Nigeria were yesterday beaten by Côte d’Ivoire 2-3 in the final of the WAFU B U17 AFCON Qualifiers in Lomé , Togo. Another setback in the country’s quest to return to the top of youth football in Africa.
It’s worthy to note that since the coming of this present board of the Nigeria Football Federation, the country’s fortune at youth football particularly U17 level is nothing to write home about.
The success of the 2015 set achieved under this board was as a result of the groundwork done by the erstwhile board under Aminu Maigari. 2017 was the first time the board had to prepare a team and it ended up in the team failing to qualify for the Africa U17 Cup of Nations.
Here are five reasons why Nigeria is no longer a feared force in youth football as investigated the past four years by Mohammed Mowiz Suleiman.
No Clear Cut Grassroot Plan – Many will point at the introduction of Magnetic Resonance Imaging Test (MRI) as why Nigeria is no longer dominating African youth football. It is indeed part of it but what it has done is expose the lack of a specific way to source for talents in the country.
The scan means picking players from the old method of having over 1000 players come for screening is no longer efficient with most of the talented ones failing the test or knocked out for various age related issues.
A vibrant youth league with teams from the Nigeria Professional Football Leagues and other organized academies in the country will address this area of concern. Presently coaches of U17 teams are made to work with what is available to them and not the best available in the country.
Interference From NFF – There is an unwritten rule in the last two U17 teams that coaches must find a way to include players from the NFF organized youth tournaments and also the U15 team even if they are not the best. The idea from what many said is to encourage the sponsors to do more in that area.
“ We had to drop some players and pick the boys from the NFF tournament because of the sponsors interest. Same as for the U15 that we must pick from there too. We ended up dropping a defender for a striker of the U15 and converted the striker to a defender. We had no choice”, a backroom staff of the 2019 U19 team revealed.
NFF Board Members Turned Agents: This particular issue rocked the last U17 team and distorted preparations of this present set. Two board members of the NFF have hijacked the U17 team for their friends and associates who are football agents. The claim is that agents are behind the recent struggle at youth level.
That claim made the NFF president Amaju Pinnick to bar players with agents from the U17 team regardless of how talented they are but little did he know that the idea is crafted to empower his board members who felt agents made a kill from the success of the 2013 and 2015 set hence want their own piece of it. So far it has been a disaster.
Appointment Of Coaches – Unconfirmed report has it that the present coach of the U17 team Fatai Amoo wasn’t the first choice option of the NFF but was forced on them by a top official in the Nigerian government who is from same state as the coach.
The idea from what I gathered was to have Manu Garba whose ability to spot talent is second to none remain as head coach with former international Finidi George as one of his assistants.
Finidi’s appointment as assistant was suppose to be the first step towards easing him into the Nigeria national team coaching circle but it wasn’t to be with Amoo picked by a power the football house dare not say no to.
NFF Lack Of Interest In Youth Football– This present board will try to say they have plans for youth football but it’s far from the truth. The one brand that bothers the and get all the attention is the Super Eagles. Any other is seen as a waste of funds with their preparations treated as nothing far from students getting set for inter house sports meets.
Never in the history of Nigerian football have we had youth teams preparations for tournaments so bad like we are seeing under this board.
