Sports
Can Nigeria Overcome Her Pitfalls To Achieve Football Glory?
It is no news that the African cup of Nations qualifier games have reached feverish peak with the Super Eagles of Nigeria billed to lock horns with its Guinean counterpart in a make or mar encounter come tomorrow.
In their last game, the Super Eagles of Nigeria defeated Madagascar and immediately a flurry of jubilation, chest thumping and boasting followed as if we are on top of our group or has even qualified for the mundial.
The truth is; by that victory over a lowly side like Madagascar, who even did not have anything to play for in that match, we are trailing behind Guinea with three points, making it compulsory for us to beat them tomorrow if we must have any chance of qualification.
Now you hear people say if we can win the match here and Guinea loses by so and so goal margin we will qualify. This is taking us back to the recent past when every football loving Nigerian became a prayer warrior or to say the least, pool forecaster involved in permutation; perming two from five and vice versa just to ensure that the Super Eagles qualify.
Now, from the way things are going, it is obvious that we are back at the trenches again. This time around we better triple our prayers else we may not come out of the hole without our nose or head being reshaped. This is more so because the Guineans too can pray well to remain where they have gotten to by dint of hard work and good preparation.
We all started the qualification matches together and they overtook us. Now the same hard fighting Guinea team is coming to Abuja to play us. If they pull a draw here God forbid, we are finished, the hope of million football loving Nigerians like us would have been dashed. This makes it difficult investing hope on the Super Eagles. The question is: Can you spin your hopes on them?
What our repeated struggle to qualify tells us in the face is that even if our national team is grouped with non footballing nations like Sao Tome and Principe, we would still struggle to qualify. Why this trend in our football?
The answer lies more in our football administration. It’s no longer needful to look up the meaning of late preparation in the dictionary; it is well examplified in the way our football is being run. While some countries prepare for years to compete in major events, we usually start at feverish peak at the eleventh hour.
For instance, in the build up to the last World Cup at South Africa, we started serious preparation just few weeks to D-day and worst of all; we changed our coach and even the team amidst all the mudslinging and the clamour to satisfy all manner of interests.
Ultimately, we ended up not as the surprise team but as the surprised team. As our dreams faded, we were left with our ready-made excuse of bad coach or using the world cup as a laboratory to experiment for future projects and so on. While our neighbours, Ghana put in a superlative performance to the consternation of the world.
The problem with Nigerian football is that we have failed to accept that the system is flawed and programmed to always fail. We have always sown seeds of mediocrity and ignorance, apparently oblivious of the enormous potential of Nigerian football beyond our accomplishments on the field of play. Sadly, what we have achieved in the game so far, havemostly been by accident rather than design.
We neither truly merited them nor actually worked for them. We have to admit the truth that our success was achieved on the lure of the dollar in Europe, which attracted our players to clubs overseas and they come back fit and better to play matches for us.
The advent of Westerhof as catalyst to rebuilding our team in the early 90s around home-based players playing only at the local league and later top clubs in Europe remains the only testament to what Nigerian football became.
While we wallowed happily in the euphoria of all the strides of the 90s, lesser men, many of mediocre calibers, joined the band-wagon in search of their piece of the cake. Our football became heavily influenced by the luxury of misplaced government funding and the attendant undue interference.
What followed was the perennial appointment of a string of incompetent and self-seeking administrators in the cloak of NFA now NFF. We got men totally oblivious of the huge potential and marketability of the Nigerian game both locally and international circles. Sadly, they always went cap in hand begging for funds from ministers and literally handing control effectively back to them.
Nigerians enjoy the game of football. Despite our unceremonious exit from the first world cup on African soil,, we savoured the victory of flair over regimentation in South Africa as Spain beat Germany in the final, after a month of drama, theatrics, upsets, joyous fans, goals, and records, but the challenge for us is the future of Nigerian football and how we can be great again.
We have a big asset, a critical mass, a population estimated at over 150million soccer loving people. We have huge professional players abroad, even if we did not take Aiyegbeni or Kanu and his co travelers to the world cup. Nigeria has the tools, let us learn to use them.
In appraising our performance ahead of the future, our administrators usually take to blame game and buck passing. At the end of it all they will lapse into talks of sacking and hiring of Coaches, which will set the ball rolling for lobby and bringing in of the Lagaerbacks and Lagerbeers of this world as foreign coaches who will give us conditions of one month stay in abroad and one day stay in Nigeria, all in the name of scouting for players.
