Lessons relearned and a mandate for reform.

[OJI]

To dispense of the nonsense, incompetence, willful ineptitude, cynicism and negativity that annoy players and coaches and stops good intentions from growing into progress, we must reform our administration, football culture, reward systems, and learn from others. If we are to be honest to ourselves, even if NFF isn’t, we have serious seemingly intractable problems.

We have to agree that we have a dysfunctional administrative setup. Only members of the NFF don’t agree. There is no reality check. No performance targets for administrators. How then do we increase the odds for financial and operational success? Why can't we have performance contracts for administrators too? Incidence of late payments, missed tournaments, bad logistics should require automatic firing by the oversight bodies.
There is no magic formula, no brilliant algorithm, and no numerical equation that will guarantee results. It is time for hard work, planning and preparation.

Football culture
Poor player technical foundations, and continuous growth
Partial measure to address / compensate was the emergence and growth of academies. You can see the early investment in focused technical training on Iheanacho, Osimhen, Awoniyi, et al (members of the recent WC-17 winners at UAE 2013, and Chile 2015) as compared to the Onazi, Musa that came before them. This has not been lost on foreign scouts as Nigerian youth players are now back in demand.
The negative aspect of this phenomenon has been the academies’ products bypass the local clubs. Ultimately, outsource future player development to foreign clubs.

Evaluation of players
Statistics indicate that in the modern game, the average professional player is directly involved with the ball for less than 5 minutes. The remaining 85+ minutes is support or blocking plays/space.
We need to evaluate a player for what he does with the ball, what he does when his teammate has the ball (close to and far from teammate), and when the opposing team has the ball. We need to evaluate a player for individual and team effectiveness.

Organized Football mentality/psychology
Most of our great players started with set and street football. Their improvisation, and creativity endeared them to fans and scouts. We need to catch players earlier to put structure, individual/team effectiveness and off the ball movement/awareness into their approach to the game.
We lost some critical matches at tournaments (WC ‘94 especially with off-the-ball players like Claudia Canniga in ARG vs NGA). We lost to Ivory Coast in the 2006 nations cup with a Didier Drogba off-the-ball goal. In basketball terms, we gave teams easy layups instead of forcing them to the line. Growing up playing football on the street, we were conditioned to build up the play, dribble and beat defender(s), and then score.
Look at the amateurish goal we gave against Egypt in Kaduna. Offside trap against one player. Near the edge of the box. Few minutes to go, yet hoping the linesman would see an offside, if there ever was one. No man marking at critical junctions and part of the field.

Foreign Coach/Local coach debate
The NFF uses the FC angle as a band aid for systemic issues, and scapegoat for inevitable disappointments. It must be the players or the coach if we fail. “We provided all the resources the coach wanted”. The local coach (usually an ex-international player) presents multiple issues. NFF must grapple with old and simmering resentments, unpleasant present-day truths, and someone who is anticipating and checkmating their moves. Someone well versed and trained in their duplicitous moves. No coach (Foreign or local) will succeed with fundamental structural deficiencies and time constraints.

Reward Systems
The nature of the global soccer calendar doesn't leave much time for any country to have optimum / ideal training times. It leaves limited time for a coach to assess and impact players.

We must have compensation for environmental/structural deficiencies that have created misaligned interests and sub-optimal incentives and rewards.
We are going nowhere in the absence of a strong league.
In addition to the CHAN tournament, we need to reinforce the local players/coaches with at least 4 friendlies each year.
Highly cognizant that football is not math. However, these are interesting times requiring radical approaches.
Select best defensive team for the defense (least conceded goals/effectiveness of offside traps, aerial battles, double teaming support, multiple criteria, whatever, etc.). Highest goal scoring team provide strikers. The numbers don't lie. For strikers, and defenders, the understanding must be there for them to have produced. Have different criteria for selecting midfielders. No Nigerian plays attacking midfield in the top clubs in the top leagues. Keshi struggled to find someone. Same problem for every coach since.
Have the league take 4 playing days off (not at the same time) to have home based National team members have a friendly with home based teams from neighboring countries. (Benin, Chad, Niger, Cameroon). Forget FIFA rankings for these non-FIFA approved friendlies.
Bring them to Nigeria or get to those countries. It alleviates major issues with logistics, camping and other issues with long distance travel in Africa.
It rewards and motivates the clubs, coaches and players. They get affirmation for tactics/philosophy, and exposure to scouts/different challenges. Plus, it gets diverse players exposed to big game, high stakes atmosphere.

