Former Nigerian international, Peterside Idah has urged the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to give so much priority to the players in the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) in a bid to develop the league.
Idah, who made this known in an interview with Channels TV, said a whole lot of emphasis has been placed on players that are playing outside the country and with that, it is daunting the league’s development.
He also criticised the trend in Africa where there is excessive dependence on FIFA, expressing concern that every action is accompanied by FIFA involvement.
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“I think a whole lot of emphasis has been placed on players that are playing outside the country and with that, it is daunting our development. You find out that no one looks into our league; no one looks into our league; no one is bothered about what happens in our states in leagues; and in FAS, the attention has drifted to Europe.
Peterside Idah
“When you look at the female team in every tournament, you will see that we have a whole lot of players that are playing at home.”
“What is happening in Africa is that we are beginning to depend so much on FIFA, which is not right. Every other Federation wants to be independent from FIFA and we can now meet at FIFA.
“Everything we do, FIFA sends us a secretary. Every time there’s an opening of a nursery school, you see the FIFA president there.
“And we have been saying to the CAF president, our union is not FIFA, we need to develop ourselves.”
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7 Comments
We escaped a bullet!!
Infact, my brother Greenturf, we did.
Nigerians should be thanking God at this point in time.
That’s why I always say being just an exinternational doesn’t qualify anyone to hold any technical, management or administration positions in football.
To this man now, it is the national team that should be used to develop the league. The national team is an apprentice workshop for learning crafts.
Bikonu what then is d job of the technical department of the nff, the league management commission and the sports ministry…??
No wonder he only secured 1 vote at the elections
Tufia..God forbid…!!
Well said, it’s about time
Federations do not develop players. The clubs do. Mr Idah is ignorant of this fact, that most Nigerian clubs do not have their own pitches, training or healthcare and insurance facilities Our ancient players are so dumm!!
Most leagues are a reflection of the society. And we all know the state of Nigeria currently.
As long as majority of the clubs in NPFL is run by Government, I see no real growth in the league. We can all attest to our the failure various state governments are.
As much as football is entertainment, it is much more, business. Do the Nigerian State understand this?! Even if they do, are they professional enough to run the business? Your answer is as good as mine.
It’s easier to sit there and clamour for the forced involvement of homebase in the Eagles but it doesn’t change the fact that there’s minuit to zero quality in the Nigerian league.
Even in the ladies, how many homebase players are in the Super Falcons? And how do they do stay homebase after their call up to the national side?
The truth is simple, fix the country first. When the country is functioning properly, investors would flow in and that would affect the improvement of the league since it’s part of the society.
You don’t put the cart before the horse and expect smooth riding.
Currently, no way one can rightly justify the inclusion of a homebase player in the Super Eagles unless he is a goalkeeper ( cause that department is still open). Simply put, we might have potential at home but the ‘ready made’ and ‘ready to go’ are abroad. Apart from Football, this may be true of every other profession . The best of us have simply ‘japa’ and those that haven’t are about to. And those that can’t are totally underdeveloped thereby demotivated and unable to give there best. Some have basically lost hope and switch cause forgetting talent all in the need to survive.
To surmise, Fix Nigeria. Watch the league blossom. And watch homebase players stroll into the Super Eagles organically as it used to be in the early years of Nigerian football when the country was semi functional and as such reflected in the quality of the league. (Enyimba in the late 2000s was an anomaly to the trend)
As for now,stick to our foreign players.
The debate about homebased players in the SE is as old as the country itself.
You invite them, they play their hearts out, play out of their skin in 2-3 games, secure a contract abroad and fade into oblivion afterwards because they cannot reproduce the consistency that makes a true professional of international standard.
After close to a year of consistent camping 7 international friendlies, Nations cup and CHAN exposure under Keshi, only 1 out of over 60 homebased players, Godfrey Oboabona, lasted up to 3 years at the level of Turkish league…..in all sincerity do we call that a success story…??? Was our league consequently and subsequently developed as a result…???
Up till the middle 2000s, our clubs like Enyimba, Dolphins, Juluis Berger, Heartland, Lobi stars, Sharks and Rangers didn’t have problems reaching group stages of Continental compietitions….at a time we were only allowed to field 1 team per competition, not like now when 2 teams are allowed from Nigeria. This was even a far cry from the 1990s when reaching the final of Continental competitions was almost a Culture.
But today, those years in the 2000s look like glory days compared to now.
I recalled I used to boast to my friends of other African nationalities in the 2000s that if anything like CAF CL for women will ever be organized in Africa, Nigerian clubs would win it 10 straight years. Little did I know I was being a fool. Nigeria is a country where things never seem to get better. The Women’s Champions league has been on in Africa for about 3 or 4 years now and we have not even played in the final talk more of winning once. We didn’t even qualify for the last one.
Or who else is still living in fools’ paradise concerning our league….?
A top scorer in the Nigerian league in the 2000s moved to Sweden and topscored there in his first season, but only recently, a top scorer in the Nigerian league moved to Tunisia and 1 season later he was in Tanzania, still couldn’t measure up, now he’s back in the league.
Or should we talk about the MVP that was always the first name on the SE call ups and stopped making even a standby list the moment he signed for a Tunisia club…? 1 year later he was being shipped out on loan to the Algerian league….and the season after sold into oblivion in the Kuwaiti league.
Like really….who is still living in fools paradise as regards this league…???
*(Enyimba in the early 2000s is an anomaly)