Blame particular players and coaches all you like. At the heart of our World Cup qualifying struggles lies a fundamental failure to put proper football developmental structures in place.
We are presently trying to put up a building from the top by paying too much attention to the Super Eagles and ignoring the developmental structures that form the base of the football pyramid of success.
The easiest thing to do is to deflect from the real issues and look for scapegoats. That is what the Media and fans do.
I read a lot online putting the blame squarely on Finidi George. That is not only deflective but is also reflective of our tendency to vilify anything Nigerian.
Let’s put things in context: Finidi earned one point from two games against the two teams presently topping our qualifying group – South Africa and Benin Republic.
Meanwhile, Jose Peseiro, who handled the first two games, earned two points against teams presently occupying the bottom of the table – Lesotho and Zimbabwe. Both sets of results are POOR… So why is Finidi being singled out and Peseiro being handed a free pass?
Many are also blaming Eric Chelle who has earned eight points from four matches. Could and should have probably earned more, yes. But if we had similar returns from our first four matches in the series, we will presently be on 16 points and in with a shout.
My point is simple. Criticizing and scapegoating particular coaches or players deflects from addressing the real problem – a complete neglect of time-tested, long-term football development principles that bring about a natural consequence: success on the pitch.
That is why countries like Morocco, South Africa and possibly Cape Verde will be at the World Cup and Nigeria will likely be watching from the sidelines. There are no short-term fixes and Nigerian Football should not begin and end with the Super Eagles.
My humble thoughts…….