It forces the clubs to look inwards. Get interest in the league back. Success at this level gets immediate exposure as opposed to brow beating the national team coach to select your club player at importune moments for ROI issues regardless of talent, attitude and adaptability. Forces clubs/owners to think of long term objectives with higher ROI. Think African champions league, and ultimately World club championship.
It minimizes the discretionary component involved in decision making of the national team coach. Typically accused of player marketing, ethnic or sentimental reasons used in player selection, the coach cannot select the same player to play consecutive friendlies in this set up as players must come from successful clubs. It forces them to scout, and adapt to opponents and vary player pool selection per opponent.
Focus on structure, and process instead of dependence on individual heroics, brilliance and/or athleticism.

Learning from NFF's past successes and others
Nigeria: Learn and amplify the right lessons from the age grade tournaments. Key lesson. Hungry technical players. Player familiarity/understanding with each other, and coaches' philosophy. Everyone’s interest aligned.

Germany: perennial World Cup quarterfinalist appearance - and minimum expected performance target - took an inward look to tweak their player development/selection programs. Key challenge: Inability to crossover the Q-Final bump as teams at that level have equal access/understanding and implementation to tactical Nous, standard fitness, sports nutrition, individual and team preparation, opponent scouting techniques, etc.
Solution: Get some creativity, and improvisation that would be needed to scale the quarterfinal jinx. Player(s) capable of attracting additional attention/defenders to break formations creating opportunities/space/time for teammates. Some measures included introducing first generation immigrants into the team at key positions e.g. Sami Khedira, Mesut Özil. Brought creativity under the German mentality/framework. Long term coach with tremendous back-office support infrastructure.

Brazil. Strength: Individual flair/skills, and continuous off-the-ball movements in support of teammates. Weakness: Lack of basic team defensive and goalkeeping errors that cost them critical world cup games. Solution: Export and recruitment of Brazilians playing defense in the top clubs in the top leagues. Resultant exposure to defensive techniques. 88% of goals scored in the modern game come from set plays.
Netherlands. Euro 1988 run anchored on the AC Milan based trio of Gullit, Marco Van Basten, and Rikyard. Individual and team familiarity. Recent success anchored on technical foundations players were trained/exposed to in early part of the career.

Italy. Anchoring tournament teams on AC MILAN where player longevity is renown. Individual and team familiarity.

Spain. WC 2010 success based on Barcelona/Real Madrid players. Technical players. Individual and team familiarity.

Germany 2014 based on Bayern Munich/Borussia Dortmund Axis. Individual and team familiarity. Solid individual and team preparation. No assumptions. No stones left unturned.

In 2014, we did not qualify by not beating South Africa at home in the last match.
In 2016, we did not qualify with one more match to spare.
At this rate, we would not qualify for Cameroon 2019 with 2 games to spare.

[Cellular]

Nice well thought out piece.

Thanks for sharing.

To dispense of the nonsense, incompetence, willful ineptitude, cynicism and negativity that annoy players and coaches and stops good intentions from growing into progress, we must reform our administration, football culture, reward systems, and learn from others. If we are to be honest to ourselves, even if NFF isn’t, we have serious seemingly intractable problems.

We have to agree that we have a dysfunctional administrative setup. Only members of the NFF don’t agree. There is no reality check. No performance targets for administrators. How then do we increase the odds for financial and operational success? Why can't we have performance contracts for administrators too? Incidence of late payments, missed tournaments, bad logistics should require automatic firing by the oversight bodies.
There is no magic formula, no brilliant algorithm, and no numerical equation that will guarantee results. It is time for hard work, planning and preparation.

