Nigerian government risking its football future
* Posted by Mark Gleeson
The decision by the Nigerian government to ban their team from playing in world football for the next two years harks back to an era when irritated African 'big men' were able to impose their will on all sectors of civil society.
Now, however, Nigeria's president Goodluck Jonathan has set himself up for a fight he cannot win. His taking on FIFA over the continued participation of Nigeria from world football but patently its battle that will only do damage to his country.
Jonathan has decreed the Super Eagles were so bad in the World Cup they cannot play in international competition for the next two years. Nigerian commentators suggest his real aim is to remove the Nigeria Football Federation leadership, who are accused of corruption.
But if this is indeed the case why not invest, audit and charge them, rather than put the whole sport at jeopardy.
FIFA have set an ultimatum of Monday for the decree to be rescinded and for normal sporting service to continue. Jonathan's government is reported to have said he will not.
It means then, Nigeria will be banned by FIFA, a measure that will affect not only the senior men's team but also all other sectors of the sport.
FIFA sanctions will immediately mean Nigeria's under-20 women's team will be kicked out of the world championship that starts in Germany straight after the World Cup tournament in South Africa.
Next, the Confederation of African Football will be forced to remove Heartland FC from the group phase of the African Champions League, which also starts soon.
Another victim will be the under-17 girls, who are one of the African representatives at their age group world championship in Trinidad and Tobago in September.
And the list will get longer, affecting other youth team, referees, development courses and cut off the funding pipeline that FIFA provide.
Politics interfering with sport
Nigerian soccer chiefs are themselves guilty of knee jerk reactions to their team's alleged failure, stupidly sacking Shaibu Amodu in February after the African Nations Cup finals.
They had arrogantly deemed that third place at the tournament in Angola not good enough for a side of Nigeria's stature, even if they had only ever won the continental championship twice, and the last time was 16 years ago.
Given those circumstances, how was Nigeria to achieve anything at the World Cup in South Africa. They had a new coach and, frankly, their current generation of players is nowhere near the ability of preceding groups that have competed at three of the previous four finals.
The government reaction is cheap populism and poorly thought out. Now Nigeria's new president is in a highly public corner, obviously unable to back down for he will 'lose face' in the process dragging down Nigerian football.
How is a two-year hiatus to serve any purpose? Nigeria should rather be looking to revamp their side and make a strong bid for success at the next Nations Cup. In Africa, often the margin between success and failure is tiny and the vilified turn into overnight heroes frequently.
It will be an intriguing war of wills to watch over the next days but all so pointless in the end.
http://www.cbc.ca/sports/soccer/fifaworldcup/blog/2010/07/nigerian-government-risking-its-football-future.html