‘Booing Players, Inimical To Football Dev’

Abuja football fans have condemned the booing of the Super Eagles by the Lagos crowd during their recent friendly encounter with the Leone Stars of Sierra Leone.

Those who spoke with newsmen said that jeering at the Nigerian footballers was imimical to football development.

They said that the attitude could demoralise the players and their handlers.

Mr. Patrick Erimona, coach of the Immigration Football Club and Mrs. Victoria Nlemigbo, a football administrator in the FCT both agreed that the attitude of the fans was embarrassing, to say the least.

Erimona said: “I think that was what made the Super Eagles to leave Lagos for Abuja because of that kind of attitude.

“Booing players, stoning them with pure water after a match, sometimes they will want to beat them and so on; I don’t think that is good for our football, it is not encouraging, what we need is to encourage the coaches and players to do better and not booing them.”

Speaking in the same vein, Victoria also said that: “during the first half it was all Eagles, they were supporting, then during the second half when the game swung in favour of the visiting team you were hearing the ehh, ehh, against us and I don’t think that is healthy for our own soccer development.

“They might say they were enjoying themselves, but they also helped in demoralising the boys.”

Erimona added that the game against the Sierra Leoneans was a good beginning for the new Super Eagles.