Football culture
Poor player technical foundations, and continuous growth
Partial measure to address / compensate was the emergence and growth of academies. You can see the early investment in focused technical training on Iheanacho, Osimhen, Awoniyi, et al (members of the recent WC-17 winners at UAE 2013, and Chile 2015) as compared to the Onazi, Musa that came before them. This has not been lost on foreign scouts as Nigerian youth players are now back in demand.
The negative aspect of this phenomenon has been the academies’ products bypass the local clubs. Ultimately, outsource future player development to foreign clubs.

Evaluation of players
Statistics indicate that in the modern game, the average professional player is directly involved with the ball for less than 5 minutes. The remaining 85+ minutes is support or blocking plays/space.
We need to evaluate a player for what he does with the ball, what he does when his teammate has the ball (close to and far from teammate), and when the opposing team has the ball. We need to evaluate a player for individual and team effectiveness.

Organized Football mentality/psychology
Most of our great players started with set and street football. Their improvisation, and creativity endeared them to fans and scouts. We need to catch players earlier to put structure, individual/team effectiveness and off the ball movement/awareness into their approach to the game.
We lost some critical matches at tournaments (WC ‘94 especially with off-the-ball players like Claudia Canniga in ARG vs NGA). We lost to Ivory Coast in the 2006 nations cup with a Didier Drogba off-the-ball goal. In basketball terms, we gave teams easy layups instead of forcing them to the line. Growing up playing football on the street, we were conditioned to build up the play, dribble and beat defender(s), and then score.
Look at the amateurish goal we gave against Egypt in Kaduna. Offside trap against one player. Near the edge of the box. Few minutes to go, yet hoping the linesman would see an offside, if there ever was one. No man marking at critical junctions and part of the field.

Foreign Coach/Local coach debate
The NFF uses the FC angle as a band aid for systemic issues, and scapegoat for inevitable disappointments. It must be the players or the coach if we fail. “We provided all the resources the coach wanted”. The local coach (usually an ex-international player) presents multiple issues. NFF must grapple with old and simmering resentments, unpleasant present-day truths, and someone who is anticipating and checkmating their moves. Someone well versed and trained in their duplicitous moves. No coach (Foreign or local) will succeed with fundamental structural deficiencies and time constraints.

Reward Systems
The nature of the global soccer calendar doesn't leave much time for any country to have optimum / ideal training times. It leaves limited time for a coach to assess and impact players.

We must have compensation for environmental/structural deficiencies that have created misaligned interests and sub-optimal incentives and rewards.
We are going nowhere in the absence of a strong league.
In addition to the CHAN tournament, we need to reinforce the local players/coaches with at least 4 friendlies each year.
Highly cognizant that football is not math. However, these are interesting times requiring radical approaches.
Select best defensive team for the defense (least conceded goals/effectiveness of offside traps, aerial battles, double teaming support, multiple criteria, whatever, etc.). Highest goal scoring team provide strikers. The numbers don't lie. For strikers, and defenders, the understanding must be there for them to have produced. Have different criteria for selecting midfielders. No Nigerian plays attacking midfield in the top clubs in the top leagues. Keshi struggled to find someone. Same problem for every coach since.
Have the league take 4 playing days off (not at the same time) to have home based National team members have a friendly with home based teams from neighboring countries. (Benin, Chad, Niger, Cameroon). Forget FIFA rankings for these non-FIFA approved friendlies.
Bring them to Nigeria or get to those countries. It alleviates major issues with logistics, camping and other issues with long distance travel in Africa.
It rewards and motivates the clubs, coaches and players. They get affirmation for tactics/philosophy, and exposure to scouts/different challenges. Plus, it gets diverse players exposed to big game, high stakes atmosphere.

It forces the clubs to look inwards. Get interest in the league back. Success at this level gets immediate exposure as opposed to brow beating the national team coach to select your club player at importune moments for ROI issues regardless of talent, attitude and adaptability. Forces clubs/owners to think of long term objectives with higher ROI. Think African champions league, and ultimately World club championship.
It minimizes the discretionary component involved in decision making of the national team coach. Typically accused of player marketing, ethnic or sentimental reasons used in player selection, the coach cannot select the same player to play consecutive friendlies in this set up as players must come from successful clubs. It forces them to scout, and adapt to opponents and vary player pool selection per opponent.
Focus on structure, and process instead of dependence on individual heroics, brilliance and/or athleticism.

