There is a revolution of sorts in Senegalese football. The current African Footballer of the year is Sadio Mane of that nation. Only recently, Senegal’s U-20 team won the AFCON U-20 tournament in Cairo where Nigeria’s Flying Eagles, under coach Ladan Bosso, won the bronze medal.

However, it is important to note that Mane led Senegal to victory at the last AFCON trophy for senior national teams. Senegal has also won the CHAN competition for home-based teams and they also emerged victorious at the Beach Soccer AFCON. No doubt, the Senegalese are doing something good just like the Moroccans. We expect Nigerian football administrators to find out what is going on in Senegal and emulate it in order to bring out the best results for the country. This is also a big boost to the administrative aspects of sports because efforts from the background in Senegal are now yielding fruits for the country on the international stage.

We expect a deliberate effort to groom our young athletes to attain the level of recording a clean sweep on the continent like Senegal has. With the talents in various parts of the country and beyond, we believe it is possible. The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) should look into this with keen interest. Football and sports in general entail much more than what many see during the duration of a game or a competition. There is so much to be done administratively to make a team or an athlete stand firm to compete and win laurels. We recall that shortly before the Atlanta Olympics Games in 1996, former international, Chief Segun Odegbami, saw a vision in Chioma Ajunwa. He managed the athlete and worked with her before the games and Ajunwa went ahead to win Nigeria’s very first Olympics Games gold medal in the long jump event in Atlanta.

The athlete later acknowledged that the former Super Eagles captain had saved her career. “He took me up and sent me to the UK, where I concentrated on my training, under a very strict schedule,” she said. That was a turning point. She took part in the trials for the 1996 Olympics and made the cut-off that qualified her for Atlanta. Her jump won her the Olympic gold medal. On that memorable day in the summer of 1996, when Ajunwa was called to the podium for the medal presentation, however, she still did not realise the importance of the precious medal.

“Honestly, I won the Olympic gold medal but I did not know the effect or efficacy of one winning an Olympic gold. When they mentioned my name, I thought it was one of those medals I had been winning before, I did not know that this one was classic, ultimate, the one every athlete dreams to win in life,” she recalled. Obviously, Ajunwa’s story is an example of many things that administrators do to prepare athletes and teams for competitions. It is also important to add that during the event proper, there must be administrative vigilance to ensure all the rules of the event are complied with.

If the opponents fail in any way, taking advantage of the situation is important and this is part of the politics of sports. The administrators are also expected to have contacts in the affiliated continental and global bodies so that when the need arises, they will respond to help Nigeria. Over the years, Nigeria, despite the tag of being the ‘Giant of Africa’, has been poor in the politics of sports on the continent. When there are dicey situations, the country falls short. It is that bad. In 1997, we recall the national U-17 team, the Golden Eaglets, were walked over at home in Ibadan by the Benin Republic.

The officials of the football federation had forgotten the players’ passports in their Lagos office and by the time they were trying to rush them to the Oyo State capital our West African neighbours had cashed in on the error and triggered the walkover clause. Two teams – Enyimba of Aba and Heartland of Owerri – recently had flight difficulties in their campaign on the continent and they were walked over. Incidentally, Heartland players and officials were already at the airport but their host team still triggered the walkover rule. However, last week, Motema Pembe failed to arrive as scheduled for a CAF Confederation Cup tie against Rivers United.

But the team got in touch with CAF to request a postponement and got a new time for the match. Rivers United are not playing in Port Harcourt. They are playing at the Nest of Champions in Uyo. The team would have incurred expenses and 24 hours postponement would increase the expenses. The match was played and won 3-1 by Rivers United. However, Rivers United failed to trigger the walkover clause and also the team did not petition CAF to seek compensation for the one extra day. The Director of Competition in CAF is a Nigerian, Samson Adamu, while former NFF President, Amaju Pinnick, is a member of the CAF Executive Board. Playing the politics of the game and making the right decisions is important. Nigeria is big enough to have her people being able to evaluate the politics of the game and influence decisions when necessary for the benefit of the country.

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