THE ongoing sit-in protest by African champions, the Super Falcons, has been described as a lacuna in the management of the senior national women team players.
The Falcons have remained adamant insisting on collecting their accumulated entitlements totalling $23,500 (about N11.28million) for each player from the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) before they will return to their respective destinations.
The lasses held a peace protest in Abuja on Wednesday morning, marching from their Agura Hotel camp to the seat of power at Aso Rock and National Assembly to alert government’s attention to their plight.
Reacting to the Falcons’ crisis with the NFF, a former Director-General of the defunct National Sports Commission (NSC), Mallam Alhassan Yakmut, told sports journalists during the week in Abuja that the situation was a lacuna in management.
According to him, the situation was not professionally expected, declaring that in any national assignment, there ought to be provisions for not only allowances but also accommodation and feeding of athletes.
“I think the situation is not professionally expected. In every arrangement, for any national assignment, there must be provision for allowances; there must be provision for the accommodation and feeding of athletes in transit to their respective destinations.”
“But where that did not happen, there should be earlier communication with the players in order for them to prepare. You can imagine an athlete returns from a tournament and the following day is back at home without knowing how to meet his parents. I think this is not very healthy.
“I don’t think what happened was premeditated. It was just a lacuna in the management of players,” Yakmut declared.
In his reaction, a former NFF President, Alhaji Sani Lulu Abdullahi, noted that the crisis boiled down to break in communication between the federation and the Falcons.
According to the former Director of Sports in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), what ought to have been done was for those in authority to truthfully explain the situation of things to the ladies.
He submitted that when that was done, the players were ready to play for their country as well as make sacrifices.
Sani Lulu noted that there was the need to plan, adding that where the resources were not there, there was the need to be truthful and pass the correct message to the players.
“Everything one does, before you take a step, you plan. I have always said that even if you don’t have the resources, we have managed environment with no resources but we got result. Nigerians want people, leaders who can transparently tell them the truth and they are ready to sacrifice.
“These girls I am sure if they are very much aware of the situation, you can open up and tell them exactly what is the problem before you even embark on any project.
“When you do that, the players are willing to play for their country but they need to be given a clear message and they need to be sure that that message is consistently the truth,” he stated.
Lulu, however, expressed the hope that in the future the true financial situation of the NFF would be made known to all the actors, including players and officials.
According to him, even with little resources, the country could still get results.
“I want to believe that in the future we should be able to present the true situation of our financial situation. And that is why the government is talking about.
“We can get result from the little resources we have. Nigerians are ready to sacrifice with the little resources they have but we must create that enabling environment: We must be truthful, we must be sending the message correctly to all the actors, particularly the players and officials that this is where we are and this is where we want to go,” he declared.
Discussion about this post