Like national leadership, like football administration

The Nigerian Football Federation [NFF], the body that [mis]manages football in Nigeria, is a child of the system. Very much so. The association lived up to its character recently when Finidi George, the recently appointed coach of the senior national football team, threw in the towel after only two competitive matches, both of which turned in very dismal results.
NFF appointed George coach only last April after a characteristically tardy selection process in which various names were bandied about at the same time, as preferred candidates of different potentates in the football administration body. When the 79-year-old football association eventually settled for George, it was assumed that it carried out a thorough job of assessing and ticking all the criteria required in a candidate that could deliver results. Barely two months after announcing George, the project embarrassingly tanked. There is no contesting the fact that the aftermath of the process that threw up George is an indictment on the football federation.
The barefaced move by the NFF leadership to move on, quickly and smoothly, into a new gear, in another search for another coach, after the failure of the Finidi George project, is, at best, insulting. The move comes across as a deliberate effort by the occupants of the Football House, to create an impression that they were not part of the debacle. That attempt cannot catch. NFF is fully responsible for the Finidi George fiasco.
It speaks of the absence of a due sense of responsibility, common in Nigeria, that neither the leadership of the NFF, nor anybody in the Ministry of Sports Development, has deemed it decent or necessary, till date, to formally tender an apology to Nigerians, or at least explain, even if tamely, why the choice NFF experts made, barely two months back, as national coach of the senior football team, failed so woefully, soon after inauguration. Yet, Nigeria boasts of a surfeit of soccer stars who are in the prime of their career. Was the fault with the barber, or with the razor?
Of course, leadership has an entirely different connotation in Nigeria. It rarely goes with the concomitant responsibility that it carries in most other places. In the dominant fields of politics and public service in Nigeria, leadership is often defined in power, sans obligation. Interestingly, football administration straddles politics and bureaucracy in the country.
The decline of football in Nigeria in recent years, manifesting glaringly, in the failure of the most popular national sports to maintain the lofty global heights it used to occupy, derives, without doubt, from the stranglehold of politics on the game. Football administration has fallen into the grips and influence of sundry principalities, who are unrelentingly self-serving. These tin gods continue, among others, to determine the coaches that are hired at every turn. Unfortunately, their decisions are never free of selfish considerations.
There are many questions begging for answer in the wake of the Finidi George disaster. What were the criteria the NFF used in selecting a national coach, which threw up Finidi George? If the process was transparent and honest, what accounted for the immediate failure of a supposed good candidate? Was he sabotaged by players or the system?
George, for the records, is a very decent guy. From what is known of his personality, he is the type of man, many mothers will like to have as son in-law; very calm, not a rabble rouser, and obviously a pacificist. He remains one of the most accomplished footballers the country has produced, with an admirable career and a rack adorned with glittering silverwares, among them, the coveted Champions League trophy. His exploits as a dazzling winger, both at Ajax Amsterdam and at the national team, remain evergreen.
Alas, it takes an entirely different requirement to be a good and successful football coach. Indeed, many good coaches are not gentle guys. They actually don’t want to be one. It is a tough job. Many successful soccer coaches are ruthless and single-minded. So then, does Finidi George have the character it takes to impose himself on the national team and deliver the desired result?
The disastrous outcome of his now dismal record as a senior national coach, does not support any claims that he was up to the task, except there were serious intervening variables that worked against him. It does not seem unfair, therefore, to hold that the NFF failed in the job of properly determining the right criteria and character of the candidate required to deliver as a national coach, when they picked George, considering especially, that there was a very short time for him to deliver.
There are, for sure, nagging questions about hiring national football coaches in Nigeria that predates Finidi George. Before him, there was the Portuguese, Jose Peseiro. What exactly happened that made the man to decide, after winning silver at the last African Cup of Nations [AFCON] in February,2024 to walk away from Nigeria? Peseiro had expressed warm appreciation to Nigeria for honouring him after the tournament in Cote D’Ivoire. Yet, he could not wait to bolt. As a matter of fact, it was publicly known after the AFCON tournament that the Portuguese was waiting for confirmation of a new job offer. He did not hide it that he would leave Nigeria as soon as he had a new suitor. He left as soon as he got one. While Peseiro was here, there were always issues about his salary and the such.
It is a fact, however, that Peseiro did not impress many Nigerians, as the capable coach they would prefer. The coach struggled with tactics and team selection throughout his management period in Nigeria. The national team under his care left Nigerian soccer fans with their hearts in their mouth in virtually all the matches he handled. There was the predominant belief among soccer followers that a more capable and experienced coach, could possibly have gone all the way at AFCON 2024.
Unfortunately, the immediate post-Peseiro era, as represented by Finidi, now makes the Portuguese seem tolerable, at least. This is the classical story of Nigeria; every leadership looked so bad, until the next one comes along, then the previous one appears a far better option. So, now, like national leadership, like soccer coaches.
The Nigerian Football Federation owes it a duty to explain to Nigerians what went wrong with the Finidi George project. There are reports that the principalities in charge of football administration in Nigeria, will not allow a senior national football coach, especially a local one, to be hired, unless the candidate is malleable and can be dictated to.
The fact that the NFF wasted no time after George’s resignation to return to the track of searching for a foreign (read white) coach is a cause for concern. How does the failure of George translate to a foreclosure of other local coaches? How does a country exhibit so much complex and lack of confidence in itself, while it claims, at the same time, to be so endowed?
The reality of football administration in Nigeria following on the footsteps of national politics, is appalling. The affinity does not portend any bright future for football in this otherwise football-crazy land. Very sad.