This is a bald and unsurprising lie, yet our administrators will accept with alacrity and give them big titles. We have been through this song-and-dance several times in the past, with the last being the title of technical adviser given to Lagerback. His performance was so abysmal such that public outrage about his choice by NFF became common place, forcing the Glass House to make a detour and midwifed the process that saw the engagement of Coach Siasia.
If any one takes a look at the records of some of the Coaches that once strode our football as foreign coaches, it could be seen that they are yet to be engaged by any country or even club for any serious coaching job since they left the shores of Nigeria, which point to the fact that they are spent forces that were simply repackaged and brought to us as coaches. These expired coaches found some members of our Football House as willing tools to pave way for their coming here with a view to using our football to revive their coaching career that was approaching its expiry.
My position is simply that we need to examine the structure and funding of football in Nigeria. There cannot be a better opportunity to cleanse our football than this period, after we have been brought down to earth with a bang in the last world cup and now struggling for a nation’s cup ticket.
In this era of privatization, we call upon government to be bold and stop funding football. This will discourage all the politics, politicking and court injunctions and counter injunctions associated with running football in Nigeria and save the game. Think of all the money spent by corporate bodies falling over each other to get sponsorship or rights of association with the world cup and the Nation’s cup – surely they can also be persuaded through sound organization to also extend to other aspects of the game.
The truth is that success comes only through long term planning, preparation and transparency. This, we are not doing at the moment. I pray that the outcome of tomorrow’s Nation’s cup qualifying decider proves me wrong. Let the cookie not crumble, because if it does, there will not be enough pieces for fair-weather pretenders running our football in this country.
Asi Prince Dateme
Sports
La Liga: Atletico Bring Real Back To Earth

Atletico Madrid scored five goals against city rivals Real for the first time in nearly 75 years when they fought back from behind in a pulsating derby.
It was only the fourth time Atletico had scored at least five in a Madrid derby, the last occasion being a 6-3 victory in November 1950.
Real lost for the first time this season, having won all six of their opening La Liga matches as well as their first Champions League tie, a 2-1 victory over Marseille.
The last time Real conceded as many in La Liga was a 5-1 defeat by Barcelona in October 2018.
Robin le Normand’s header had given Diego Simeone’s side an early lead that was overturned by superb goals from Kylian Mbappe and Arda Guler.
But Alexander Sorloth levelled the game at 2-2 in stoppage time at the end of the first half.
And the hosts took charge after the break when Julian Alvarez, who had hit the post in the first half, converted from the penalty spot before curling home a brilliant free-kick.
Atletico went into their shell, but held their cross-city rivals at bay until Antoine Griezmann grabbed their fifth goal deep into stoppage time.
The result maintained an impressive record against Real in La Liga for Simeone’s side, who have not lost in their past six league encounters with Los Blancos.
PSG Regain Top Position In France (7)
Paris St-Germain returned to the top of Ligue 1 with a comfortable victory over Auxerre at the weekend.
Illia Zabarnyi scored his first goal for the club since his summer move from Bournemouth when he volleyed in at the back post from Vitihna’s cross at the Parc des Princes in Paris.
The home side doubled their lead when Lucas Beraldo headed home from Senny Mayulu’s cross.
PSG moved above Marseille, who beat them on Monday, as they made it five wins from their opening six league matches.
Auxerre had their chances, with a fierce shot from Kevin Danois striking the woodwork and Sekou Mara having a header cleared off the line.
There were further opportunities for Luis Enrique’s side but Achraf Hakimi’s dink was ruled out for offside and Bradley Barcola sent a header over the bar.
Auxerre are 13th in the table with four defeats from six matches.
PSG travel to Barcelona on Wednesday in their second Champions League group stage match.
Before the PSG match, Marseille scored two late goals to move level on points with hosts Strasbourg and go top of Ligue 1 on goal difference.
Strasbourg looked on track to move four points clear at the top until the 78th minute as Abdoul Ouattara’s goal had them ahead.
But former Arsenal and Chelsea striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang grabbed the equaliser, and Amir Murillo completed the turnaround as the clock ticked into added time.
Aubameyang was first to the rebound following his own shot to level the score after goalkeeper Mike Penders spilled the initial shot.
Penders, on loan from Chelsea, seemed to have done better in stoppage time when he tipped substitute Robinio Vaz’s header onto the crossbar, but the rebound landed with Murillo.
