Renowned sports consultant and former head of Nigeria Women’s Football League (NWFL), Nkechi Obi has advocated what she called ‘The Italian Style’ for a quick resurrection of the round leather game in Africa’s most populated country.
Obi made the call while speaking during ‘Hot Seat’ segment of Sports247’s weekly television programme, Inside Naija Sports, which is broadcast at 10am every Saturday on NTA News 24 and streams on YouTube all through the weekend.
The former NWFL top shot, who is also a management expert, further stressed that it would be wrong to pick the Super Falcons’ inability to qualify for the FIFA Women’s World Cup in isolation of other recent setbacks for the country.
“It’s very easy to blame individual factors for our defeats; but we never seem to do a proper review or analysis of what the problems could be.
“That’s why I will not reduce this negative development in our football to only the Falcons not qualifying for the Women’s World Cup.
“We must not forget that the Super Eagles also didn’t qualify. The under-20 men’s team didn’t qualify, and the under-17 side also didn’t qualify.
“This sadly means Nigeria has sunk into a depth from which every team from the country is not qualifying. So, you begin to ask yourself, ‘What exactly is going on?’ That’s where proper analysis will give you the answer.”
She concluded with a look at a number of solutions, basic of which she said are the search for a solid foundation, plugging all leaks early and encouraging athletes with good welfare packages.
“At the end of the day, it boils down to a very faulty foundation. You can’t build a house on sandy soil and expect it to stand when a heavy wind comes. That’s what has happened to Nigeria’s football.
“The wind has blown Nigerian football away. It’s a combination of many factors. For 50 years, we failed to do what should have been done. We chased ephemeral success.
“We put our cart before the horse, and we went for a shiny surface at the expense of solid ground. That’s why I believe what all these recent results are telling us.
“These recent chain of bad results are telling us that, ‘when you fail to address issues the moment they occur, they tend to get bigger.’
“It’s like a small hole in the clay pot, which gets bigger if it’s not attended to, and it will eventually scatter the pot.
“So, we should learn from what Italy are doing; although they are yet to get it right. Everybody quit their football roles and they tried to bring in new people, but politicians stepped in. The core professionals then came and said they want to do it their own way, which happens to be the best way.”
Sports247 reports further that Obi also advocated a turnaround in the pyramid of football management, with the wide base coming at the top in order to provide more support for participation of talents in sports development.
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