Green Eagles 1980 Nations Cup winner, Felix Owolabi, tells JAMES AGBEREBI his impressions about Nigerian football in 2011


What do you think about the friendly matches played so far by the home-based Eagles who are presently in Abuja camp?

It is one of the usual  routine for any team, especially when you have new set of players to form the bulk of the national team. It is the responsibility of the coach to outline series of  friendly matches  to ascertain the readiness, knowledge and ability of each player  and know whether they will be able to justify their inclusion in the team or not.

 What benefits do you think the players will gain if they stay together for a long time?

It is common knowledge  that the longer the players stay together,  the better the level of their understanding.  A good  coach would be able to assess them and have a holistic view of the team. It may take a lot of efforts and money, but  at the end of the day, it will be justified. Football is a team game. It is better if you stay together,  eat together, sleep together and do everything together so that there would be a perfect blending and understanding. That’s just the  way of building a complete team.

But don’t you think the frequent travelling of players abroad will negate the essence of the exercise?

I think we must set our priorities right. Anybody in charge of a team must know what he wants. It cannot be a case of everybody traveling here and there all the time. Otherwise,  the reason and essence of bringing them together would have been defeated. However,  there can be one or two excuses and there is a need for the coach to educate the players on the reason for their call- up. They must know what it takes to play for the nation, I mean  in a nation of about 150 million people.  So I think those players should be well educated. Even in Europe, you have this kind of challenges but a good coach will always find his way round it.

Let’s look at Nigerian football in 2011, how would you describe the performance of all the teams that represented the nation?

It has been very, very bad. All the clubs  that represented us did not do well at all and one thing that people always judge when it comes to a nation’s prowess  is to look at the local league. If all these clubs didn’t get anywhere, it means there is something wrong with the league. There’s a problem somewhere  and we need to address it. That was the main reason why our national teams failed to deliver. It’s garbage in, garbage out! People talk about stakeholders and I always ask: who are the stakeholders?
Every day, they run to Abuja to deliberate, yet we still have those problems starring at us in the face.  
We need to address them as a matter of urgency.  If you look at our players, how many of them are playing in big clubs in Europe and other part of the world?  Look at other African players in Europe, I mean the likes of Seydou Keitas and  Ayews.  These are things that should give us a lot of concerns and the media have a role to play. You people must stand up and say the truth always about the state of Nigerian football, but unfortunately,  you are not doing  your job well.  So these are some of the problems and we must address as we move into the new year.

As we are rounding off this year, what do you think should be done to improve on the situation next year?

We need to look at the local league and see how we can improve the content. Like I said, if we have four teams that qualified to represent Nigeria in the continent and at the end of the day, they did not do well, it means something is wrong. We need to look at the quality of the  players we are producing and the quality of  our coaches too which is one area that is giving me a lot of concern. I think the NFF need to address all these areas. Even the administrators needs to look into themselves critically because if you have the right people and  right atmosphere with the right players, everything will go on smoothly.
Another thing that needs attention is funding.  Most of the clubs are government- owned. How can we market these clubs so that they can be buoyant? These are some of the things we must look into.

The present NFF board has been given a pat on the back for a job well done in terms of release of funds for teams camping and training tours, don’t you think the players should be blamed for not showing enough commitment?

Like I said earlier, if you look at some of these players, what quality can you see? Some of them have been praised as if they are at the same level with the Beckhams and Ronaldos of this world. Is there any of them who can come out and say I want to win this match for Nigeria. During our time,  it was like that! Ask yourself:  how many of these players can convert free-kicks and yet we call them our star players.

In essence, what you are saying is that Nigerian players are the real problem…
For me, the greatest challenge we are having is the quality of our players for now. In those days,  when you call a player to camp, that player must be a complete person in terms of character and background.
 The same for the team’s captain, it’s not just anybody. It must be someone that can command some measure of respect and the handler  also must be somebody that is higher and above these players, somebody who is richer than the players, somebody that when they look at him, they will say yes… this is a man of authority. The national team is our national identity, and that is why when players are not playing fine, everybody will be annoyed because when you are representing the entire country, you are representing  millions of people. So as a player, you should be seen doing the right thing at all times.
But these present crop of players don’t cherish such ideals. Therefore, the number one problem we are having is how to re-orientate our players very well  and the second is the handlers. How patriotic and committed are they?

Looking at the Super Eagles next match against Rwanda, how do you think the coaching crew should approach it in terms of preparations?

They must strategise well,  and the beginning  of it all is having a clue about what that country is up to. They must plan well and ensure that all the ground works are done. After that, they must not underrate the Rwandans because that will be very dangerous. The time to start planning is now but the question is how much our coaches know about the oppositions.

How do you think the appointment of a new Technical Director will benefit  Nigerian football?

The appointment of a Technical Director is like someone who is not taking good care of his home and then decides to call someone else to do it. How do you think it will look like?  They want to bring in somebody from outside who does not know the players and  culture of the people very well. I don’t know how it will work but I hope to be proved wrong.

The new league season is expected to commence on January 7, do you think that date is realistic?

It is not realistic at all. Go and write it down, because there would be another postponement. They will give a date now,  the next moment, they will reverse it. You remember how long it took before the last season ended. So for me,  it is not a realistic date at all.

So,  lastly sir, which areas do you think the NFF and NPL should look at for the league to improve ahead of next season?

I think what the congress that met few days ago needs to do is to rub minds with the clubs before taking certain decisions but what these administrators normally do is to deceive everybody by fixing  dates so that people will think  they are very serious. They will claim to be doing something, but at the end of the day, you ‘ll discover  that it is not true. It is not just feasible and possible that the league will commence on January 7 as they proposed.  Have they looked at transfer and  complains of players? Have they budgeted money for the clubs with which they can prosecute their matches? These are things that will affect the clubs performance. If we don’t look at all these things well, there is no way we can succeed.
We must always think ahead and think broadly.

It’s a pleasure speaking with you sir.

Thank you very much