Marseille were top with five teams all on 12 points, including Strasbourg who were in fifth place.
Kane Sets Elite Scoring Record With Bayern (5)
Harry Kane scored twice in Bayern Munich’s win over Werder Bremen last Friday to become the fastest player this century to reach 100 goals for a club playing in one of Europe’s top five leagues.
The England captain won and converted a penalty on the stroke of half-time, before firing home from close range in the 65th minute to reach the century mark in just 104 games.
The previous record of 105 games was set by Cristiano Ronaldo while playing for Real Madrid in 2011, and matched by Manchester City striker Erling Haaland last year.
Former Liverpool winger Luis Diaz had opened the scoring when he deflected in a Jonathan Tah flick from a corner, while Konrad Laimer slipped home a late fourth as leaders Bayern preserved their unbeaten start to the season.
Kane broke two other records in his side’s 4-1 victory against Hoffenheim last weekend, during which he scored a hat-trick.
He reached 70 Bundesliga goals in just his 67th game in the competition, faster than anyone else in the league’s history.
Previously, the 32-year-old broke the record for the most goals scored in 50 Bundesliga games (54 goals), and the fewest number of games needed to reach 50 goals in the competition (43 matches).
On Friday, Kane also became the first player in Bundesliga history to convert their first 18 penalties, as well as score 18 consecutive spot-kicks.
Kane was the first player in Bundesliga history to finish top scorer in both his first two seasons, and the only player to score 25 or more goals in their first two campaigns in the competition.
He has started this campaign with 15 in eight games in all competitions – including two hat-tricks in five Bundesliga games, with Vincent Kompany’s side top of the league table with a 100% record.
Kane is the highest scoring Englishman in Champions League history (42 goals), and scored against all 20 teams he has faced in the Bundesliga.
Only Miroslav Klose has played against more sides, while scoring against all of them (28).
Kane joined Bayern from Tottenham Hotspur in a £100m transfer in 2023, having scored 280 goals in 435 games in all competitions for the Premier League club.
He has two years remaining on the four-year contract he signed with the Munich outfit, although he has recently been linked with former club Spurs and Manchester United.
But when asked on Friday if he was thinking of a Premier League return, Kane said: “No, not at the moment. I’m really happy here. I have two years left on my contract.
“I’m enjoying every moment. That is not in my thought process. I’m enjoying it with the team, with the coach, and hopefully we continue to be successful.”
Sports
Forest Still Looking For Winning Formula

Ange Postecoglou’s difficult start to life as Nottingham Forest head coach continued as Omar Alderete’s first-half goal gave Sunderland victory at the City Ground.
The former Spurs boss, appointed on 9 September, has now lost three and drawn two of his first five games in charge, with Saturday’s loss coming in his first home game with Forest.
But the hosts will feel aggrieved by the manner of Sunderland’s winner, with the visitors awarded a free-kick when Nicolas Dominguez was penalised for simulation when he clashed with Trai Hume while attempting to clear.
Grant Xhaka sent the ball in from the set-piece and Alderete was there to direct it into the net.
Dan Ndoye came close to equalising just before the break with a deflected effort before Chris Wood headed over.
Elliot Anderson curled a shot just over the bar as Forest pushed for the leveller in the second half, while Robin Roefs, who has been excellent for Sunderland so far this season – saved well from Omari Hutchinson, Wood and a long-range Anderson effort.
But despite the pressure, Forest could not find a goal as promoted Sunderland’s third win of the season moved them up to third in the table.
Forest, meanwhile, are 16th with just one win from their first six Premier League games.
Sports
Man Utd Lose, Again

Manchester United skipper Bruno Fernandes had a second-half penalty saved as Ruben Amorim’s side slipped to a Premier League defeat at Brentford at the weekend.
United were trying to fight their way back after Igor Thiago capitalised on some shambolic United defending inside the first 20 minutes to give the home side a two-goal cushion.
Benjamin Sesko pulled one back with his first goal since making a £74m summer move from RB Leipzig.
Fernandes was given the chance to level when Bees captain Nathan Collins dragged former Brentford forward Bryan Mbeumo back inside the area.
After a delay of almost five minutes, which included a video assistant referee red card check against Collins and Brentford making two substitutions, Fernandes’ low effort was turned away by Caoimhin Kelleher.
Brentford wrapped it up deep in stoppage time when Mathias Jensen drove a high shot past United goalkeeper Altay Bayindir from the edge of the area.
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