It will be open season for the next couple of weeks where Nigerians will flood the message boards and any available ears with recriminations over the failure of the National Under-17 (?) team to win the now concluded FIFA Under-17 World Cup at home.
Much can be expected from millions of people who ignored that facts and condoned illegality whilst praying hard as usual for a championship manyof the players should not have been playing in.I often wonder whther the call for divine intervention has any bearing on the fact that those calling for it actually are un-deserving of it because they are requesting such intervention unto something totlly unholy.
When Armed Robbers pray before going out on a mission to cause mayhem and destroy people’s lives, I wonder who indeed they are praying to.
When Nigerians pray for a team of over-aged players to win a championship meant for kids nearly half their age, I wonder who is actually listening to such prayers.
When Nigerian coaches take over-aged players into churches for ‘blessings’ before and during a tournament, I wonder what cross-dressing semi-literate preacher welcomes them and conducts such ‘rituals’.
When top administrative executives join Nigerians in stating that fielding over-aged players is something done by everyone else, I wonder what Nigerians have to complain about when one corrupt official says that he or she is corrupt because everyone else is doing the same thing.
When FIFA makes the gross error of permitting countries to field over-aged players in a bid to save face and still hold a championship, I wonder what good such a decision holds for the sport in question.
If Nigerians are going to achieve change then they themselves must be known to stand for something and firmly so. The love for football, the need for something to cheer, the quest for immediate gratification, should not make Nigerians forget, even for a moment, what is important to ensure change for the better.
I love football as much as the next Nigerian, however, I made a conscious effort not to get dragged into a misplaced National Euphoria and had much more fun laughing at the ingenuity of Nigerians across the board.
I once challenged the notion that Nigeria as a country was built around a lie. I see everyday that the people of Nigeria live the same lies they protest about.
Losing the FIFA Under-17 World Cup was a good thing in my opinion. Escaping the embarrassment of FIFA withdrawing the championship was a lucky thing too.
It is time to invest in sports at the ground level. It is time to prepare for the growth of youth and schools sport as a farming platform for sporting success. It is time to take the lead for once rather than tag along ‘because everyone is doing it’ and leadership at all levels must make a stand.
Sports is not just a game. Any sport.
It is a socially-unifying platform. Families, children, bonds of friendship are all benefits of excellent sporting programs.
It is a business. It is a highly commercial activity that creates jobs, professions and revenues for people, organizations and places. It is serious business.
The successful development of sports is not rocket science and there are numerous examples of where this has occurred around the world.
Whe countries like Switzerland emerge to win championships as their kids have done lately, there is an instant boost and realization that their investment in the sport at ground level is paying off and possibly for years to come.
There is a culture of sports and sorting families in the advanced countries of the world. Most sports are family and group participation activities.
Levels of development are clearly stated and adhered to. Children start from the moment they can walk to participate in one preferred sport or the other.
With structure inplace, it is easy to monitor development and expectations as each child graduates fromone age category to the other. Exceptional atheletes move more rapidly than others but these are exceptional and few.
The term Soccer Mums relates to a practice of mothers actively encouraging and participating in the development of their children in sports. In neighbourhoods in America it is not unusual to see parents cheering their children on from the bleachers or benches or even standing throughout the period of activity.
From PeeWee Leagues, to Under-10s, to Under-11s, to junior High School, to High School, to Secondary Schools, to College, Under-17s, Under-20s, to University to the Pros, sports is developed as well as the athletes and society. Each age-grade is funded and progress is monitored and projections made.
Sports is no longer a poor man’s escape from penury. While it still offers an opportunity for many to make a headway in life unlike they would have faced in ordinary endeavours, if well structured, sports is tied into jobs, academics etc to provide the thletes with a future in sports and otherwise.
Without an effective structure for the development of sports in Nigeria, it still remains an activity for those who otherwise would find it difficult to survive within the working population.
The stagnation has been with us for many years. Socially sports was seen as an activity without a future for those who could not succeed academically and/or were from poorer backgrounds. Many are still considered as such hence the lack ofinterest in developing sports properly.
This is fundamental to the issue of overaged players in our sports.
It is difficult to see that anyone who is able to play at national level can be the age he or she claims to be and particularly in football.
One of Nigeria’s star players, approaching the recent championships, was a man masquerading as a ‘kid’.
Let me state clearly and bluntly that it is impossible that any player, having played football for both Bendel Insurance and Heartland of Owerri could be 17 years old or under.
In Nigeria you do not get to sniff the grass of the same pitch where aged players ply their trade if you are not at least a whisker near their ages. You do not get to play in the nation’s football league at the age of 16.
If a player has played for both Bendel Insurance and Heartland then I can assure you he cannot be far removed from 22 at the very least.
If you doubt this then it is evident that you never ran around your garden patch with the houseboys on your street when growing up.
While very few of all the kids who took part in the recent championships will go on to be world superstars, many more than the Nigerians will go on to have long and rewarding careers in football around the world.
Their bones and bodies will coninue to develop as they go along as will their capacity to learn. All this while many of the Nigerian players will struggle to make the team in the local league.
It is time this nonsense stops and somebody makes it an important priority to ensure that sports is properly structured and administered for the future.
Though I understand the need to adhere to diplomacy and protocol, it is embarrassing to see our Vice-President feature in the presentations at the end. He would have been compelled to smile brightly and handshake everyone around him if Nigeria had won and knowing fully well that we as a country, had yet again added to the negative brand of the nation. At least he was spared that.
We must be thankful however, that once again the foreigners had saved face for us. The awful and lackluster probe-ridden preparations, the porr and ever-scandalous band of commentators, the unbelievably archaic production skills were all ‘covered’ by the likes of Super Sport, FIFA etc.
FIFA should take a closer look and monitor its officials who participate in any fraudulent delivery of global sporting events around the world. Such officials would not be helping these countries rid themselves of corruption and failure. FIFA should take the hard decisions where they need to be taken as a deterent against such happening again.
While there is time to prepare ahead for future championships let the planning and development begin. No one is asking Nigeria to be innovative. Just pick up a blueprint and copy. That, at lest, is a legal way to cheat!
May we never need Carbon-dating for our sportsmen and women again.
What do you think?
