In view of the structural constraints, Stephen Keshi did a very good job. Getting the nation’s national team into the knock-out stage was a significant achievement. Against France in the knock-out match it turned out to be a classic case of so near and yet so very unfortunately far away.
We must now face the future. Doing so means that we must accept that nothing can replace planning, as well as thorough preparation. There is therefore a lot to learn from the success of Germany and Costa Rica, to use two outstanding examples.
To win this year’s world cup has cost Germany a billion dollars and 24 years of diligent preparation. Like small, little known Costa Rica they have built from the bottom-up. Massive investments were made in revamping a youth development process with one aim in mind, which is to win the world-cup. Costa Rica’s hitherto unknown Sports Institutes have now become the subject of frenetic study.
In the case of Costa Rica which has a population of just 4.1 million people (less than Oyo State) meticulous planning as opposed to luck carried the day. This means we must now say goodbye to the nonsense of ‘fumbling and wobbling.’ This absurdity, it can hardly be called a strategy, will never win the senior World Cup.
The corruption in the sports set-up is precisely because of the lack of solid self-sustaining structures constructed within the parameter of a set long-term objective. The tussle over bonuses is not only about corruption, it is centered on the absence of corporate planning. No sane company runs its internal controls with the complete lack of transparency with which our football federation is infamously run.
If we are serious we must now take on the deeply entrenched vested interests. Structural changes must weed them out! Nigeria must set a target to win the world cup within 16 years. To do so we must study and modify the path taken by Germany and Costa Rica. Such a route leads to glory.
The issue is straightforward. Are we serious?