[left]The abysmal performance of the national teams during the last 7 years at Global and continental competitions and even local competitions is not only due to Government interference,is not only due to poor planning,preparation or appointments only.
It is due to a racketeering system in place set up by corrupt officials from the top echelon of the Nigerian football federation down to the national teams.
This problem is from file to field problem.
How then does this racketeering system work?
We know that down the years the problem of team players in major competitions have always been the following
1)Non-payment of match Bonuses
2)lack of Condusive enviroment for training and incentives for players
3)Late preparation for major events
4Player selection by bribery and corruption
5)Non-patriotism by Players who have achieved Fame and popularity
6)Captaincy problems
7)Indiscipline
Lack of funds for team logistics and accomodation among others.
9)Disbandment of winning teams
10)Camping
Amongst others.
However one problem that has always been recycled is racketeering!
This is what we call a system whereby players and coaches are appointed national teams responsibility not on merit or patriotism but by Bribery and corruption and connection!
We see that this system is from the oga at the top to the team players and coaching staff and crew.
It is faulted from the top because people who have no business with football administration have also been appointed the jobs based on the same methods so they see Football as a business process than as a developmental process based on merits and patriotism with hardwork.
We discover that this is peculiar to all competitions.
This system begins from the appointment of coaches!!!
A corrupt official would intervene in the selection process of coaches and put his own person as coach of any of the national teams because it was based on a deal between the coach and the official no matter the department the corrupt official is heading.
Meanwhile when camping begins and bright prospects are discovered on merits and hardwork,they are not always included in the final team list selection unless they bribe their way into the final team list selection.
This is why many age grade category competitions are filled with overage players beyond the minimal age limit.
Such things are kept a secret because the coach thar was appointed by the corrupt official already understands the corrupt process of picking final team players.
The only exception to bright prospects is Injury!!!
The other reason why this corrupt process thrives more is due to the disbandment of winning teams who understand themselves and the inclusion of new players with old winning team members who do not understand themselves .
This selection process alone can mar the team performance in any competition.
If the press were to know the secret of all the dirty and shady deals between corrupt players and team coaches and staffs among themselves we would be shocked at how age cheating is just the beginning of the whole cycle!!
The result of such process is that at the end of such age grade competitions,those players are no where to be found again whilst their counterparts progress in their various countries and other elite leagues AROUND the world!!!
The second stage of this process is the issue of corrupt officials and foreign scouts who give orders to a coach at very crucial stages of a competition to field a certain player who is their prospect .
It is unfortunate that sometimes though the player may not be guilty,the coach in charge is guilty because he too has been paid to do such thing.
The result of this is that it costs Nigeria trophies or advancement in major competitions!!!
An example is the fact that in 2015 WYC, the then Nigeria U20 coach Manu Garba refused to field star player Kelechi inheanacho in a quarterfinal match against Germany U20 team.
Nigeia went on to loose that match not knowing it was an off field problem behind the team selection.
It is unfortunate that just as the bribery cycle sometimes benefit Nigeria at age grade competitions ,it sometimes doesnt because players who were already overaged at the U17,U20 level are not able to transform to the senior national teams.
Iam not surprised that the third stage of the racketeering system occurs at competitions sometimes.
This is what makes Nigeria sometimes loose a match.
The coach has the final say in some matches ,but sometimes there is a problem between coach and player who have bribed one another!!
A deal is always a deal and as soon as the corrupt player notices that the coach did not honor his or her own end of the bargain,they fail to play or show up or they show up and do not play with patriotism but they play with villainy to destroy the team.
No player can be bigger than a team except he has seen the dirty linen of a corrupt coach!!!
This is why at the end of such age grade competitions no matter how Nigeria is awarded ie even if they win the competition,it doesn't transmit to future glories from a developmental stage
Are u surprised that in 2007 ,a player of the under 17 winning team allegedly payed 100k to the corrupt NFF officials to be a part of the team.
The then late coach yemi tella had no idea because he was a father who accepted everyone not by bribery but by merit and hardwork.
However,the Nff had some shady deals with some of the players during the camping period.
Till today,we dont hear of that player as he is now wasting away in a third division in a foreign country.
His past achievements and glories have all been forgotten.
Nigerians should remember that it was only in 2013 that age grade competitions began to yield fruits for Nigerian football.
This was due to only a check and balance method adopted by the world governing body FIFA called the MRI!!!
However,this does not stop the Nigeria U20 and U23 from such corruption because it is the coach that knows what is going on.
We thank God for a player like Victor Osimhen who has now been 8 years in the transformation era!!!
This shows that he was truly an U17 aged player at that competition UAE 2015!!!
The fifth stage of the corruption cycle is the Issue of INVITATIONS TO FOREIGN BASED PLAYERS WHO WANT TO SWITCH ALLEGIANCE TO THEIR MOTHER LAND NIGERIA!!
Some years ago ,a nigerian player failed to honour an invitation to the U23 mens football team because the NFF was asking him to pay for his own flight ticket!!!
Are you also not aware how the NFF treated Victor Moses and used him till he had to retire from international football
There is also the saga of vincent enyeama and coach Sunday oliseh!!
It is a shame at how many parents of foreign based players have turned down Nigeria because of the milking system put in place by the nff!
We just notice that they would never ever want to do what is right for Nigerian football but only for their own pockets.
A lot of them have no business in running the glass house at all!!
If players are now paying flight ticket for Nff officials then there is a problem as the contempt these players would have no matter the favoritism by officials would be so high when the chips are down
The U23 olympic team that won bronze in 2016 led by coach samson siasia painted a gory situation of the rot in the NFF.
That team was filled with all the problems of the NFF.
The players were owed match bonuses from qualification to competition and if not for John Mikel obi and one wealthy japanese business man who payed motivation money to the team, things couldn't have been better at all.
It was a total disgrace entirely.
Do you know why Players of national teams fail to play to win now?..
It is glaring and it is caused by the racketeering system instituted by Nigeria's 7th most corrupt administration called "THE NFF"
The sixth stage of the racketeering system is the disbandment of winning teams by coaching crew of the NFF and the inclusion of fresh legs into a team.
Aside from injuries,Nigeria football has never kept winning teams together in or out of Football competitions.
There is always no continuity and this has affected the growth of football in Nigeria.
Instead what we have is a display of selfish flowing football on the pitch as every player is for himself.
Some are playing to impress foreign scouts than team work!!
Some play against the coach because they are aware of his corrupt practices!!!
Some play to the gallery and for villany!!!
Some play showing a reflection of what is ongoing on in Nigeria's football house!!
The ongoing Total energies U20 african cup of nations is an example of team disbandment and mixture before a competition proper!!!
The coach failed to keep a winning team because of racketeering system!!!
He knows if he keeps a wining team,it would not benefit his pocket!!
Where is the Nigeria U20 WAFU champions team that won gold
Apart from the injury of the captain and unavailability of kep players and playmakers where are the rest of the players
I wont be surprised if the team doesnt win the competition and i wont be surprised if this team is again disbanded and new faces who never worked for the qualifications to FIFA U20 world cup are called up in camping!!!
This is what must end for Nigeria to return to its full efficiency and transparency of its football administration.
An end must come to the racketeering system or we would just be facing the same anomalies all the time from scratch and back to the drawing board that would still be wiped out and dusted by corruption!!!
The france 98 team,the korea/japan Nigeria world cup team, the south africa 2010 team,the Nigerian teams that failed woefully in continental and global football competitions are victims of the racketeering system.
Our football cannot grow with such a system in place