When passion overrides national interest -By Joe Booster

Amaju Pinnick, NFF Chairman

The recent prevarication put up by the President of the Nigeria Football Federation, Pinnick Amaju, to justify his regular junket to London in support of his darling team, Arsenal Football Club, at the expense of our national teams has not only provoked massive outrage on social media by soccer fans, but has left much to be desired.

To tell Nigerians that he had a scheduled appointment in London, on a weekend when two major national teams were playing Olympic soccer qualifiers, both on away-grounds, was not only cheap but reveals something about the man’s psychoneurosis.

This decision to sacrifice Nigerian football for a mere Community Shield Cup, which ordinarily was a “friendly” season opener, has thrown up a new line of controversy. This spat no doubt comes out of an obvious underestimation of the temperament of soccer fans, whose accumulated anger over the mismanagement of football under his watch is nearing a boiling point.

The choice of jumping into London every weekend to drink cappuccino, or watch football games ideally ought not to have generated the kind of furore we witnessed, had it not been that Pinnick is the head of the NFF, and as such must not fiddle when his foot soldiers were on the turf in Point Noire and Malabo.
There are hundreds of private individuals in this country that fly into London every weekend at their own expense, just to indulge their passion – cheering their darling clubs to victory.

No one begrudges them if that is what satisfies them. But that cannot be tolerated of our federation’s president, who ought to be our number one football ambassador, one that bears on his shoulders the responsibility of reviving the dwindling fortunes of the nation’s football that has taken a back seat under his tenure.

That he is among the legion of foreign leagues lovers is not in doubt, but the issue is how he can by his passion for made in London football convince some other diehard fans of the same English Premiership to begin to love the local version.

This is the big challenge! It is a known fact that one of the major battles the League Management Company, LMC, has been contending with is convincing fans to return to the stands during our local league matches as was the case in the seventies and eighties.

But the somewhat debauchery that goes with the English Premiership has continued to deal a terrible blow on efforts in this direction. That is why the recent indulgence by Pinninck, who ordinarily ought to lead the campaign for the restoration of the glory of our local league is found quite intriguing. Before he became the NFF president, he was the Delta state sports administrator.
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Warri Wolves was one of the teams he spent scarce resources to help grow. That is why I find it unbelievable that Amaju would choose to be in London to support an offshore team on a weekend two major Olympic qualifiers involving the Falcons and Dream Team VI (Under 23 team) where going on simultaneously.

Not only were they return-leg matches, our teams were in deficit after their first leg games at home. It turned out to be a mixed grill of some sort, as the U-23 team qualified ahead of Congo, while the Falcons were not fortunate against their Equatorial Guinea host.

The loss by Falcons was as a result of some rash decisions taken by the federation shortly after the World Cup in Canada.

The sacking of the coach of the team, Edwin Okon, even when we had crucial matches around the corner, and the appointment of Christopher Danjuma as acting coach within the short space of available time proved to be a recipe for the team’s crash, as there wasn’t enough time to consolidate and harmonise team tactics.

The federation also failed to get the full complement of players needed by the handlers of the team to prosecute the game. This is where the federation’s boss should have been on ground to provide the needed leadership. Can Pinnick sincerely exonerate himself from Super Falcons’ ouster?

Like I have passionately advocated, let the globetrotting of Pinnick be self-funded and not with public funds. That is the only way we can be assured that he is genuinely servicing his passion.

The tale of always going to scout for players in England or prosecuting other national assignments is a lie from the pit of hell.

I expected that with all the exposure he has garnered over the years from the frequent visits, he would have ploughed back some to bear on the federation, and on our football. Regrettably, that has not been seen.

Nearly one year into office, the federation has no single policy document on how to develop the nation’s football at the grassroots. The recent alibi peddled by the NFF that the new gaffer, Sunday Oliseh, will soon come up with one for the federation is neither here nor there.

Members of the board must realise that the era of “I shot the sparrow and the mother flew away” must have been over by now.

Thus, I hasten to plead that our national interest should always supersede in all cases, to avoid the recent embarrassment the nation has been subjected to recently via the act of the president of the federation or is the rumour that Pinnick is pursuing the ambition of replacing Dr. Amos Adamu’s seat on FIFA’s Executive Committee true?