A few weeks back, the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) named coaches for the U-17 male and female teams, U-20 male team and the U-23 male teams. We are aware this was hurriedly done because competitions were coming up for the two male teams in a format very dicey for the Nigerian representatives. Nigeria has won the U-20 competition at continental level seven times and will compete against Ghana’s Black Satellites and the Young Etalons of Burkina Faso in Group B. Hosts Niger Republic, Benin Republic, Togo and Cote d’Ivoire will battle in Group A.

It is still unclear why the Confederation of Africa Football (CAF) chose this format in which top teams on the continent battle for places to pick a ticket to the World Cup. Many of the elite teams on the continent are in West Africa and to place them against one another is strange politics because it will diminish the chances of the continent doing well at the global stage. Ghana and Nigeria for example are former multiple world champions at the U-17 level.

The Flying Eagles only resumed training a week ago but other teams in the competition have been in camp since December last year. This is an example of Nigeria’s poor planning. Although Head Coach, Ladan Bosso, has assured that the late camping will not affect the team and Nigerians will hold him by his words but Ghana, another former world champion will not be an easy foe while Burkina Faso will equally be very competitive. Two teams will sail into the semi-finals from each group, with the two finalists qualifying to represent the WAFU B zone at the 2023 Africa U-20 Cup of Nations.

Egypt will host the 2023 Africa U-20 Cup of Nations while Indonesia will host the 2023 FIFA U-20 World Cup finals. All four semi-finalists from the tournament in North Africa will qualify to represent the continent in Indonesia. The planning required for development is not prevalent in the age-grade teams and even the senior team.

This has informed the downward slide of the country’s fortunes in the game in recent times. For the U-17 team, Cape Coast, Ghana, is the host city for the 2022 U-17 Cup of Nations slated for June 11 – 24. The tournament will feature hosts Ghana, defending champions, Cote d’Ivoire, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Togo, Benin and Niger. Others are Burkina Faso, Togo, Benin, and Niger. Nduka Ugbade as the Head Coach of the cadet team is a good initiative by the NFF but the route to qualification is as tight as that of the U-20 team. Since June is when the competition kicks off, we expect a wellarticulated preparation with friendly games and tactical plans to solidify the team. A former international, Felix Owolabi, has said the downward trend in Nigeria’s football is due to poor planning on the part of those running the ‘beautiful game’ in the country. “We should have a document to help all those in charge to direct all national teams accordingly.

There should be a template to run our sports, especially football so that whoever is in office will have a developmental document to run the game,” he argued. Going forward, the NFF should not just be thinking of results but also the future of the game and how some of the talented youths in various parts can get better to give Nigerians the desired consistency at continental and global levels. We recall that in the past, Nigeria recorded impressive results in age-grade football, especially in the U-17 cadre of the male and female national teams. The Golden Eaglets, the country’s U-17 male team, have won the FIFA World Cup five times.

After the maiden victory in 1985 under Sebastian Broderick-Imasuen, the Eaglets, with Fanny Amun as Head Coach, again won in 1993 and achieved the same feat with Coach Yemi Tella in 2007. Manu Garba led the team to conquer the world once more in 2013 just as Emmanuel Amuneke led the Eaglets again to the pinnacle in 2015. It is, however, a sad commentary to note that Nigeria is yet to bountifully reap the fruits of these successes because there were no concerted plans in place to migrate the players to the next level.

A few emerged but they never really fulfilled their full potentials anticipated as a group in the U-20, U-23 and the senior team. The U-23 male team that won gold in Atlanta’96 was made up of talented players from the various levels of our football teams and same goes for the silver winning team to the Beijing 2008 Olympics and the Rio 2018 bronze winning side. Sadly the administration of the game in Nigeria lacks planning.

The victorious teams in the past were largely products of the schools and grassroots, but replicating the same successes in recent times has become almost impossible. This is because the academies are not as solid as they were before in various parts while the grassroots programmes are virtually extinct.

More attention should be given to school sports and grassroots programmes in the drive to boost the development of the game and to make age grade football flourish again. The domestic league might not help much in this regard but the football academies and schools are areas to be looked into. Undoubtedly, hidden talents still exist all over the country but, unless deliberate efforts are made to discover them can they then be nurtured to be future super stars for the country.

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