Onigbinde’s verdict: There is no football club in Nigeria
Written by Bridget Amaraegbu
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Former Super Eagles coach, Chief Festus Adegboyega Onigbinde who turned 70 recently has taken a look at Nigerian football and declared that the game is not improving at all. According to him, what administrators do is promotion rather than development of the game.


He also spoke on the wrangling between the Nigeria Football Association (NFA) and the Nigeria Football League (NFL) in this interview with your soar-away Saturday Vanguard. Enjoy it:


What is your opinion on the disparity the NFA has created between foreign and indigenous coaches?

I believe we have been on this disparity for a very long time but now we are getting out of the problem.

As a person, I’ve never objected to bringing in foreign coaches from anywhere.


As an educationist, I welcome education from anywhere but my contentions have always been that firstly, I want to know the background of the person, secondly we must be very clear with his responsibilities so that there will not be any clash of interest of any sort and from what we have seen so far I hope we have learnt our lessons.


The strong reason for me to support bringing in a foreign coach to this country is the question of our mentality. I can recall when I came to handle the national team in 1983, I was there for one year without any equipment, no single set of jersey, not even the balls and I know that if I was a foreign coach it will be different. If I demand for ten balls, they would have sent somebody to get me hundreds from Germany.


So if that is the only way Nigerian football can get what it really deserves, then why not since that is the Nigerian mentality, but I must say that Nigerian coaches have proved themselves good if not better. Modesty will not allow me to continue to talk about my own personal experience but I believe what the Nigerian coaches need is the moral, administrative and psychological support from the administrators and all football loving fans in Nigeria.


I strongly believe that our last experience with the German Coach must have taught us enough lessons and since then, the Nigerian coach who took over is not doing badly at all.


He has played five matches, one friendly and four competitive games and it was only the friendly that he had a draw and won the other four competitive matches. With this I think that we have made a point.

Do you think our local coaches can deliver the Super Eagles?


Yes we have shown examples. I worked under a very difficult situation in 1983/85 and yet I came back with a silver from the African Cup of Nations in Cote d’Ivoire.


I took the team to Korea/Japan in 2002 and although we did not go beyond the first round but if our people can remember what the situation of the team was before I took over especially after Mali they would probably appreciate that we did a good job in Korea/Japan. Although we lost 0-1 to Argentina, 1-2 to Sweden, but in our last match we played a draw with England after preparing for barely two months without the much needed equipment.


When we came back, I taught people would have said if we were able to go this far with all those difficulties in a short period, let’s see what we can do to improve the situation but that won’t happen in Nigeria and that is what forces people to think that some people have something to share in employing foreign coaches.


I want you to understand that I’ve not said that all Nigerian coaches are good because we cannot say all Nigerian doctors and lawyers etc are good but that does not mean that we don’t have a few of them who can stand their ground anywhere in the world. What our local coaches need is adequate support.


On appointment of coaches for the Super Eagles, should they be interviewed by NFA board members?

The interview could be done by any board, the important thing is to know the set up of the panel doing it. What is the background of the members of the panel? What do they know about football, will they be able to explore the interviewed to find out the depth of their knowledge and experience.


For sometime now, we have relied on foreign based players for both our junior and senior national teams? What is your opinion on that?


It is not good for Nigerian football, of course this foreign based players are Nigerians and are qualified to play in the national team but I’ve always said that wearing a jersey in any of the national teams should be competitive and we have seen some of the problems of relying entirely on this foreign based players.


We are always running into trouble with them and that is a challenge. We are the people that developed these players before they went abroad, so why can’t we develop others who will take over from them at home.


This is why I keep talking about development programme for sports especially football in this country and that is why we are running into this problem but I believe we will get over it.

Should membership of the NFA Board be by appointment or election?


Truly by the standards of FIFA and even the NFA itself, it is not supposed to be by appointment, it is supposed to be by democratic election. Although this is a very wide area because it should be a democratic process and this democracy should start from club level. For me there is not a single football club in this country because nearly all the clubs we have in this country today have appointed board members.


A club is defined as a place where people of like interest come together, bind themselves together and elect their officers and so on. Since it is not done that way here I believe we don’t have a single club, what we have is government parastatals who call themselves clubs and that is why we are having problems.


