Michael Obasi
The Leadership of the Nigeria Football Federation under the able hands of Ibrahim Gusau will be two years in office this year and it is very clear for one to see the Healthy Path the Country’s Football is headed.
This steady Path can be seen in the short term but its overall long term effect is even far greater for the Health and Growth of Nigeria Football.
On the surface, many might not appreciate enough some of these innovations brought to put Nigeria Football on a solid and consistent pedestal, but history will answer for the board.
Why one will be very eager to want to know what these steps have been, I will take the various National teams one after the other to give us a detailed explanation of how the Present NFF board has lifted the standard of the game all round.
The Super Eagles of Nigeria might have had a slow start to their World Cup qualifiers but the team has not crashed out of the Qualifiers and there are still chances they can qualify with six rounds of matches to go after playing four games
As a Board , the NFF took a decision , and rightly so , to appoint a Coach who already knows the team to handle the Eagles after Jose Peseiro’s exit but unfortunately Finidi George fluffed a Golden Chance.
Very easy for anybody to always point fingers at the NFF but seriously the Football House took a very fair decision with the appointment of Finidi, and I remember many hailed the decision as at then.
Gusau took a decision that shows continuity because he believes so much in continuity but unfortunately Finidi missed a chance of a life time.
Earlier this year, this was the same NFF that brought smiles on the faces of Nigerians when the Super Eagles got to the final of the AFCON, when many did not give them a chance.
Highly rated teams like Egypt , Morocco and Senegal crashed out , not even in the last four but in the round of Sixteen and Quarter finals.
The Nations cup is the Pinnacle of African Football, Nigeria finished second behind host Ivory Coast but shockingly some persons are not giving the right credits to the board of the NFF for such feat.
For the first time, in so many years the Super Eagles went to a major tournament devoid of Money crises and Protest and some don’t know that this alone was as a result of the administrative leadership of the Present Board.
The Board of the NFF under Ibrahim Gusau might not be all perfect but it has shown that it can take those tough Proactive decisions when it mattered most.
This is the reason why it swiftly took a stand to rejig the Coaching Crew of the Super Eagles and decide to employ a foreign coach to renew the chances of making it to the next World Cup in 2026.
And currently steps are ongoing behind the scene to get a very good coach for the team and Nigerians must trust this process, rather than creating discussion to heat up the system in the media.
At the moment Nigeria Super Falcons are featuring at the Olympics Games in Paris, which was the first time in Sixteen years, courtesy of the Present Ibrahim Gusau led Board .
People that want to fan criticism will not see Growth in such achievement.
It is also worthy of note that the Falcons have being on a steady Growth on the Global stage under the current NFF, reaching the Quarter final of the Women’s World cup in 2023 before losing narrowly to England on Penalties.
For the Junior teams, the Nigeria Under 17 and under 20 Women’s teams have been unmatched, qualifying for both Women World cups with ease .
But unfortunately we will not highlight all that in our scorecard of bias against the NFF but will be quick to point at the Male under 17 and 20 teams .
But in truth , the recent Nigeria Under 17 team that crashed out in the WAFU tournament under Manu Garba and the one assembled by Nduka Ugbade last year will go down as the youngest boys Nigeria has ever paraded at that level, the facts are there .
Both teams had boys in secondary schools who were real under 17 rather than featuring over aged players , a problem that has bedevilled the Growth of the game in the Country.
The NFF President insisted that football at this stage is developmental and was very strict with the coaches to ensure that only players under the age of Seventeen are selected to henceforth represent the country.
The Nigeria Beach Soccer team just returned to competitive football after years of not featuring, courtesy of the decision of the Current board.
If the board of Ibrahim Gusau is not concerned about the entire fabrics of Nigeria Football, it will not take a decision to reinstate Nigeria’s participation in Beach Soccer.
Because the team lost the Qualifiers to play at the Nations cup, the NFF is now an easy target for maligning. I don’t think that is constructive enough.
Whilst we always very quick to criticise the NFF when any of the National teams is not doing well and keep mute to praise them when the others are performing, it is worthy of note that the NFF is one of the few Football Federations on the continent that all its National Teams are actively competing.
Today, we all are basking in the new look and newly re-engineered Nigeria Premier League which is showing signs of growth, going by the success of last season.
Last season , the NFF clamped hard on refereeing with swift actions so as to lay a good foundation for the new-look league.
The league is back on Television and all the legal battles strangling the commercialisation of the league have been gradually resolved to give the league a strong foundation.
The entire Nigeria Football Ecosystem is enjoying relative Peace because of the leadership qualities of the NFF boss, Ibrahim Gusau, though there will always be room for improvement but Nigeria football is far from being in a bad place under the current NFF regime.
Michael Obasi is a Sports Affairs Analyst/ Presenter ,he writes from Abuja.
