Cover Box

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Paul Bassey, sport journalist and member of the technical committee of the Nigeria Football Federation, speaks on the problems of Nigeria football, crisis over bonus cuts, Nigeria at Confederations Cup, Stephen Keshi and many other issues during an interview with Anayo Ezugwu, Realnews reporter. Excerpts:

Realnews: In the last confederations cup, some people said that Super Eagles didn’t perform as expected, do you think they lived up to expectations?
Bassey: Nigerians are very expectant. I say this with due respect not only in the field of sport, in any endeavour Nigerians are very expectant. It also has to do with our intellectual attainment, I wouldn’t say in Africa but worldwide. Nigerians are intelligent people; Nigerians are expectant people, and Nigerians are people that want the best. Even when they don’t have the tools to get the best, they still want the best. They don’t take excuses and this has become very pronounced in the field of sports. People also say that, for instance, if there are 160 million Nigerians, 159 million of them are coaches. This is a way of telling you how everybody believes that this is what should be done and how it should not be done. The nations cup, I don’t know how we won it; I keep on telling people that I don’t know how we won it, if you go by the first three matches we played which were not inspiring, even if you go by the appointment of Keshi and don’t forget the disaster of Siasia and how we failed to qualify for Equatorial Guinea Nations Cup and then Keshi was appointed to take charge. So, I for once, said that history has it that Nigeria has more bronze than silver and gold medals in the nations cup. We always play up to the semi finals, we don’t win at the semi finals, we get a bronze. Any result at that level, I will be very happy because Keshi was in a process of building a team. Suddenly, we won the nations cup and most of them have forgotten how we got there, so expectations were very high.

Realnews: What would you say was responsible for the poor performance?
Bassey: In my columns in Vanguard every Monday, I said I’m one of those who believe that the confederations cup was that competition that should further test our team because I know our team has not arrived, that to win the confederations cup was not as important as qualifying for the world cup. Confederations cup is that competition that has only eight teams, whose viewership is being limited, followership and media partnership also limited. Sponsors and partners are not as many. But if we qualify for the world cup, we are on the world stage. So what is pinching Nigerians is that we went there and did not do well, nobody said we didn’t win. What they complain about is that our flaws were exposed, our nakedness became vivid, elementary mistakes were made and the ordinariness of our players showed. That was what Nigerians are complaining. Nigerians are saying we could have beaten Tahiti with more than 10 goals. When we beat Tahiti 6-1, we thought it was ok but we now find out that there were more misses than the goals, Nigerians are saying that the worst we could have gotten from Uruguay would have been a draw. Nigerians are saying that the chances we created against Spain, if we converted them, the match would have been more respectable than that, because even those who were apologetic were saying were you expecting us to beat Spain? I captured most of these things in my column. Italy exposed Spain, that Spain delights in space, exchanging 15 passes together, from this man to another, you cannot decode them. But Italy and Brazil proved that Spain is beatable. The USA did beat them in 2009. The European champions going into the world cup? The USA beat them 2-0 during Confederations Cup in South Africa. You cannot count the USA among world football great nations. Cameroon was in the Confederations Cup final in 2003, so we cannot say at that stage we were not expected to do well, that is what Nigerians are saying. Nigerians are saying that potentials exist, better players are out there, he should please bring them in, in doing so, come down from your high box, in doing so, tamper justice with mercy, in doing so, know that the Balotellis, Rooneys and Okoronwatas of this world are playing for their countries. If everybody is a saint and pope, the world will not be fun. There is madness in every genius; he should be able to manage human beings, that is why names like Yobo, Osaze and Martins come up again. I would appreciate if Keshi understands the various view points and opinions that are flowing. Some people may not have put it well, some have put it harshly, some have put it in form of criticisms, but whatever it is, we are unanimous that we did not do well because we know we can do better.