Clubs are supposed to be run this way, we should have democratically elected board members of the club who will send their delegates to elect members of the local association, the local association will send their delegates in each state to elect the state officials and then representatives of each state will now go to the national level to elect the NFA Board members.


Right now I can say that we are still toying with football association. Although I have a lot of regard for the people who are there now but if we want to face the fact, then we ask questions like who elected them? Were the people who elected them qualified? Were these people elected? This is what FIFA saw and said we should look into the structure of our football administration. What I’m saying is the ideal thing that should be done and does not have anything to do with the present NFA Board members.


Who do you think should be saddled with the responsibility of appointing referees for league matches, is it the NFA or NFL?


FIFA recognises only one football body in a country and that is the NFA. The NFL we have now were in charge of premier, professional and amateur leagues which is not supposed to be so. We can have one thousand leagues in this country and all of them are supposed to have their own board but all these various leagues are under the NFA because none of them can communicate to FIFA as they are all babies of the NFA. Secondly the referees association is under the NFA.


It is the responsibility of the NFA to develop the referees by organizing courses for them and then the NFA can send a list of qualified referees to the various leagues. It will be the responsibility of the board of the leagues to assign these referees to their respective matches.


Can the present set up of Super Eagles we have pick the ticket for both the Nations/World Cups?

Yes, why not. Although I’ve never been satisfied with any level of achievement because I believe there’s always room for improvement and I know that at any given time Nigeria has never selected the best eleven because our mode of selection has been faulty. Why must we depend on foreign based players, does it mean we cannot have home-based players in this country, after all in Korea/Japan 2002, I started with home based players.


What do you think can be done to improve our local league so that our football fans can return to the stadium across the country?


Sports is both for recreation and entertainment and if the fans cannot get that entertainment in our local league, they will look for it elsewhere, so let’s find a way of developing our football. When people say our football has improved, I don’t buy the idea because I keep asking where are the likes of Odegbami, Mudashiru Lawal, Achebe, Ibiam etc. We are just promoting football and not developing it.


From your experience as a renowned coach, what do you think went wrong with Nigerian football?

Firstly, have we always made sure that people who run this game are people who understand how it should be run. Secondly we have always concentrated on competitions rather than developing the game. Competitions are supposed to be used to test the level of development but instead of developing, we are testing, I believe the people who are in charge now are trying their best and learning fast.


Looking at how well the Super Eagles are doing in their qualifying series, how far do you think they can go into the competition proper?


Honestly, with the talents we have in this country, Nigeria is capable of emerging the best in the world, I mean winning the World Cup, after all we have done it with the junior team. So the senior team is equally capable, depending on what is put into the team between now and them. I believe the NFA technical administration will understand what I’m saying.


Is the NFA right in giving a foreign coach a binding contract whereas that of an indigenous coach is merely promisory?


Anyway I cannot confirm whether any of the contact is binding or promisory but I believe that whatever is good for the goose is also good for the gander.


Like in my case when I requested for balls and did not get it but if I am a foreigner I would have gotten hundreds of balls. Another part of it is when our people compare indigenous coaches to foreigners, I tell them its not fair to do that.


What our local coaches need most is our support and encouragement not condemnation. You cannot compare an indigenous coach who does not have enough equipment to work with to a foreign coach who has more than what he needs.


Do you think the NFA has really tapped from your technical experience to improve not just the game but also the administration of the game?


Recently there’s been some rapour between us but I don’t know if I have anything to offer. I’ve never objected to national service, so whenever I’m called upon I will answer although in the past there was some misunderstanding.


Looking back at Korea / Japan 2002, is there anything you didn’t do that you would like to do now if given the opportunity?


If I could bring up a team upto that level within three months, I don’t think I have any regrets at all. I am not the type of coach that will go to the players when a match is on to give signals, for me it is distraction.


I sit down and observe the weaknesses and strength of both teams in order to make corrections after the first half. Some coaches do it just to make people know they are coaching.


At 70 years, what do you owe Nigerian football?

I think I’ve always given my best and I don’t owe anything to our football rather if some people have prevented me from doing my best in the past then it is not my problem, the debt is on the other side. As long as I’m still strong and hearty, I will not reject any call to national service.

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