Learning from NFF's past successes and others
Nigeria: Learn and amplify the right lessons from the age grade tournaments. Key lesson. Hungry technical players. Player familiarity/understanding with each other, and coaches' philosophy. Everyone’s interest aligned.

Germany: perennial World Cup quarterfinalist appearance - and minimum expected performance target - took an inward look to tweak their player development/selection programs. Key challenge: Inability to crossover the Q-Final bump as teams at that level have equal access/understanding and implementation to tactical Nous, standard fitness, sports nutrition, individual and team preparation, opponent scouting techniques, etc.
Solution: Get some creativity, and improvisation that would be needed to scale the quarterfinal jinx. Player(s) capable of attracting additional attention/defenders to break formations creating opportunities/space/time for teammates. Some measures included introducing first generation immigrants into the team at key positions e.g. Sami Khedira, Mesut Özil. Brought creativity under the German mentality/framework. Long term coach with tremendous back-office support infrastructure.

Brazil. Strength: Individual flair/skills, and continuous off-the-ball movements in support of teammates. Weakness: Lack of basic team defensive and goalkeeping errors that cost them critical world cup games. Solution: Export and recruitment of Brazilians playing defense in the top clubs in the top leagues. Resultant exposure to defensive techniques. 88% of goals scored in the modern game come from set plays.
Netherlands. Euro 1988 run anchored on the AC Milan based trio of Gullit, Marco Van Basten, and Rikyard. Individual and team familiarity. Recent success anchored on technical foundations players were trained/exposed to in early part of the career.

Italy. Anchoring tournament teams on AC MILAN where player longevity is renown. Individual and team familiarity.

Spain. WC 2010 success based on Barcelona/Real Madrid players. Technical players. Individual and team familiarity.

Germany 2014 based on Bayern Munich/Borussia Dortmund Axis. Individual and team familiarity. Solid individual and team preparation. No assumptions. No stones left unturned.

In 2014, we did not qualify by not beating South Africa at home in the last match.
In 2016, we did not qualify with one more match to spare.
At this rate, we would not qualify for Cameroon 2019 with 2 games to spare.

[TheHitman47]

I like this thread a lot. Very analytical and to the point.

Even if you look at Egypt, you see that is the case as to how they beat us. While I don't think they had better players than us in certain positions, they have a better overall team. Also the point of lacking attacking midfielders is a big point as well. Without having a player that can create plays and open up defenses, you can't crack into serious teams at all. But the sliver lining is that we do have an attacking midfielder who plays in a top team in a top league in the form of Alex Iwobi. He just needs time and to go through his paces.

The groundwork is building for a great team but without an administration that can properly exploit that you are stuck where you are.

[YUJAM]

Excellent piece that addresses the key issues

Folks here like Vancity think you just slap some big names together and form a world beating team. It is much more than that. Getting a NT and even clubs to play good football is an educational process that starts early. I mentioned a nation's football DNA here and some of our resident EPL fans were utterly confused about it.

I think it was a famous S American writer who said that show me a nation's national team and I will show you their football culture

[Kabalega]

Come on guys, this analytical piece you are all shrining ignores the fact that 9ja is dominant at youth level. They must be doing something good besides some age cheating at U20-U23.

The senior team(s) should build on that youth success.

FYI, the Egyptian team 9ja lost to, has been together since the U-20s.

[ohenhen1]

The NFF is too political. The best people don't get key appointments. We should scrap the electoral process. Appoint people based on qualifications. The NFF also don't manage their budget well.

[MI5]

Nice and excellent piece Oji.

The level of dumbness, foolishness and ad-hoc ways in which the NFF and the Sports Ministry operates makes you wonder if they know how to do anything and get it right for once. The same mistakes keeps repeating itself over and over again. The team should have been out of Nigeria latest Saturday evening/night after that match on Friday but as usual with their dumbness on full display, they realized they had no money to fly to Egypt and had to beg around for money at the last minute... Due to the travel time, logistics and all and knowing the game was going to be played in Alexandria, there was no excuse or any reason why this wasn't planned in advance knowing the few days they had between the first and the second match. Why is this too hard to understand?

