WHAT WENT WRONG?
Till date, the question remained what went wrong with Nigeria League. A lot have been said about the Nigeria league in the past and even at present. The league in the 70s,80s and even in the 90s are usually the talk of the town, families will gladly traveled from one regions if this country to support their darling teams. I could still remembered vividly when my father will be so passionate about his darling 3SC football club of Ibadan in those days, his passion and love towards football arose my own personal love for this beautiful game. I derived so joys in the game when my dad would start telling me about the Ibadan based club used to be a great team to beat. He sometimes went a step further to highlights how teams like Stationary Stores, Ebun Comment,Bendel Insurance, Inwanyanwo National ,BCC Lions of Gboko and whole lots of others always struggled when they face 3SC.
In the late 90s I was already attached to the game locally even though the some if the clubs mentioned earlier were no longer in the frame of the Nigeria football for one reason or the other, some also changed their names.
It is worthy of mentioning of those days when Nigeria club sides are always been scared of because of the quality of our domestic league. The national team also benefited tremendously from the league as 90-95% of the male senior team are local based. With this fit, the super eagles of Nigeria won the African Cup of Nations in 1980 and reaches final in couple of occasions before been crowned African champions again in 1994 in far away Tunisia and winning her third title in 2013 in south Africa.
The likes of Mudashuru Lawal, Best Ogedengbe, Segun Odegbami, Christian Chukwu and others were picked from local league to play for the senior national team. For more than 10 years now,the league has suffered series of litigation from different parties in the country. The board responsible for all football related matters in Nigeria had a very terrible share if deal to the level at which country's football is now being run. Critically
saying,football in Nigeria is now being control by politicians, the tone of the beautiful game is in the hands of the politicians who are only concern about how much the board worth and how much more money can be made from the football governing body in the land. There is doubt about the abundant talents we have in the local league but for us to get it right and take back our rightful position at the top of the African football where we belongs then the house must be properly guided and a fully independent body should be allowed to take charge of the league as it is done in other part of the world.
All what is needed is the enabling environment conducive enough in helping out in the development of the game. Football around the world today's is more than a sport, it is a money spinning ventures that can be used to liberate thousands of youths from the street if properly Ernest. All what is needed is to a blue print of the vision and mission of what we intend to have at the nearest future.