Nigeria Can Raise Six National Teams – Hart

The President of Goldashe United Football Club of Port Harcourt, Mr. Fubara Kingsley Hart has said that prospects exist for Nigeria to raise six formidable national football teams that could compete favourably against the leading soccer nations of the world.

Reacting to last week’s international friendly against Venezuela in which the Eagles ran away with a 3-1 win, the Goldashe administrator praised the boys for beating the South Americans but noted that friendlies and qualifiers differed from what transpired at the finals proper.

He charged Coach Stephen Keshi to seriously work on the weaknesses of the boys while also strategising on the strong points.

On the chances of Eagle making it to the 2016 World Cup in Rio Dejenairo, Brazil, Fubara Kingsley Hart said any debate on the issue was uncalled for.

“I think Nigeria currently parades a team that has the capacity and capability to beat any team any day,” he declared, stating that what was of paramount importance now was to have a good outing in South Africa and possibly winning the Nations Cup.

Mr. Fubara Kingsley Hart said: “The Super Eagles have improved tremendously and with the renewed confidence in some of the players like the Chelsea duo of John Mikel Obi and Victor Moses, I see a team that will do well in South Africa.”

The Goldashe chief also charged the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) not to lose sleep over Super Eagles World Cup qualification tasks but to do thorough research and put their house in order.

He argued that Nigeria’s problem was not the absence of good footballers but the inability to fish out the abundant talents which are scattered all over the world.

“We should take maximum advantage of our huge population and do thorough combing to fish out the abundance of soccer talents within and abroad.

“Rivers State alone is capable of producing a squad for the national team, not to talk of the South-South, South-East and the rest of the six geo-political zones.

“Properly harnessed, each of the zones can raise a formidable national team that can represent Nigeria in the World Cup,” he stated.

Taking a retrospective look at the country’s paralympians which excelled above their ‘able’ counterparts at the last London meet, Mr. Fubara Kingsley Hart described the athletes as ‘heroes’ and carpeted the NSC for paying little or no attention to other sports other than football.

“The feat achieved by these paralympians serve as lesson that Nigeria should not cast all her eggs in one basket. Now that our ‘disable’ athletes has brought us glory by removing the shame inflicted on us by the ‘able’ athletes, let’s go back to the drawing board and overhaul the entire sports sector.

“We have good swimmers and canoe paddlers in the Niger Delta. We have great horse riders among the Fulani in the north. With the right training, equipment and exposure to international competitions, Nigeria can produce athletes that can make impact come Rio 2016,” the amiable Goldashe boss said.