Embarrassment in Tunis (II)

I didn’t intend to write a follow up to last week’s column but
subsequent events have dictated I do so.
It’s no longer news that Dolphins were walked over by
Tunisia’s Club Africain, it’s the prevailing circumstances
surrounding the walk over that makes the story still relevant.
The question to be asked here, is what brought about the
walkover in the first place? Has the immediate root cause of it
been identified? If so, have the pertinent issues been
resolved?
By sheer coincidence, I’d dedicated my last few columns to
improving the welfare of the GLO Premier League players. I
never envisaged that players’ welfare (or a lack of) would
actually cost a team their continental spot, without kicking a
ball. Which in this day and age is beyond shameful. For the
record and this might sound harsh to Dolphins fans, I honestly
believe that the walkover was a blessing in disguise. Club
Africain, based on Dolphins’ performances in pre season (not
a particularly accurate indication of a club’s form to be fair
but a useful indicator) and their start to the league season,
would have beaten them home and away.
This whole situation was a disaster waiting to happen. From
the players refusing to board the team bus in Port Harcourt,
thereby missing their Thursday night flight. To Dolphins
informing the Nigerian Football Federation that they missed
their flight, along with a request that the match be shifted by
24 hours. Apparently the NFF complied with the request and
informed CAF that Dolphins would be arriving in Tunis late
without requesting a shift in the kick-off for the game. As I
have said earlier, even if the match had been shifted by a
week, I doubt if Dolphins would have got a positive result due
to their poor recent run of form.
The main reason I’m writing this addendum to my last column
was a report during the week that the players apologised to
their club management for their role in the walkover. I thought
to myself, this is manifestly unfair, aren’t these chaps the
aggrieved party? Since when did the victim start appealing to
the aggressor? From what I gathered, the players initial grouse
was on the amount of their travel allowance or estacode,
which was supposed to be a previously agreed amount of $
1,000. This amount was now slashed to $500, much to the
players chagrin. One must also take into consideration the
players are still being owed at least five months’ salary. How
on earth does anyone expect them to perform on the pitch?
Where lies the motivation, when the basic covenant between
employer and employee is not being met? It’s an abnormal
state of affairs which can only serve to further tarnish the
image of the club and everybody associated with it. As an
employer of labour, you must pay an employee for services
rendered. This should serve as a lesson to all other clubs in
the domestic league, there’s a price to play for taking the
most important members of your organisation for granted.
Without the playing staff, there is no football.
It’s just a pity that it took Dolphins being walked over to
understand that.
The future is rosy for the Flying Eagles
I’m not a big fan of age-grade football. The basic essence of
age-grade football competition is developmental. To see the
cadet footballer grow into a full-fledged international. Some
do, like Nduka Ugbade, assistant coach of the Flying Eagles,
who as captain of the victorious China ’85 FIFA Under 17
World Cup Golden Eagles – and represented Nigeria at every
level of football. Unfortunately, age-grade tournaments have
been abused. After our wonderful successes in 1985 and 1993,
football administrators in the country, having stumbled upon a
sure method of success, started to distort the process by
fielding men as boys. We have paid for that ever since. You
can’t cheat nature. If 25 years old men parade themselves as
17 years old boys, they may very well win the tournament but
they end up truncating their own progress.
The new African Under-20 champions Flying Eagles seem to
be ploughing a different furrow. The bulk of this team was
promoted from the reigning Under-17 World champions, the
Golden Eaglets. Based on how the Flying Eagles progress at
the Under-20 World Cup in New Zealand in June, some of
these lads are ready to step up to the senior national team.
We have all seen the exploits of Tottenham’s 21-year-old
Harry Kane in the English Premier League, which earned him
his first cap. There are many Harry Kanes in Nigeria. He
represented England at U19 and U21. Bernard Bulbwa’s
winning goal against Senegal in the Under-20 Africa Youth
Championship final in Dakar on Sunday is the best I have seen
in 2015. There’s a saying in football, if you’re good enough,
you’re old enough.
It’s time to give youth a chance.