By Douglas Baye-Osagie dbayeosagie@yahoo.com This season, Nigeria was represented by four clubs on the continent. Rangers International and Rivers United in the CAF Champions League, and Shooting Stars and El-Kanemi Warriors in the CAF Confederation Cup. The story is already familiar – while two have bowed out in their very first game of the tournament, the two that remain now face a heavy North African hurdle.
We celebrate qualifiers in June, we get humiliated in September. Rivers United and Shooting Stars are just the latest victims. But the problem is not juju, not luck, not referees. It is systemic. These were teams who had pole position to advance but they refused to do what was needed to get over the line. The NPFL is now a feeder league for the continent’s smaller leagues. That is how far we have fallen.
Our local players have taken their football to African countries whenever the slightest opportunity arises. We pay our champions peanuts. How can you pay a star striker N150,000 a month and expect him to face a Tunisian defender earning $10,000? Good players don’t stay. They emigrate to Rwanda, Tanzania, Sudan, Kenya, Europe, even Vietnam. We export goals and import regrets.
Just look at Shooting Stars – their best two players last season, Ayobami Junior and Tijani Al Ameen, who even made the Super Eagles squad for the Unity Cup derby, have now moved on to clubs in Algeria and Zimbabwe. Think of how much experience and quality is lost by these departures. Recruitment is corrupt. It’s “man-know-man” football. Players are sacked by cleaners. That doesn’t breed a professional environment.
Agents bring their players, commissioners bring their cousins, chairmen bring their clients. Talent is optional. Some coaches have turned selection into business. If you don’t pay, you don’t play. The best