Veteran sports journalist, Dr Mumini Alao, has called on the new board of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), led by Alhaji Ibrahim Musa Gusau, to focus its attention on the development of the domestic league.
Alao, made the appeal while featuring on a radio programme ‘Sports Fact File’ monitored by Sportimgtribune.
“If I am going to set an agenda for the new NFF executive committee, it is simply for them to focus on the league to see how we can really make the league work. That is what will benefit the players, the coaches, the referees, the journalists, the fans and the businesswomen selling things around the stadium and everybody. That is how we can actually benefit from football being a business. If you look at the leagues that are successful all over the world today, it is a big industry.
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“In fact, if we really want to make football a business in Nigeria, it is not the Super Eagles that will make it happen, it is the league that will make it happen. We just have to focus on the domestic league and grassroots development.
I’m differentiating home from away because most of our national teams particularly the Super Eagles who are the main focus of attention most of the time; are from abroad which suggests clearly that our domestic league is not good enough to produce international stars for the Super Eagles.
“In the last four even eight years of the last (NFF) regime, there has been so much focus on the Super Eagles. It is good for your ego when your national team does well, everybody celebrates. But it is just now that we are seeing the results like we didn’t do with the last World Cup. We put in so much effort, so much resources, so much concentration on qualifying for the 2022 World Cup finals and then we didn’t get it. It is like all investment just go to waste. That is what it means, nothing to gain.
“But if you direct such an investment in the local league for example, we will have more players benefiting from this system.”
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