Realnews: Before the confederations cup there was a crisis in the team over match bonuses, do you think that the way the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, handled the case the well way by not inviting the players for discussion before cutting the bonuses?
Bassey: I don’t want to believe that you have an opinion already, your question is slanted and opinionated, maybe I would have appreciated it if you had said what do u think was the problem? I’m saying this because I am a member of the technical committee of the Nigeria Football Federation. At a meeting when we were sworn in about two years ago, we made the NFF to realise that $10,000 was a lot of money, the $10,000 was given to the players when they were going to the world cup at a time we nearly did not qualify for the world cup. President Goodluck Jonathan set up a committee, a presidential task force led by the Rivers state governor to help ensure that we qualify for the world cup. And one of the things that the committee did was to supplement the bonuses the NFF was paying with $5,000. It helped it. We cannot run away from that; the committee supplemented it and started paying $10,000. When we came in, we said this is the target, but the NFF was in a tight corner. Siasia did not qualify us for the nations cup and here is another nations cup less than 12 months after.  Then the NFF said we need every encouragement to support the team and they did. And the team qualified for the nations cup, did well in the process; so many things have come up. One of the things they did which people tend to forget is when Keshi came in, the NFF gave them every necessary support. Never in the history of Nigerian football has the team been given such attention in terms of camping, friendly matches, bonuses and everything. But when he started with this domestic player’s experiment, whenever we want the team to camp, we prepare a number of friendly matches. So much support especially financially. The NFF woke up one day to find out that it cannot continue, especially when your teams are doing well, the under 17, qualified for world cup as well as under 20, beach soccer team and so on. What the NFF is being given as budget allocation is enough, so it decided to look inward. We have too many assistants and back room staff and then they said henceforth every national team will have a maximum of three coaches: the coach, his assistant and goalkeepers trainer. The coach of the Super Eagles was taking $20,000 as bonus per match; a doctor in the team was earning $8,000, secretary of the team $8,000, the team coordinator $8,000, assistant coaches $15,000 and the team $10,000, as winning bonuses. We say it is too much, when we were playing qualifications in Africa with Kenya, Malawi, Namibia and the rest of them, these are teams that are flown in business class, these are teams that stay in five star hotels, they don’t pay for feeding, each player is given a camping allowance of $100 per day. My brother a $100 is N15,800. They called it camp allowance. You and I know that what they get in two days is somebody’s salary in a month. Back to the back room staff of the Super Eagles, many of them are earning $5,000, but the winning bonus of the chief coach of the Flying eagles is $4,000, the chief coach of the Golden Eaglets is $2,000. So we find out that there are a lot of things that were wrong because a doctor and a secretary of the Super Eagles are earning more bonus than the chief coach of the youth teams, there was need to restructure all these things.

Realnews: Did the NFF really consult the players’ representatives before the decision to cut their bonuses?
Bassey: Yes, of course. When Keshi came back from the US, he was told that we are cutting down his assistants and bonuses. It was in that meeting that keshi decided that he would take care of one of his assistants because it has happened before. I was a member of a technical committee, three of us went to Kenya for the match, in Nairobi, the players said they were not told and the NFF president said he spoke to your chief coach about it and since then, they have not had an opportunity and that is why he called this meeting to apologise and explain everything. We are broke, we are not lying, you can ask from the presidency, the national Assembly how much they budget for us, your younger brothers just came back from Morocco; they will go to Saudi Arabia, the Under 20 are in Turkey and so on. Then Enyeama asked whether this is going to be a temporary measure and how long it will last? We said we don’t know and when money comes into the federation, you will know. They said ok and didn’t collect the money because it’s being paid through the secretary. They went and played the match and managed to win, I mean I was there, it was very difficult. They went to Namibia draw. It was there that they were supposed to collect $2,500 they rejected it and blackmailed this country, it is my word and I will keep on saying it. They blackmailed this country by saying that they will not go to Brazil, because they knew that it was difficult to do that. FIFA is a different body entirely, the confederations cup had been planned sponsors had brought in the fixtures and timing had been made. There is no way they cloud drop one country and pick another and they refused to board the flight chartered for them by FIFA. Those players disrespected this country because the president of the NFF addressed them in Kenya that he told their coach. What am I trying to say? I have made my personal observations as a journalist. Tunisia, for instance, I had a world cup qualifying match in Malabo, Tunisia against Equatorial Guinea. And they got there, I asked the Tunisians how much is their bonus, they said they pay them £3,000 for an away victory, £1,500 for a home win, £1,500 for an away draw and if you draw at home they don’t pay you anything. This is a bonus, an incentive, it is not mandatory, in other words, what they pay is not up to $5,000 on an away victory. In Kenya, we found out that winning bonus is $500. They were informed and I expected them to accept it except they are now telling me that the NFF has money and doesn’t want to pay them.

Realnews: After the confederations cup the NFF president said that he would start looking into Keshi’s list, what was the status quo before now?
Bassey: That is not what he said. He said that all of us will be involved in the selection of the players. Yes, you could see the action of somebody who is frustrated, angry and everything he said can be forgiven. He was angry at that moment, you and I know. There is what we call technical committee of the NFF, which is to advise national team coaches on technical matters and that was the beginning of the downfall of Siasia. That committee has Barrister Chris Green, Christian Chukwu, Austine Okocha, Victor Ikpeba, representing players’ interest, Barrister Elumelu and Paul Bassey. That committee invites coaches to come and tell the members what they are doing who have you invited and so on? Before I go for any meeting, if it has to do with a coach coming to defend his list, I call friends to know players who are playing well in their respective clubs. I go armed with names, history and current form. And if the coach lists a player that is on the bench of his team, then you advise him based on the information at hand. One day, we invited Siasia and he sent his wife with the list, and we worked the woman out of the meeting. All of us left to our different destinations. Keshi, this is what we feel, invite Oduamadi and Omeruo, let us try them, at the end of the day, it is let for him to decide because he is the one that carries the can. People don’t understand the meaning of carrying the can because if you sack Keshi today, it does not undo the damages he has done to the country. If you leave a coach to do whatever he wants and he fails, you sack him, does that mean that the country has succeeded? So, when it gets to a stage, where a coach thinks that you are stupid and invites players ordinarily you and I know should not be invited, then you have to be a little bit authoritative, that he wouldn’t know more than every other person.