Why did Siasia put the team through a 4-hour training session in Kaduna when that time could have been used to get them to Alexandria by all means necessary? The Pharaohs played a very tactical formation against us and all they had to do was to exploit our weakness which they did. So annoying... Siasia can't even get his player selections right...

For as long we continue to use the Cassava Farmer and Super Eagles Non Factor player Mikel Obi to step up and lead this team to greater heights, it's never going to happen... It shows all along, Onazi was the one making him look good on the field.. Hard to motivate a player who would rather want to be some where else...

Congrats to Egypt and deserve to qualify at the end of the day. As for Nigerian football, the great fall begins... Won't be surprised if we struggle to qualify for WC 2018 in Russia... Stay tuned... Utter nonsense...

[Cellular]

Nice and excellent piece Oji.

The level of dumbness, foolishness and ad-hoc ways in which the NFF and the Sports Ministry operates makes you wonder if they know how to do anything and get it right for once. The same mistakes keeps repeating itself over and over again. The team should have been out of Nigeria latest Saturday evening/night after that match on Friday but as usual with their dumbness on full display, they realized they had no money to fly to Egypt and had to beg around for money at the last minute... Due to the travel time, logistics and all and knowing the game was going to be played in Alexandria, there was no excuse or any reason why this wasn't planned in advance knowing the few days they had between the first and the second match. Why is this too hard to understand?

Why did Siasia put the team through a 4-hour training session in Kaduna when that time could have been used to get them to Alexandria by all means necessary? The Pharaohs played a very tactical formation against us and all they had to do was to exploit our weakness which they did. So annoying... Siasia can't even get his player selections right...

For as long we continue to use the Cassava Farmer and Super Eagles Non Factor player Mikel Obi to step up and lead this team to greater heights, it's never going to happen... It shows all along, Onazi was the one making him look good on the field.. Hard to motivate a player who would rather want to be some where else...

Congrats to Egypt and deserve to qualify at the end of the day. As for Nigerian football, the great fall begins... Won't be surprised if we struggle to qualify for WC 2018 in Russia... Stay tuned... Utter nonsense...

Oga Mi5, I agree with almost everything but the player blaming part. The game was not lost due to lack of effort from the players.

Even though I am not a Siasia fan, I can't fault him for the loss either.

Give him enough games to gauge him properly.

[MI5]

Cellular,

Greetings...

A coach ought to know which player is ready for the fight and who is not. Apart from the keeper, Moses was the only who one showed more hunger, passion, desire, spirit and emotion by taking it to the Egyptians... Mikel was playing too deep and anytime he went forward, it was his usual trademark long balls to Ighalo which he should have known was never going to get past that Egyptian defence with the lone striker formation we were playing. His style of play is too slow, no urgency, no fire and slows the team down quite often when a fast break is needed... His selection now is based on a prima donna status nothing more... He contributes nothing to the team. Watching the game, you would think he was playing as a central defender...

Another player who has disappointed as of late is Godfrey Oboboana, he is a talent but one player who needs some serious work on if he is going to be that pillar of defence for us in years to come. He looked nervous and out of sorts in the both games we played against the Pharaohs.. What are these guys being taught in training camp nowadays? Scary...

Nice and excellent piece Oji.

The level of dumbness, foolishness and ad-hoc ways in which the NFF and the Sports Ministry operates makes you wonder if they know how to do anything and get it right for once. The same mistakes keeps repeating itself over and over again. The team should have been out of Nigeria latest Saturday evening/night after that match on Friday but as usual with their dumbness on full display, they realized they had no money to fly to Egypt and had to beg around for money at the last minute... Due to the travel time, logistics and all and knowing the game was going to be played in Alexandria, there was no excuse or any reason why this wasn't planned in advance knowing the few days they had between the first and the second match. Why is this too hard to understand?

