Posted by By Tony Ubani on
AT a time like this when all Nigerians are thinking of how the Super Eagles would qualify for the World Cup, the Nigeria Football Association, NFA, has once again exposed its incompetence to the world with a false information that is now threatening the career of Inter Milan striker, Obafemi Martins.
Want to Laugh? Visit www.nigeriafa.com
AT a time like this when all Nigerians are thinking of how the Super Eagles would qualify for the World Cup, the Nigeria Football Association, NFA, has once again exposed its incompetence to the world with a false information that is now threatening the career of Inter Milan striker, Obafemi Martins.
The FA, through its outdated, wrongly and badly fed site, nigeriafa.com, put Obafemi Martins at the centre of an age dispute by stating falsely, on the site, that the goal poacher was born on May 1, 1978 instead of the authentic date of October 28, 1984.
Though the discrepancy has brought untold embarrassment to Obafemi who was taunted as a cheat by Italian Press who believed the wrong information of the NFA, Obafemi, has threatened not to honour any national call for the country because of the untold embarrassment to him. But a second look at the ugly site of the NFA which was last updated in March, 2005 also showed a cocktail of embarrassing mistakes, some even funny.
That the site of the FA claimed that Obafemi was born in 1978 instead of 1984 is not as horrific as the data on Seyi Olofinjana. Olofinjana, according to the site, was born in November 15, 1982 and played for Nigeria on June 12, 1980 in a match against Malawi. Incredibly, that meant that Olofinjana played for the Super Eagles two years before he was born.
What a record that would make the compilers of the Guinness Book of Records envy! If you think that was a mistake, what of the record attributed to Shakter Donesk player, Julius Aghahowa as being born on February 12, 1982? If you think you are reading a story from the new planet, UB313, then ponder about Garba Lawal who the NFA credited as debuting for the Eagles on January 13, 2001. Lawal who played for the Super Eagles in 1997 in Senegal would laugh to high heavens, knowing that anything can happen with the NFA and its administrators. If the Italians who are making a meal over the ‘normal errors' of the NFA on Obafemi want more of such embarrassing mistakes, they should check the website to see that Christian Obodo, one of the key members of the Super Eagles has no date of birth. Femi Opabunmi who played in the Korea/Japan World Cup, according to the NFA site, is yet to debut for the senior national team, Super Eagles. The mistakes of the NFA on their WONDER site abound with such players as George Abbey, Wilson Oruma, Osaze Odemwengie, Bartholomew Ogbechie, Isaac Okoronkwo, Uche Kalu among others.
The hardest task for anybody about the NFA site is to get a correct information about the players. FA boss, Ibrahim Galadima last night regretted the ‘error' on Martins insisting that the true age of Obafemi remains the one on his passport which is October 28, 1984. Galadima may not even know that the site exists and does not even know how it operates. But he did say that the FA was yet to get a formal letter from Inter Milan but dismissed the threats of Obafemi that he would not play for Nigeria again. "We are embarrassed by such claims that Obafemi is a cheat. He is a young boy and we could not have done that deliberately to humiliate our player. But, he should not be threatening us that he will not play for Nigeria. If he does not play for Nigeria, Nigeria will not disintegrate or die", the FA boss retorted.
Nigeria is not new to such scandalous discrepancies or embarrassments. In 1989, Nigeria got her first ban from World Soccer Governing body, FIFA, for wrong documentation of ages of Samson Siasia, Andrew Uwe and Dahiru Sadi. In July 1991, the whole world watched in dismay as the Super Eagles' tracksuits were cut to shorts in a Nations Cup qualifier against Burkina Faso as the officials forgot the players pants. The passports of Nigeria's Golden Eaglets were forgotten in Lagos for a match against Benin in Ibadan.
If one is suffering from stress, a peep into the NFA site, nigeriafa.com will be a comic relief.