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Our Turn to Shine!
By Toyin | October 25, 2009
The FIFA under 17 competition kicked off in Lagos and Abuja simultaneously yesterday with four matches played on the opening day. Unprecedented! The opening ceremony was a mixture of brilliance and the humourous; cultural dance steps were displayed to the scanty crowd at the national stadium in Abuja. You can’t blame the fans; our football has been on a steady decline for the better part of year now.
In Lagos, both Brazil and Switzerland took maximum points with the South Americans surviving by a thread against the Japanese. Abuja witnessed the first match by 4 O’ clock in the evening after the opening ceremony and Argentina took the leadership of the group from the early kick off.
But nothing that took place in the day compared to the drama between Nigeria and Germany! The match started on a frenetic pace and it was obvious from the blast of the whistle that this wasn’t going to be a walk in the park for the Golden Eaglets. And before long the Germans has take a two goal lead which even flattered the Nigerians as they could have been four goals down by the end of the first half.
Things became worse immediately after the restart as the score line became 3-0 to the Germans and it appeared at that stage that Nigeria’s case has been judged and the sentencing handed out! It however took a poor challenge and red cards for the Eaglets to wake up and they took the opportunity with gusto pulling all three goals back and almost went on to win the match at the death. It was a great advertisement for the game and ‘am sure Sepp Blatter would be smiling knowing that with the kind of players been churned out by the various federations, the future of the game is bright and much secured.
Now that the game has started in earnest, our Federation must step up to the plate to deliver on all expected indices. We must not allow this opportunity to positively project our nation to the world to pass unutilized. Neither must we allow the crave for personal aggrandizement to damage our collective goodwill going into the future. For once, let us show the rest of the world that this is indeed a good country.
To this effect, all the various units of the Local Organizing Committee must be held accountable for their acts. We must move away from the tendency to sweep things under the carpet. Celebration of mediocrity and non performance must be a thing of the past. Those who have no business in sports administration easily get exposed in these times and they must be shown the way out as soon as they are found wanting. There are no two ways about it, we must be determined to be committed to excellence or watch other nations leave us behind.
FIFA said that much when we were advised to take a cue from Egypt on how to organize a football competition. We saw from the recently concluded under 20 tournament in Egypt that thing could be done right in Africa. Nigeria is a major country on the continent and we should ordinarily be setting examples and not being taught how to do things!
Our collective destiny must not be determined by shortsighted and mediocre people. We must learn as a matter of utmost priority to always put our best foot forward. Playing politics when simple competency should be the main consideration has led our country to its present situation. Going forward, we must resolve to do things properly and in the process bring glory to our dear nation.
Topics: Biz Football, Crazy Fans, Nigerian Football, Success Pills, Who Will Win |
October 28th, 2009 at 9:51 am
I hope our administrators would grab this ‘once in a life time’ opportunity with both hands and do what is right- Put Nigeria and her citizens first!