Charting a New Direction for Nigerian Football: The Goal Project

Following the failure to qualify for the Nations Cup, Nigerian football is once again challenged to look seriously at its shortcomings and find new mechanisms to generate sustainable growth in the system. In my opinion, the Nigeria Goal project has the potential to fundamentally change the domestic game from the grassroots upwards.

At its meeting on 1 May 2003, the FIFA Goal Bureau added Nigeria to the list of beneficiaries of the Goal Programme. FIFA then constituted a team from the Goal Bureau led by Cameroonian, Jean Manga to review Nigeria’s plans under this laudable programme. The indication by the NFF was that it wanted to concentrate on youth football and intended to intensify its efforts in this area.

The NFF proposed to establish regional centres as a base for recruiting and training the best players in the various age groups. Before these centres are put in place, it was planned that coaches will be educated in preparation for their role as talent scouts. However, there was no indication in the plan how these coaches would be trained.

The weakness of this approach was obvious from the start. The truth is that the main promoters of grassroots youth football in Nigeria lie outside the NFF and state federations.

Grassroots football in Nigeria is alive and well by virtue of its non-reliance on government subsidies. There is however a glaring shortage of qualified coaches, equipments, including playing surfaces, and requisite programs for proper training and monitoring of youth footballers.

More importantly, there is a lack of coordination of programmes and harmonization of training methodology to avoid a situation where academies exist merely to facilitate the sale of players abroad.

To simply construct regional centres does not begin to address the needs of this crucial sub-sector of Nigerian football.

1. First there is need to put in place, a structure within the NFF for collaborating with the youth leagues, associations and clubs that proliferate in such cities as Lagos, Kaduna, Port Harcourt, Aba, Benin, Warri, etc. An easy solution might be to adopt the organizational framework of the Pepsi Academy, and site the Regional Centres at their principal locations. It would then require that all other youth organizations be given the same access to these facilities and its resources. It is suggested as follows:

1. Establish a youth department at the NFF with requisite infrastructure
2. Mandate all grassroots associations and youth clubs to register with the department, AT NO COST; providing basic information on club and especially the bio-data of players, programs, etc. this will need to be phased, starting with Lagos and moving progressively to other cities.
3. Through consultation, synchronize the competition calendar of the grassroots programmes and clubs across the various regions and then nationally.

Thus, the primary goal of this department would be to serve as a coordinating body for youth football in Nigeria, streamlining calendars, facilitating the use of the Centres, providing coaches and other technical resources, and maintaining a database. The implication of this is that the actual implementation of the programmes for youth football will remain with the promoters of grassroots football. This is crucial, as government intervention through the NFF will ultimately destroy this fledgling sub-sector of our football.

2. Establish the Goal Project’s national technical centre (NTC) as the primary institutional basis for the program. In my opinion, the Regional Centres can only be successful if a strong NTC is first put in place with requisite infrastructure. But more importantly, the NTC needs to be established as a training centre for producing youth team coaches who can then be deployed to the regional centres to identify and train talented youths in their regions, and recommend the best prospects to the national level.

To build regional centres without addressing key programmatic issues in the youth sub-sector just does not cut it. In the end, such regional centres will join several other white elephant projects that have been abandoned and today litter the Nigerian landscape.

The Nigeria Goal Project needs to be restructured as a vehicle for sustainable development of youth football in Nigeria. More importantly, a program needs to be effectively put in place, involving the key drivers of the youth football sub-sector in Nigeria, so that the regional centres are able to truly address the needs for which they are created.

3. Thirdly, the Project should seek the assistance of the FIFA Goal Committee in funding the recruitment of a technical partner to run the programme. Such a coach should be one that is experienced in developmental programmes of this nature, and many are available that can be recommended by the FIFA Technical department. A good place to look for such a coach would be the Ajax Academy or the Brazilian Academy.

4. With the technical partner and in consultation with the youth clubs, streamline and adopt a synchronized training regime, including formation for all youth clubs and national teams, from U-17 to the U-23..

5. Develop a system of incentives and support services for the clubs, including playing kits. The Adidas contract should have a provision through which to fund this, and indeed other aspects of this programme. If one does not exist, then requisite sponsorship for such should be developed.

6. As stated earlier, through the FIFA Goal Bureau, the NFF should use the Goal Project to recruit an experienced foreign coach as a technical partner, primarily to develop and execute the programs of the NTC, along the lines of the recent recommendation of its technical committee.

7. In addition to this, the NFF should invoke the relevant section of the CAF ‘Contract with Africa’ and develop a funding proposal to CAF to finance the administration of this program.

8. The Technical Director should, in addition to his primary responsibilities, also provide technical assistance to the senior national team, and assume a back-room advisory role during such tournaments as the Africa Nations Cup and the World Cup. This way, the direct day to day management of the national team is left with a local coach who is made to grow with the team.

9. But more importantly, this initiative requires that Nigeria invest in a new generation of coaches, with emphasis on players with experience of European football as well as others with demonstrated ambition to excel in the profession. However for each of these ex-footballers, a minimum qualification should be the CAF or UEFA license, which can be secured even while on the job, but subject to a specified deadline. The CAF ‘Contract with Africa’ and its coaching program offers the best prospects for enhancing the capability of coaches already involved in youth football, and streamlining youth coaching under this program.

Changes in the management of football, including the transfer system resulting from the Bosman ruling in Europe has made the entry level into the European league much more difficult than a few years ago. The availability of quality players from Eastern Europe has further restricted the availability of places for African players. The result is that too many of our talented players are forced to remain in the lower leagues of Europe in such places as Malta, Albania, Latvia, Cyprus, with many ultimately lost to the game.

The long term future of Nigerian football therefore lies in developing the domestic game, especially at the youth level.