The dwindling fortune of Nigeria’s football has been blamed on the Glass House and the Super Eagles coach Stephen Keshi.
Former FIFA and CAF executive committee member, Amos Adamu, pronounced Stephen Keshi culpable for Nigeria’s failure to get to Equatorial Guinea 2015 Nations Cup.
Besides, one must not miss the fact that the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) was literally not in place, according to him.
He said: “The disorganised situation in the NFF had its adverse effect also on the players.”
He is of the opinion that Nigeria cannot afford to miss out in two consecutive editions of the continental premier competition, the Africa Cup Nations (AFCON). So he proffered possible solutions.
“The NFF should create an enabling environment to kick-start Nigeria’s AFCON campaign which begins early June with a home game against Chad. This should be followed immediately with an away duel with Tanzania before the potentially explosive home game with Egypt in the first quarter of next year.
“A slip in the first two projected easier encounters is capable of putting Nigeria’s campaign on life support as it happened in the failed attempts for the 2012 and 2015 editions,” he said.
He therefore offered a timely warning to avert the dwindling stature of the Super Eagles which has seen the team sinking to eighth position in Africa and 45th in the world.
“Failure to plan is plan to fail,” he remarked in Lagos as he pondered on the fortunes of the Super Eagles.
“The qualifying series for the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations are barely six weeks away, yet the national team has not taken any definite shape.”
He however praised the NFF president, Amaju Pinnick, for the futuristic ideals being put up for the national teams, but also advised that immediate concerns should not be overlooked.
To him, Nigeria’s path to greatness again is long and tortuous which could only be realised through coordinated approach.
“First, we take every competition serious,” Adamu advised.
He is unhappy at the early elimination of Nigerian clubsides from the CAF Champions’ League and how uncoordinated plans saw Dolphins FC being kicked out of the CAF Confederation Cup via walkover.
According to him, the next few weeks should set the tone for Nigeria’s return to greatness, if the Golden Eaglets, the Flying Eagles and the Falconets scaled the heights at the respective global competitions spread across three continents of South America (Chile for the U-17), North America (Canada for Women’s World Cup) and Oceania (New Zealand for U-20).
He also commented on the rave of the moment, Taiwo Awoniyi, whose prowess saw the Flying Eagles becoming African champions in Senegal last month and literally propelled the Under-23 team to qualify for the All Africa Games (AAG).
Adamu believes the player could be in the Super Eagles, but he needs to remain focused and not allow the current attention he is getting get into his head. “He must learn to sustain success; else he will just be like a flash in the pan.”