Why did Siasia put the team through a 4-hour training session in Kaduna when that time could have been used to get them to Alexandria by all means necessary? The Pharaohs played a very tactical formation against us and all they had to do was to exploit our weakness which they did. So annoying... Siasia can't even get his player selections right...

For as long we continue to use the Cassava Farmer and Super Eagles Non Factor player Mikel Obi to step up and lead this team to greater heights, it's never going to happen... It shows all along, Onazi was the one making him look good on the field.. Hard to motivate a player who would rather want to be some where else...

Congrats to Egypt and deserve to qualify at the end of the day. As for Nigerian football, the great fall begins... Won't be surprised if we struggle to qualify for WC 2018 in Russia... Stay tuned... Utter nonsense...

Oga Mi5, I agree with almost everything but the player blaming part. The game was not lost due to lack of effort from the players.

Even though I am not a Siasia fan, I can't fault him for the loss either.

Give him enough games to gauge him properly.

[Cellular]

Cellular,

Greetings...

A coach ought to know which player is ready for the fight and who is not. Apart from the keeper, Moses was the only who one showed more hunger, passion, desire, spirit and emotion by taking it to the Egyptians... Mikel was playing too deep and anytime he went forward, it was his usual trademark long balls to Ighalo which he should have known was never going to get past that Egyptian defence with the lone striker formation we were playing. His style of play is too slow, no urgency, no fire and slows the team down quite often when a fast break is needed... His selection now is based on a prima donna status nothing more... He contributes nothing to the team. Watching the game, you would think he was playing as a central defender...

Another player who has disappointed as of late is Godfrey Oboboana, he is a talent but one player who needs some serious work on if he is going to be that pillar of defence for us in years to come. He looked nervous and out of sorts in the both games we played against the Pharaohs.. What are these guys being taught in training camp nowadays? Scary...

Nice and excellent piece Oji.

The level of dumbness, foolishness and ad-hoc ways in which the NFF and the Sports Ministry operates makes you wonder if they know how to do anything and get it right for once. The same mistakes keeps repeating itself over and over again. The team should have been out of Nigeria latest Saturday evening/night after that match on Friday but as usual with their dumbness on full display, they realized they had no money to fly to Egypt and had to beg around for money at the last minute... Due to the travel time, logistics and all and knowing the game was going to be played in Alexandria, there was no excuse or any reason why this wasn't planned in advance knowing the few days they had between the first and the second match. Why is this too hard to understand?

Why did Siasia put the team through a 4-hour training session in Kaduna when that time could have been used to get them to Alexandria by all means necessary? The Pharaohs played a very tactical formation against us and all they had to do was to exploit our weakness which they did. So annoying... Siasia can't even get his player selections right...

For as long we continue to use the Cassava Farmer and Super Eagles Non Factor player Mikel Obi to step up and lead this team to greater heights, it's never going to happen... It shows all along, Onazi was the one making him look good on the field.. Hard to motivate a player who would rather want to be some where else...

Congrats to Egypt and deserve to qualify at the end of the day. As for Nigerian football, the great fall begins... Won't be surprised if we struggle to qualify for WC 2018 in Russia... Stay tuned... Utter nonsense...

Oga Mi5, I agree with almost everything but the player blaming part. The game was not lost due to lack of effort from the players.

Even though I am not a Siasia fan, I can't fault him for the loss either.

Give him enough games to gauge him properly.

Mikel, is the sole ball retaining midfielder that we have. The Egyptians realized to nullify us they must rush Mikel to give up the ball to his less capable team mates. Yes, the only other person who had the impetus to do anything was VicMo but he too suffered from the lack of understanding of what his team mates are capable of.

On Siasia, he has a certain philosophy which I detest. I don't like a team that is top heavy. I don't like a team that plays strikers/forwards in midfield positions. But that being said, his team held their own against a well drilled Egyptian team. Sadly, even with the top heavy nature of his team, he couldn't create one decent chance... it goes to show that flooding your team with strikers does not necessary create more chances for you.

I just don't want to blame a coach who came to salvage a bad situation. Nor do I want to judge him based on it.