Loss To Niger Shows State Of Nigerian Football –Amiesimaka

Former international, Adokiye Amiesimaka has said that the country’s failure to qualify for the African Nations Championship for the second consecutive time was a reflection of the state of football in Nigeria.

In a telephone interview, Amiesimaka said it was shameful that Nigeria had to be beaten by Niger. He said Nigeria would have beaten Niger 10 nil home and away 10 years to 20 years ago.

Nigeria’s home-based Super Eagles, handled by Daniel Amokachi, drew goalless with the Nigerians in the second leg of the qualifiers in Kano recently and were eliminated 2-0 on aggregate.

The Nigerians had won the first leg 2-0 two weeks earlier in Niamey. Nigeria also failed to qualify for the maiden edition held last year after Ghana halted the Eagles in the qualifiers.

Blaming the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) for the parlous state of football in Nigeria, Amiesimaka said football administration was at fault in the loss.

Football administration in Nigeria, he said, “is competition focused instead of development focused”, adding that football in the country was retrogressing.

He said the administrators were more interested in participating in competitions instead of developing the game.

Amiesimaka, a member of the team that won the Africa Cup of Nations in 1980, said the administrators “were too lazy to accept to work for the development of the sport”.

He said the way forward was for the NFF to organise competitions for junior secondary school students, where players could be discovered for grooming for two years to three years in preparation for the U-17 team.

He said there was no substitution for a “graduated process” for the development of the game.

The Confederation of African Football (CAF) inaugurated the African Nations Championship for players in the respective national domestic leagues.

Congo DR won the maiden competition held in 2009 in Cote d’Ivoire. Sudan will host the second edition in 2011.