Amokachi urges Nigerian footballers to be focused and disciplined

Former Super Eagles forward Daniel Amokachi has advised Nigerian footballers to be focused and disciplined in their quest for greatness, saying nothing good comes easy in life.

According to him, as a striker strives very hard to score against the dreaded wall of defence so also is the journey of every prominent footballer in their career to achieve a breakthrough.

The former Club Brugge forward said as a teenage star he was just playing to hit the top and most of his little achievements later turned into a blessing for him.

For instance, he scored a goal many years ago in the UEFA Champions League for Club Brugge which they regarded as one of the best and pushed into the competition history books.

At the age of 18, I was just playing my best football, striving hard to make a name but I never knew my effort could yield a great reward in future.

He also said the glory days of the Super Eagles will not return unless football administrators fix the major defects in the country’s football system.

The Super Eagles failed to qualify for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar after their early exit from the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations in January.

Interim technical adviser Augustine Eguavoen and his assistants were disengaged by the Nigeria Football Federation in the aftermath of the team’s to qualify for Qatar 2022.

The NFF announced new assistant coaches for the team on Thursday with the position of a head coach still vacant.

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“Focusing too much on the coaching is like building a house from the roof downwards instead of starting with the right foundation and building upwards,” Amokachi told BBC Sport Africa.

“Do we have a solid developmental programme for our young footballers, a proper long-term plan for our national teams or develop a football identity for the game in our country?

“I am a product of the Nigerian league. But have we sorted all the issues around our domestic game, from players’ welfare to the lack of television rights and the chaos around the organisation of local football.

“I said something about our over-reliance on Nigerian footballers in the diaspora which was misreported in the media.

“My point is that when you consistently rely on players developed and trained by other nations to play for you, then you have seriously failed in your important role of building the future stars.

“There are bigger issues that have long bedevilled the Nigerian game and until we fix them, we will just be moving in a circle.”

Are we the only ones in Africa relying on diaspora players? The only teams that rely on their domestic leagues are Egypt and S. Africa. Both have very poor World Cup qualification records. Yes, Egypt does well at AFCON but it was principally because African professionals playing in Europe were loath to play AFCON until very recently.

How many overseas players did Cape Verde field against Nigeria or Comoros against Ghana? All Cape Verde players play in Europe, 80% of Comoros players were born in France and are diaspora players. Countries that used to be considered minors are using diaspora players to surprise and beat major African football powers like Nigeria and Ghana.

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If you want to develop the local league it takes money! It is not an organisational problem, you need to create an attractive commercial self-sustaining league. Attractive to fans and TV, and with financial muscle behind it.

Nigeria can do it but the money required if you’re serious is up to $2 billion. To build civilised soccer-only stadiums with green pitches, organise merchandising, develop stadium atmosphere, create attractive camera angles for TV etc.

You will need a conference of stakeholders that involves Nigerian billionaires, major companies and state governments. Only when you’ve done this can you be serious because what you’re doing now is pathetic. Only when your league becomes a commercial product with fanatical fans, fantastic stadium atmosphere, attractive TV coverage, proper pitches, commercial sponsorship, rich club owners, engaged state governments etc.