Ayodele Okunfolami argues that we could do more for the home team
After watching the Green Eagles transcend in the late eighties to become the Super Eagles at its glorious best in the nineties, its teetering performances as it entered the millennium made me become nonchalant of the national team. I followed the team more with my head than with my heart. I dropped the superiority complex of yesteryears for a more pragmatic and logical approach. In fact, the maladministration of the game in Nigeria, to politics, to the unfair treatment given to local coaches and players moved me from scepticism to cynicism. Well, it helped my blood pressure and mental health.
· Be that as it may, my blood is still green. I still give them all my support when I see the green light. I gave the team my whole support after we surprisingly beat Cote d’Ivoire en route winning the African Nations Cup in South Africa and that Tunisian goal that knocked us out in Cameroun entered my heart like a bullet.
· It was with this my rare patriotic excitement I celebrated Nigeria being paired against Ghana in the final World Cup qualifying round. Ghana at the time of the draws, were a far poorer team losing to lowly Comoros both at the earlier World Cup qualifying rounds and at the last AFCON. Nigeria on the other hand, appeared to be on the ascendancy. Then if one now added the fact that Ghana remains an eternal rival, it would be an insult for Nigeria not to qualify because of Ghana.
· The match was to be a two-legged, “home and away” affair. Football does this so that both teams are given opportunity to take advantage of their home ground. All other things being equal, a team’s home ground comes with two major advantages. First is that the team is supposed to have memorized its pitch so well it is so used to it while the visiting team would struggle with the unfamiliarity. The second is the swarming support it gets from its supporters which should spur it on while intimidating and spoiling the rhythm of the opposing team.
· To the first point. Why did the authorities move that crucial game to a stadium the players were not used to? If I am not mistaken, this was the first time this set of players would be playing in Abuja. Some were even playing in Nigeria for the first time. Now, this is not a call for the Eagles to have a permanent playing ground. I have disagreed with this motion in previous articles insisting that the matches of the national team be federated around the country and that national spread, stands size, condition of the playing turf, accessibility to fans, security, hotel accommodations, TV friendliness of the stadium, importance of the match, opponent disadvantage and the like would be considered along with commercial partners in choosing where Super Eagles play their matches.
· Since the aquilinity of the current Eagles is suspect unlike their seniors of the 80s and 90s that won their matches irrespective of the venue, it now means we should take home matches seriously. Unfortunately, Nigeria doesn’t play all those dirty tactics of food poisoning, poor accommodation, blinding our opponents with lasers and all worth not that Africans employ. Ghana knew they couldn’t beat Nigeria pound for pound, so they resorted to taking their home match 250km outside the capital city to Baba Yara Stadium in Kumasi. The same stadium that they beat then favourites Egypt 6:1 to qualify for 2014 World Cup. Does Abuja have such an opponent-slaughtering history? Literarily, besides our usual hospitality to our opponents, this Abuja stadium on the night was as well a disadvantage to our players.
· In fact, playing at home is not only about the stadium. It is about the atmosphere the host city generates. From the airport, the Eagles should have been welcomed with chants and praises. Billboards around the city should have been adorned with goodwill messages by sponsors. These are things that ginger the players and demoralizes opponents.
· Is the stadium even accessible to fans? That stadium is not in the middle of town and public transportation in the Federal Capital Territory is too inflexible to be cheap for people to attend. So, the organizers had to make buses available for Abuja residents to find their way into the stands.
· They succeeded in filling up the stands but by who? I had admonished after our Lesotho game in Lagos that professional sports should not be taken as a social good but a business. That is why I always advocated that the Nigerian sports industry be taken away completely from the hands of government and take a cue from the entertainment industry. Why was the ticketing not outsourced to ticketing agencies and transparently advertised? Must one have gotten to the stadium on matchday to get a permit? Why didn’t they explore getting tickets online or using decentralized means of eateries or other sales points? There were reports of a stampede at the gates. This ought not to have happened. In fact, considering that there was a leaked security report of an imminent threat of explosive attack on the stadium crowd control should have been better managed. Viewing should have been decentralized to big screens at major hubs in the city for the two million plus residents to be part of the action. After all football is today more a television event than a stadium event.
· It is in this same economy that people pay over N10,000 to get the rearmost seat and millions for VIP stage side seats in comedy and musical shows that Amaju Pinnick, the Nigerian Football Federation chair boss is always a part off. But when a whole Super Eagles game is going for as low as N5000 at black market price, then expect thuggery and chaos at the newly renovated stadium after the final whistle, something that we never hear in those entertainment shows. Notwithstanding, our security personnel should be schooled in crowd control.
· Another reason why ticketing should be taken seriously is to be able to track and manage the kind of spectators we want. Why were Abuja civil servants granted half day at work if they wouldn’t be the ones to be bused to the stadium? I had expected to see legislators who want to probe Nigeria’s ouster, ministers and other Abuja big boys at the VIP end but those that package our football think otherwise. Again why take it to Abuja?
· Even if no monetary value was attached to gaining entry, coming with things like a Nigerian flag and adorning the team’s colours could be permits into the stadium. Had Thomas Partey led his Black Stars into the pitch seeing only green and white on the terraces and not people just wearing ankara or Arsenal jersey, he would have wobbled for 90 minutes.
· Well, we ended up with the sour jollof rice. Ghana is on their way to Qatar. Nigeria should take advantage of the 12th man next time.
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· Okunfolami writes from Lagos
