AT the conclusion of games of the recently ended Glo Premier League Super-Six tournament in Abuja, the verdict is out on some clubs.

  Cup holders, Enyimba International were dealt a 2-0 defeat by the U-20 national team, the Flying Eagles, in the second game of the opening day on Saturday and Friday Christopher Nwosu, the stand-in coach at the post-match conference, pointed to lack of preparations. But Dolphins Coach, Stanley Eguma, was the first to bemoan poor preparation following their 2-0 humbling by Kano Pillars in a match, which the league champions would have netted half a dozen goals in the opening 20 minutes.

  Of the three clubs that lost their opening games, only Warri Wolves showed some fight as they battled the Olympic Team till the last seconds of the game and were only unlucky not to have left with a point from that fixture. Their Coach, Paul Aigbogun, was to also confirm that they have had some extent of preparations with friendly games against some amateur local sides in Delta State. 

  Last season, Wolves also came to the tournament after participating in a closed tournament organized in Ijebu Ode, Ogun State and finished runners-up to eventual champions, Enyimba.

   Many have blamed the ouster of Nigerian teams from continental competitions in the last couple of years on lack of match fitness occasioned by absence of competitive games as the league hardly starts before the continental games. It has led to some suggesting a change in the league calendar, which in successive seasons has run from March-November and appear to be close to the Confederation of African Football (CAF) February-December calendar.

  Some of these advocates are known to have suggested that the season should be run like the European calendar, which starts from late July and ends in May of the following year. The question then would be what happens to the champion who emerges in May and would have to wait until November to register for CAF competitions and then actually participate from February? 

  When this was practiced from 2006-2008, it caused fixture confusions and the switch to the present calendar was only forced on by disruptions precipitated by funding crisis during the 2010 season.

  We do not have to run the European calendar for our clubs to do well on the continent because Enyimba won the Champions League twice even when our calendar was the March- November timing. We do not have to run the European calendar, which is at variance with the CAF calendar if our clubs will adorn their thinking cap and realize that they have to draw up their own pre-season programmes. 

  Our clubs must know that they don’t have to be spoon-fed by the League Management Company (LMC) and the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) that have been involved in organization of pre-season tournaments since 2006. The English Football Association and the English Premier League Board do not organize pre-season tournaments for their clubs and we should and must always copy where things are properly done.

 • David Oche is an Abuja-based football enthusiast, who watched the Super-Six Games