With just a few months to go, it is still in doubt if the “Giants of Africa” would be able to comfortably host the U-17 World Cup. Personally I was one of those Nigerians that was delighted when the Federal Government initially decided to pull out of hosting the tourney October last year. My joy was not bourn out of some sinister hatred for the country, on the contrary it was that of extreme love. Any time the Nation plays host to the international community, it seems some corrupt public officers in the Nigerian government quickly pounce on the opportunity to loot and mismanage public funds.
Recently the vice-president of the World Soccer governing body, Mr Jack Warner, came to inspect the Niation’s preparedness for the tourney and he left the country with a big frown on his face. His disappointment was written clearly over his face, and this is very understandable considering the eye-sore he was made to see at the various stadiums he visited.

What baffles me is that just a few years after we hosted the World Youth Championship, the infrastructures used then have become desolate with several of them vandalized.

The absolute disregard for maintenance of existing properties have become a way of life in the Nigerian society and no matter how much we spend building new facilities in the country, it just turns out a big waste (Have any of you recently been to the National Stadium in Lagos?).

Nigerians are always excited when any of their national teams play, and they give this love and excitement to only the team garbed on green and white. This one-sided team support would not doubt affect the attendance at games that do not involve Nigerian teams.

More importantly, most tournaments succeed when the host team advances to at least the quarterfinal stage of that tourney. Unfortunately for Nigeria however, the NFF seem set to ensure we don’t get that far. It is still unclear if we really do have a team for the tournament, after coach Alphonsus Dike humiliated the Nation by taking those over-aged individuals to lose to a less fancied Beninoise side.

After that embarrassment we have heard little about the Nigerian team or its technical bench, making it very hard to see any reason why they would perform better than they did against the “struggling” neighbour.

I really find it hard to believe that everything would be put in place properly before the tournament starts. There are some ignorant individuals who are of the opinion that Nigeria would perform “Magic” and turn things around just before the games begin, this is a fool’s belief and it is the certain road towards irredeemable failure.

Awenlimobor Sylvester

The “Super Chickens” of Nigeria on Wednesday February 11, 2009, were once again on display for the world to “admire” after a couple of month’s absence. This time around they chose to display their nauseating brand of football (they usually keep this for special occasions, the panic-laden one is the most popular) against a feeble Reggae-playing Jamaican side that obviously were more interested in joining Damian Marley on stage rather than kick some round object around.

The much talked about tactical incompetence of Amodu Shauibu was also on full parade as a bunch of over-paid and under-motivated boys almost made the infamous Ladan Bosso’s U-20 team (Bosso still has the top honors for tactical incompetence, and I won’t take it away from him) seem like World Champions after they played out what could easily be described as the most embarrassing 90 minutes of soccer in recent years.

The game itself was something of a lullaby and the few spectators who had churned out their hard earned cash to enter into the stadium (considering the present global economic situation) must have felt cheated. (A night at the Cinema watching Johnny Bravo or any other cartoon would have made more sense).

The most pathetic part of the whole scenario is the fact that the team Amodu put on that pitch at Milwall was undoubtedly Nigeria’s strongest force, who we all are hoping would take us to the next world cup! Need I say that at this point I can’t see that team getting us to South Africa? The Tunisians would really be counting themselves in after watching their biggest opponents play out their “best”.

The same uncoordinated tactical balderdash that characterized Berti Vogt’s African Nations Cup team, which was also the hallmark of Ladan Bosso’s “young-team” (Take a look at Edile for Christ sake!) was all too evident in Amodu’s special collection of over-pampered stars.

Many soccer pundits might want to blame the flaccid attitude of the players on the fact that it was just a friendly encounter, “why should they play out their heart for a meaningless game?” That ignorant submission quickly becomes discredited when you take a look at the England-Spain encounter or the Brazil-Italy game, both “meaningless games”.

It is still amazing that we do not see reasons to bring in a “natural” central offensive midfielder into the Nigerian senior team. Why do we keep forcing Mikel into a position that has been washed out of his system? Mikel has lost the ability (if he ever had it) to play the role Austin “Jay-Jay” Okocha played for us for several years.

There is a certain Rabiu Ibrahim that can comfortably handle that position, but due to the Nigerian mentality that is so prevalent on Amodu’s technical team, they want him to “mature” first before he enters the National team. How old was Kaka when he started playing for the Brazilian national team? What of Pato, Rooney, Owen? The list is endless. A good coach knows who he wants, a bereft one wants who he knows.

It is quite co-incidental that just a day after that better-forgotten encounter against “the Musicians from the Caribbean” the nation slumped down the FIFA rankings from a questionable 17^th position to a more understandable 23^rd place (A position that FIFA might have to reconsider after watching that shallow exhibition between one of Africa’s erstwhile power-house against the minnows from the Caribbean).

The Nigerian Football Federation (a confused bunch of political jobbers who do not have the interest of the country at heart) have always found ways to inflict upon us their self serving interests, whereby they select coaches for the various National teams not on merit, but more on what they believe they would gain financially from having the coach on board. There is no other explanation as to why we should be suffering the double tragedy of Ladan Bosso and Amodu Shuaibu at the same time. Will we ever learn anything in this country?

I want to clearly state here that Mr. Amodu and his technical bench of trial-and-error individuals will not take Nigeria to the World Cup, and if they are left alone the damage to our beloved National team (yeah, I still love the team), would be so much that the nation’s football might relapse into a comatose state for a couple of years.

Awenlimobor Sylvester