• ‘To move forward, we must thank Gusau, others for their contributions’

A member of the 10-year Football Masterplan set up by the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government to redesign the country’s football development process, Yemi Idowu, has said that the exit of the leadership of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has allowed the country to reset its game holistically.

Idowu, whose committee report has been neglected by those expected to examine it, said that the country’s football needs complete reorganisation to meet the expectations of Nigerians.

Speaking before the closing ceremony of the yearly Nathaniel Idowu Foundation Summer Camp in Ajegunle, Lagos, at the weekend, Idowu said that it is important that as Nigeria is taking corrective steps to reposition football, it does not make the same mistake again.

He also called on Nigerians to thank the Ibrahim Gusau-led board for its services to the country, saying that in moving forward, “we should not be seen to be witch-hunting anybody. But we must not forget the past as we move on.”

Idowu said that the country’s football can only move forward when it decides to invest in the sport and ensure that such investment yields the desired results.

He said: “This government has put more money in football than all the previous governments put together. If you add up all the allocations put to sport before 2023, it is not up to what this government has put in between 2023 and 2026.”

On the way forward, Idowu said that the country only needs to follow what has been recommended in the 10-Year Masterplan, adding: “Nigerian football must be broken down into local football.  If we can have local football functioning, the state football will work well, and this will affect the effectiveness of state football, regional football and ultimately the national football.”

Idowu pointed at the failures of the youth teams in continental championships to show the depth of neglect the game has suffered at the development stage.

He asks: “How can we go to the African U-17 competition when we don’t have a Nigerian U-17 competition? How can you have a Nigerian U-17 competition when you don’t have state and local government U-17 competitions?

“Nigeria will continue to fail at these junior championships if people continue to sit down in Abuja and invite boys to camp for four weeks and expect them to excel at the African U-17 championship.

“There are no facilities for the junior players to train before going to these championships to play against teams that play on modern full-size pitches week in, week out.

“You cannot gather players today and expect them to excel at the African Championships in just six months and 12 months of battling with the best of the world at the FIFA Championship.

It’s not possible. So we just have to go back to the basics.”

Idowu also cautioned that the NFF board should not be for people who have never played football before, managed a football team or players.

“We must start thinking for the interest of the country; football should never be geo-political. It should be managed by only the best among us no matter where he comes from. The idea of zoning it to any region or group should be discarded because it is too technical to be politicised.”