‘Federal Government can solve Eagles’ problems if interested’

• Most of our sports administrators are not qualified, says Adelabu

Former Green Eagles winger, Adegoke Adelabu, has said that the Federal Government is yet to understand the power of sports hence the levity with which it treats the sector.

Adelabu, who is disturbed that the Federal Government does not yet understand the power of sports in building a vibrant economy, said, “sports can play a huge role in human capital development, crime control and positive emotional atmosphere around the country and homes.”

Adelabu, a sports scientist, said the Super Eagles’ failure to qualify for Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup is a simple manifestation of the depth of destruction or damage that has been done to the nation’s sports, adding, “we don’t have the process by which we can evaluate where things went wrong.

“Majority of our sports administrators are not even qualified and they are not accountable to anyone.

“It is absolute nonsense for us not to qualify for the World Cup. There are solutions to the issues if the Federal Government is interested.”

The former manager of EKO United FC added: “I have said several times that we need to develop our sports intelligence capability among the coaches and players. Our players use more strength than common sense. Majority of them are managed and sold into slavery in the name of playing football abroad by people that cannot even manage their own life as football agents. We have to put a stop to all these illegal football agents across the country.”

Adelabu, who played club football with the then IICC Shooting Stars of Ibadan disagreed with people, who are putting the blame of Eagles’ failure on the sack of former coach, Gernot Rohr.

“Talking about Gernot Rohr after we failed to pick the ticket to Qatar will portray us as an unserious nation with irresponsible leadership in the sports industry.

“We had a lot of complaints about Rohr’s unprofessional and unpatriotic approach to the building of the national team. We thought he could not give us what we wanted, and then sacked him. Why did we sack a man that we did not have a replacement for?

“Our focus now should be on why we failed to beat the Black Stars of Ghana, and not on Rohr. If we had qualified, we should have been singing the praises of Augustine Eguaveon now.”