for the Eagles in South Africa? Who mishandled the flight to South Aftica (The immediate cost of theses 3 gaffes was in the region $900,000)? The remedy for headache is not in beheading the sick! QED!!
Opeyemi Ajala (ACA) Presenter – Eagle Sports Hour on Eagle Cable TV, Lagos
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