Over the years, many football stakeholders have cried out that the beautiful round leather game has been on the decline in the country. The reason is simple. The best way to measure football in any country is to evaluate the standard in the domestic activities and the quality compared to others at continental and global stage.

We are aware that Nigeria’s domestic football has been in shambles for many reasons. Calendar imbalance, poor welfare of players, bad playing turfs, poor officiating, no show on television, poor spectatorship and hooliganism are some of the problems plaguing the league which has also been compounded by maladministration through the defunct League Management Company (LMC). It is also sad that the Federation Cup, formerly known as the FA Cup, is in crisis in Nigeria.

The 2022 edition is currently inconclusive because the timing was wrong to produce a representative for the continental competition. Due to this, the NFF picked Kwara United to represent the country in the CAF Confederation Cup and this caused a crisis in the Federation Cup and this is yet to be resolved even after NFF decided to promise financial boost to the clubs to play their outstanding quarterfinal games. Last weekend, the decadence in the country’s football became more evident as three Nigerian clubs crashed out of their respective continental games.

Remo Stars was the first to be eliminated in the CAF Confederation Cup while Rivers United and Plateau United last week lost out in the Champions League just as Kwara United bowed out in the Confederation Cup. The three clubs conceded one goal each in the first leg and they all failed to score the crucial away goal.

After winning 2-1 in Port Harcourt, Rivers United were humiliated 6-0 by Wydad Casablanca of Morocco while Plateau United after putting up a good fight against Esperance of Tunisia, lost 1-0 away and were eliminated on the away goals rule after aggregate scores stood at 2-2. For Kwara United, the one goal conceded in Lagos also ended their campaign after their opponent, Berkane of Morocco, defeated them 2-0 at home for a 3-3 aggregate score. We make bold to say the ouster of these teams shows the poor mentality of Nigerian teams. Kwara United were complaining of poor treatment even before the match was played and so rather than plan how to get the crucial away goal, they had even conceded defeat before the match was played.

It is important to also note that the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) is yet to start even as the teams are campaigning in their respective continental competitions. Unfortunately this is not unique only this term, it has been a yearly disappointment because of the maladministration of the league by the defunct LMC headed by Shehu Dikko and the last board of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) led by Amaju Pinnick. Only during the week, the Technical Adviser of Insurance of Benin, Monday Odigwe, said there is need to work on the NPFL calendar in order to boost the chances of Nigerian clubs playing on the continent.

“We should pick how we want to play and all our teams will take that form. The welfare of the players is also very paramount to the game, that’s what the North Africa teams have been doing and unless we also start to do the right thing, they will continue to dominate us, they are not better than us. We need to pay attention to the quality of our football, let’s have a proper calendar rather than start and end the league anytime,” Odigwe said.

And we are happy that also during the week, the Club Owners met with the newly-elected NFF President, Ibrahim Gusau, appealing to him to inaugurate the Interim Management Committee (IMC) appointed by the Federal Government through the Ministry of Sports. We recall the FG disassociated itself from the LMC, thereby forming a new IMC to oversee the affairs of the NPFL pending a proper election into the new board. The Club Owners said there was an urgent need to institute a better-packaged, fulfilling and more fruitful league that will germinate a more beneficial football economy for all stakeholders of the round leather game. As stated above, the club owners also enumerated some of the problems of the domestic league in the country today.

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These include lack of sponsors, no TV broadcast, poor officiating, insufficient funding, lack of match integrity, poor remuneration of match officials and poor welfare of players, matches won on the basis of highest bidder, poor infrastructure, incompetent administrators and no prize money for winners among other problems.

Going forward, we insist, the league must be on television while the administration must be topnotch without half measures in any aspect especially the penalties for erring teams, fans and officials who bring the league into disrepute. A brand new NPFL, with over 75 per cent of global best practices in place, will be a big boost to the development and overall standard of football in Nigeria. We sincerely crave for a league that could produce two, three regular players for the Super Eagles and at least five, six squad players at every point of invitation. It is not impossible, it has happened before and it can happen again.

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