Posted by Ademola Olajire on
Failure to qualify for the Germany 2006 World Cup finals was surely a big blow, but it has presented Nigeria with an opportunity to re-assess and learn those things that are important in managing a team for success in the vast arena of international sports.
Failure to qualify for the Germany 2006 World Cup finals was surely a big blow, but it has presented Nigeria with an opportunity to re-assess and learn those things that are important in managing a team for success in the vast arena of international sports.
Former Secretary-General of the Ghana Football Association (GFA), Wolanyo Agra, told Saturday Vanguard in Abuja on Sunday that not going to the World Cup finals next summer would gnaw at the spirit of a nation now routinely used to seeing the Super Eagles enter the draw for the finals. But he posits that the most important lesson to learn at this stage is that football is not a sport you run with your head high up in the air.
"I have nothing against the retrenchment of certain persons from the Football Association mid-way into the qualifying campaign. But my contention then, and even now, is that changes must stop at a point and the job must continue, so that those who have been left in charge are given the confidence to carry on.
"Nigeria have failed in this campaign because they did things in an untidy manner. A big country like this should know better how to approach things. Football is not text-book; it is wisdom on the ground.
"In football, you have to have meaningful and cordial relationship with the people at the top to be able to get a few things done, and to see that certain things are swung your way. Nigeria have never cared about these things. Life itself is politics.
Football is essentially politics, and until you learn to play it the way it should be played, you would always end up holding the wrong end of the stick.
"If the top people needed to remove the likes of Taiwo Ogunjobi and others at the time they did, they should have quickly drafted in replacements, and not people acting in interim capacity.
"I said this same thing in Port Harcourt when your team struggled to beat Gabon in March. The new people did not have the confidence to step forward and take responsibility for anything. In fact, nobody wanted to take responsibility. It was like they were not sure of themselves, not sure of their jobs and not secured.
"Such a situation is not good for a big country like Nigeria. Many people have been talking about how you lost the qualifying race in Kano. Perhaps, but then, if you have tidied up the administrative end, people would have been quick to take decisions that mattered long before those decisions were taken", said Agra.
The summation by the FIFA match commissioner was one of the many that flowed freely on Saturday and Sunday in Abuja, as Nigerians and other nationals began the post-mortem of the failure to reach the World Cup finals.
On Saturday, the National Stadium, Abuja was draped in different colours of emotion at different stages of the match against Zimbabwe, in the final round of the Germany 2006 qualifiers. After falling behind Angola in the FIFA head-to-head rule and tied on points with the Negras, the Eagles knew they would be done for should the Angolans win in Rwanda. Since both matches were being played at the same time, it meant that there would be people monitoring the other match and giving reports, and that reactions would be expected to match those reports. But in Nigeria, anything is possible, and that was what happened on Saturday.
There were roars from the Supporters Club stand half-way into the first half, and everyone else took it for Rwanda having shot into the lead in Kigali. Only four minutes after that, there was another big roar, and even the players on the field would have relaxed, thinking that Rwanda were two goals up. My good friend, Morakinyo Abodunrin (deputy editor of Soccer Star) asked me whether I thought it was possible for Rwanda to be leading 2-0. I wondered myself. There was a way out, Morakinyo suggested. He called his deputy in the office, and the guy told us the match was still 0-0. We were shocked, but from then on, we never took the roar of the mob (sorry, crowd) serious again.
It was heart-lifting that the Eagles led 1-0 at half-time, and that meant if it had ended that way, Nigeria would be going to the World Cup. Kazeem Ayila got a second goal early in the second half and few people were now paying attention to the match; every mind was in Kigali. The Eagles had done their bit; would Rwanda do us a favour? After 75 minutes, it was still 0-0 in Kigali and it was already 3-1 in Abuja. Marvelous, we thought. But suddenly, a fellow showed up in the press tribune, his hands on his head. "Angola don score", he moaned. Morakinyo quickly got back to his deputy. It was confirmed, and the match was only six minutes to go. My shoulders dropped. Then, just before Nwankwo Kanu stepped forward to score the fourth goal from the penalty spot, after Osaze Odemwingie was brought down, another roar erupted from the crowd. Rwanda had equalized?
When Morakinyo got back to his deputy again, it was confirmed that Rwanda had not scored any goal; that Angola still led 1-0; that the match was already being blown off and; that Nigeria would not be going to the World Cup.
Few people saw the last minutes of the Abuja game. I, for one, did not see Osaze Odemwingie's goal, which made it 5-1. Nigeria, Africa's giant, the most populous black nation on earth, would not be going to the World Cup finals. That was the bare fact; every other talk amounted to details.
Naturally, I felt sad. But I was proud of Coach Augustine Eguavoen as he stepped confidently, smartly, into the post-match parley, with Nwankwo Kanu. The Eagles' new chief coach and new captain both looked fresh and unshaken, and with their wits intact. That is the character of the new Nigerian squad. They might have narrowly missed the boat to Germany, but we have a brand-new group to be proud of.