Realnews: How do you assess Keshi’s performance as the Super Eagles coach?
Bassey: It is not an issue of performance. It is an issue of results. That Keshi has won the nations cup, you cannot take it away from him, which is the ultimate. Of course, that is where we started. You raise people’s standard and expectations, you cannot take it one minute and crash it the next minute. Don’t forget that there are two things about coaches, they are hired and they are fired. Mourinho is one of the best coaches in the world today, the same Chelsea that sacked him few years ago now went back for him. Most of the coaches that are being sacked were not because they are not good coaches but because the results were not coming in. For the nations’ cup, Keshi endeared himself in the hearts of Nigerians. He raised the expectations of millions of Nigerians and he just has to maintain that tempo, because if you fail, they will forget all your achievements. So, he is highly successful by winning the nations cup, but you don’t win a nations cup this year, then the next year, you are found wanting. Nigerians are passionate about football; you can mess around with the governors’ forum and stop them from voting the right person, people don’t bother but the moment you mess with their football, they will call for your sack.

Realnews: The inclusion of home based players in the Super Eagles was applauded by many after nations cup but people seems to be criticising him on the number of home based players took to the confederations cup, what is your opinion?
Bassey: I am one of those who feel that we need to expose the home based players. The creation of CHAN by CAF is an opportunity to expose the home based players. He took some domestic players to the nations’ cup, they did well. They won the nations cup and we said fine. Now, he took the same players to the confederations cup and we have seen that they can only win the nations cup. They are not good at the world stage. Now, that is, on the world stage, they don’t fit. That is the argument and they are not ready to give you four to five years to build a team. Nigerians are so much in a hurry, they cut corners. Nigerians are not patient people; it may be positive or negative. Don’t forget, I keep on telling people even the number of players we took to nations cup, there are five players that went to the nations cup who did not kick a ball. You look at Spain in the confederations cup, all the three goalkeepers they took to the competition, they used them. Brazil tried to use everybody. Your bench should be as good as your starting eleven. Five players that went to the nations’ cup did not kick a ball and you went to the confederations cup looking for people to substitute that was why people like Ideye and Musa stayed too long, that is why only Enyeama could keep the goal because the bench lacked quality. Yes, the home based players, we should support them but let it be in the absence of quality players out there. Except you are telling me that the ones you have are better than those out there, then people will not complain. But Nigerians are saying that these ones out there are Nigerians why are you not using them? We are not saying they are not good or we don’t want them. We are saying they are not as good as this person or that person.

Realnews: From what you have said now, do you think that Nigerians are missing people like Yobo, Osaze, Martins and the rest of them in the national team?
Bassey: That is what we are saying. We are saying that if they were there, we would have done better. You gradually phase out these people, you don’t just wake up and say this person go away; that is what we are saying. That the team lacks the captain, it lacked a leader. Enyeama did not lead the team very well and it also lacks a finisher, a traditional striker, an Obafemi Martins, an Osaze, Emenike and so on.

Realnews: What do you think about the development of youth football in Nigeria, do you see the youth players growing to join the national team?
Bassey: The system does not support it in the sense that Nigeria is a country in a hurry. Nigeria is a country of win win win. We are competition oriented, development is not there. The tenure of the NFF board is measured by the number of trophies they win and participation in the world stage, nations cup, world cup and the rest of them. The development of football had been submerged. There has been a gap between the past successes like the 1994 and thereafter because there was no succession plan. If you look that the rules and regulations of the Nigeria premier league, it stated that every club must have feeder team and that feeder team is supposed to play a curtain raiser before the main match. But it is so because the funds to run the feeder teams are not there. Another thing they will tell you is that they don’t know what comes out of it because it is not tangible. There is no trophy for it. Academies in this country are not regulated, the competitions are not supported, coaches are corrupt they take over aged players for the purpose of winning trophies. So, there is no development in the game, we have failed to give credit to coaches who produce stars. Our problem is that we are result-oriented, win-at-all-cost syndrome, counting trophies and yardsticks for success.

Realnews: What do you think is the way out of these problems?
Bassey: We are in a country where unfortunately, government is 100 percent involved in support of sport. Government must set up it priorities, government must insist on development either in terms of budget or legislation. If we don’t do that, the gap will continue to be there.

— Aug. 5, 2013 @01:00 GMT

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