Crisis Mode - Future of our football

[mate]

I feel for you guys. I feel bad myself, being a fan of the Super-Eagles.

I gave my 2 cents by showing what works for Croatia in a past thread. Short story: to be competitive, you need a decent league and associated network of academy teams offering coverage. That is the only way to produce a deep pipeline, from which some can make it to the big 5 leagues.

Croatia always gives every player coverage and opportunity. We don't eliminate you in age based competition. Talent and potential matter more than wins and scoring. Players develop differently.

You cannot rely on foreign born players alone. Croatia develops the majority in the local league. They get invaluable playing time, exposure, and experience. Croatia now has a 3rd decent team, Rijeka, complementing Dinamo and Hajduk. The league now gets decent foreign youth trying to make it as well...but not so many as to overwhelm the Croatians.

Croatia has out of this league and academy system the following:
* players like Modric, Gvardiol, Kovacic, Sutalo, etc who play in big 5 leagues.
* players in Croatia to round this out.
* identifying and getting Croatians raised abroad, like Rakitic and Stanisic. All you need is 2-3 and they make a big difference.

Bottom line: a decent league and associated academies.

By my reckoning, Croatia with 4M people has just as many footballers in top academies as the USA with 340M people. The Croatian league is basically as big as the MLS, hence even number of top academy clubs.

Hope this helps...because honestly, outside a league, I lack the creativity to suggest something else.

Are you taking to the Nigerians who strictly follow European leagues and argue loudly about “my team will beat your team this season” Yeah… Nigeria will surely become Croatia next year

Well, you never know. Croatian across the world work with the Croatian FA to identify possible candidates for the academies. Why not Nigerians doing the same?

Most importantly, Croatians the world over support the league. We know we'd have no chance if we didn't have a decent league. Imagine Nigeria had a more developed league with academies?

Really that is how every successful football team does it. France goes even a step further by having a Clarefontaine central academy exclusively for the NTs at all age levels. That is another evolutionary step Croatia is trying to replicate...just will take us time to get the $$$ and political will.

[txj]

We have to privatize the local league. Allow the 2nd division to use coverage players again but create a separate youth league.

The NFF is too political. That is why the wrong people are been appointed and they keep making the wrong choices. My recommendation is to run the NFF like a true business. No more elections to appoint people. The state governor's will appoint state FA chairman. The FA chairmen will form the NFF board. They 3ill meet to appoint the CEO. The CEO will run the organization.

Ohenhen1

This is not possible, at all.

Realize that NFF is affiliated to FIFA. FIFA abhors what you just wrote and it is FIFA that requires election to those posts. If you return to appointments by the government, that runs completely afoul of FIFA regulations and will lead to a ban without any doubt.

Is that what you want?

An election was held in the US 2 years ago to replace Gulati and the USSF Board...
There are constituent units- stakeholders from where members are elected, including one for ex NT players, one for MLS rep; youth organizations, Women, etc...

Each of these stakeholders are independent organizations and either non profit or for profit organizations, with no affiliation to government.
What system is America using.? I haven’t heard of any election to appoint the US FA chief. Maybe design a system that allows for state level elections into national board that will select the CEO. Must be qualified to stand for office, The CEO is not a political appointment. The problem we have is the wrong people are been appointed and there is no accountability.

[ohenhen1]

We need to copy the US system. The fact that I didn't even know that there were elections in the US means it is not political. There are no political appointments or National character involved. Money doesn't exchange hands. Each constituent pick people based on merit and experience and they meet to have a share holders meeting to vote on a FA chief.