NFF Again: Another International Embarassment

[Dammy]

Lars Lagerback, recorded his first win as Nigeria coach when the Super Eagles defeated North Korea 3-1 in their final warm-up match before the World Cup on Sunday.

Lagerback's first two matches since he was appointed Nigeria coach have ended in draws, 0-0 with Saudi Arabia and 1-1 with Colombia.

However, the victory was marred by a stampede before the match with at least a dozen persons reported hurt as organisers battled to control thousands of fans, who wanted to force their way into the Makhulong Stadium in Tembisa, north of Johannesburg.

A security man and at least fan were reportedly hurt in the chaos. Reports talk of over 12 persons hurt in the melee.

The match was held up for about five minutes early in the second half because of the unruly fans, who broke one of the railings in the stands at the match venue.

"The crowd control was very poor," said Lawal Mohammed, a Nigerian resident in South Africa. "I was forced to leave the game before the end because I feared for my life.

"At a time, there were more people locked outside the stadium as there were inside."

Another fan, Sunday Ephriam said: "They should have charged even a token for this match so as to sort of control the crowd."

MTNFootball.com gathered the match was organised by a top Nigeria team official, who is based in South Africa.
That is most likely Peterside Idah, and that is what is killing this NFF, GREED!!!, they must eat from everything and do not care about the embarassment they are causing the Nation. Enough is Enough for this group of idiots!!!

[Al B Sure]

Calm down a little bit for now.

[Orion]

I presume the NFF paid for police presence and general crowd control abi? You cannot arrange a game in a European stadium for example without paying for these. If the local police failed to do their job how is the NFF to blame?

[mystic]

I think this is the most shambolic FA I have ever seen, and that is saying something given how inept our FA has been over the years.

[100%Naija]

I seriously hope the entire NFF officials (from top to bottom) is relieved of their duties after the WC. We need to start from scatch. Enough is enough

[realtrouble]

I presume the NFF paid for police presence and general crowd control abi? You cannot arrange a game in a European stadium for example without paying for these. If the local police failed to do their job how is the NFF to blame?

Stop fighting against change!

Whoever funded the event should have ensured, that there were appropriate stewards to control the crowd. We need to start learning to raise very low organisation standard to level.

[Dodo]

the match was free for spectators, a higher than expected crowd turnout was at the stadium.

[pajimoh]

How crowd trouble be NFF fault?

It wasn't a paying friendly so no need tot ake it to Soccer City. Our people and always blaming anyhow. Id em no arrange game una go complain

[Orion]

I presume the NFF paid for police presence and general crowd control abi? You cannot arrange a game in a European stadium for example without paying for these. If the local police failed to do their job how is the NFF to blame?

Stop fighting against change!

Whoever funded the event should have ensured, that there were appropriate stewards to control the crowd. We need to start learning to raise very low organisation standard to level.

Err excuse me... are you gonna go to another country and tell them what their standards and regulations regarding football matches should be? Along with the stadium you PAY for crowd control and local authorities do the rest following their own standards and procedures. You can't have every Tom, d#$% and Harry come in with their own set of standards, that's why the host country takes control of these matters to ensure standards are adhered to. So for example if local regulations say there has to be 1,000 police officers and 1,000 stewards then that is what the organisers are asked to PAY for. If they don't pay for it then NO MATCH. Once they've paid and the match is approved to go ahead then you expect the local authorities to do their job properly.

[mcal]

I suspected something was 'smelling' out side when inside the stadium during 1st half spectators were just milling around, that's not how a person that come watch a match behaves, u stay still and enjoy football...plus the ball boys' job was shambolic many balls coming into the field. When ur used to watching high class, high profile matches every weekend and see behaviours, u come to want to expect such everytime a national team like SE is playing.

[Bobo Dan]

http://www.kickoff.com/news/15901/stamp ... a-game.php

Hi guys, dont call Nigerians names. It's not our fault. We have to wake up as early as 7am to get tickets for the match @ the consulate office. More than 7 thousands tickets were being given out but on getting to Tembisa, the stadium cannot accommodates more than 2 thousand people. We are more than 20 thousand Nigerians waiting outside the stadium that cannot get in.

My questions are these:

1)WHY IS THE MATCH BEING PLAYED IN TEMBISA (A LOCATION WHERE XENOPHOBIA IS MOSTLY LIKE TO OCCUR)

2) WHY A SMALL STADIUM WHEN NIGERIANS ARE TOO MANY IN SOUTH AFRICA

I know it's Peterside Idah who chooses this small stadium and a bad location because of the money they want to make.

[Comrade Machel]

Blame your NFF for this noone else. Knowing the number of Naijas in RSA and size of the stadium it was extremely foolish to play the match there. This wasnt a FIFA sanctioned event so didnt attract the planning and security thats in place. Why didnt your FA charge a token fee to whittle down the numbers to manageable levels

[soma]

I presume the NFF paid for police presence and general crowd control abi? You cannot arrange a game in a European stadium for example without paying for these. If the local police failed to do their job how is the NFF to blame?

Other countries have played friendlies in south Africa in the past 2 weeks and there was never any problem..So why Nigeria now??

[Sir V]

I presume the NFF paid for police presence and general crowd control abi? You cannot arrange a game in a European stadium for example without paying for these. If the local police failed to do their job how is the NFF to blame?

Other countries have played friendlies in south Africa in the past 2 weeks and there was never any problem..So why Nigeria now??

I am fed up.

[nanijoe]

Other countries did not have 20,000 of their Nationals show up for their friendlies did they?

I presume the NFF paid for police presence and general crowd control abi? You cannot arrange a game in a European stadium for example without paying for these. If the local police failed to do their job how is the NFF to blame?

Other countries have played friendlies in south Africa in the past 2 weeks and there was never any problem..So why Nigeria now??

[futhong]

Other countries did not have 20,000 of their Nationals show up for their friendlies did they?

I presume the NFF paid for police presence and general crowd control abi? You cannot arrange a game in a European stadium for example without paying for these. If the local police failed to do their job how is the NFF to blame?

Other countries have played friendlies in south Africa in the past 2 weeks and there was never any problem..So why Nigeria now??

If they had, they would have chosen a bigger stadium to host it, especially when you planning to make this even free.

[Robbynice]

I laugh at those trying to blame the NFF for what happened yesterday. The NFF organized a friendly match, paid for the usage of the field and security coverage and despite all these elected to let Nigerians to come in and watch the game for free yet we want to blame them for Nigerian fans behaving like fools and knuckleheads. Some in here are even blaming the NFF for letting people go in for free...chie! And here I am thinking I have heard it all. Guys the NFF are not to blame here. Let us be objective for once. The security people and the knucklehead fans are to blame period. When the stadium was filled up, the security people was suppose stop letting people in and the useless fans were suppose to just oblige and go back knowing there are no more seats in the house. Anyways blaming the NFF is convenient so you guys carry on.

[marko]

Once the NFF stamp their authority on anything, they have prove to be shambolic, the Nigerian president needs to save Nigerians from NFF, they are constituting a public nuisance!!!