Show of shame

The crashing out of three Nigerian club sides in Confederation of African Football, CAF continental engagements is seen as a show of shame by stakeholders.

 

Last weekend could well be best described as the country’s worst outing in decades, with three of the four clubs representing the country, Lobi Stars, Heartland and Kano Pillars, crashing in the CAF inter-clubs competitions, with only Enugu Rangers scaling through to the second stage.



Action from the Nigerian league

The sad episode began on Friday when Lobi Stars Football Club of Makurdi, Benue state scandalously lost 1-7 to their Mozambique opponent, Muculuma, in the second leg first round match of the CAF Confederation Cup played in Maputo.

This is the first time a Nigerian team will be beaten by any clubside outside the country let alone a lowly-rated clubside from Mozambique. The Mozambican side made rubbish of Lobi’s 3-1 first leg lead played in Bauchi to advance on an 8-4 aggregate after the two legs.

Reports from Maputo said Lobi went into the game with the hope of defending their lead, but the tie played under a 25°C was not good enough for the Makurdi club.

Lobi Stars goalkeeper John Lawrence was sent off for a reason best understood by the referee, and Ikenna Hillary replaced him. Lobi however failed to live up to expectation, as they were distracted by the alleged poor officiating.

They were one of the outstanding teams on the Nigerian domestic scene last season. They finished third in the Nigeria league and were beaten in the final of the Federation Cup by cup holders Heartland.

As football followers in the country were still pondering on what came over Lobi Stars to have lost scandalously to a lowly-rated club, another news filtered in that two other Nigerian teams have crashed out of the CAF Champions League and CAF Confederation Cup respectively.

Kano Pillars Football Club was eliminated by AC Leopards of Congo. The Congolese club defeated the Nigerian champions by 3-0 for the first round tie to be tied 4-4 on aggregate, but the Congolese sneaked through having scored an away goal in Kano in the first match.

Pillars conceded a 93rd minute penalty in stoppage time in Brazzaville to Leopards, to get the third decisive goal to bundle Pillars out of the competition, via the away goals rule.

The club blamed the defeat to biased officiating. Pillars spokesman, Idris Malikawa said the Ivorian referee robbed their team of qualification to the next round of the competition.

“This is daylight robbery. African football is doomed with such refereeing. It is just unbelievable and if this is how African football is, then we are all doomed.”

Malikawa claimed the referee struck out a 75th minute penalty he initially awarded the Nigerian champions. “There were no complaints in the first half, but after the interval the referee became something else.”

The hosts went ahead in the 32nd minute before rallied round to deliver two more goals after the interval and book a place in the second round of the Champions League.

Sadly, the other team in the Confederation Cup, Heartland FC of Owerri crashed out without kicking a ball. They got to Gabon late due to flight hitches and their opponents, Union Sportive Bitam, walked over the Owerri-based side.

Heartland FC, who was enmeshed in travel hitches, got to Gabon, to realise that they had been walked over. Despite initial reports that Heartland would play the return leg of the CAF Confederations Cup against Union Sportif Bitam of Gabon on Sunday as against the fixed Saturday, because of fair play, it was not be as they were knocked out of the competition for not turning out on Saturday, the same day they arrived in Gabon.

The club general manager, Fan Ndubuoke in an interview with an Abuja-based radio station said they are going to protest to CAF over the walk-over.

Rangers of Enugu remain the only team standing in the CAF Champions League. The Enugu-based team eliminated Vital Football Club of Burundi 2-0 on aggregate.

The Nigerian club defeated visiting the Burundians by 2-0 at the Nnamdi Azikiwe Stadium, Enugu. Rangers will now face Recreativo Libolo of Angola in the next round of the CAF Champions League.

Meanwhile, reactions have continued to trail the embarrassing elimination of Nigerian clubs from the CAF continental engagements. Those who spoke with our correspondent attributed mismanagement, lack of proper planning, high-handedness of club administrators and delay in commencement of the Nigerian League as some of the reasons for the woeful performance.

A football administrator, Odunayo Aderibigbe attributed Lobi Stars’ defeat to high-handedness on the part of former Nigeria Football Federation, NFF board member, Dominic Iorfa.

He claimed that the ex-international who is the vice chairman of Lobi Stars wants to do everything by himself. “He is the club manager, he is the coach, he is the chairman and everything.”

Our correspondent can authoritatively confirm that Iorfa once sent away his coach when he tried to oppose his order of the player to substitute while a match was on. Most of the matches played by Lobi Stars, our correspondent discovered that the line-ups are done by Iorfa while the coaches are seen sitting and watching the match while Iorfa gives instructions to players and make substitution.

A sports journalist, Romanus Ugwu of Daily Sun Newspaper said there are so many factors responsible. He claimed that the absence of the league was one of the factors. “How can you expect a player who played only four to five matches to be in form for a continental competition?”

Beyond that, he stressed that it is a wake-up call. “Playing football goes beyond just playing on the pitch. There must be some arrangements you must make ahead of time. Travelling hitches shouldn’t occur at all. As you preparing your budget for the year, you should know that you have continental engagements; the issue of funds not released on time shouldn’t come in at all. The money should have been released since. How can an international team like Heartland FC be walked-over, it is the most embarrassment thing to happen in this country.

“So, we have to re-strategise, we have to get people who can run football very well. We have to also bring in private sectors to contribute to sports development in the country. The issue of club managers who see the clubs as avenues to have their own national cake should be urgently reviewed. If politicians will continue to run football in the country, we should look for competent hands to handle it.”

Martins Odiete of Daily Newswatch predicted that if precautions are not taken, all the club sides will crash out in the first round next year. He said the number of crises in our league is enough to make the players and clubs not to be in top shape.

“Clubs will prepare for a long time, train and train before the league commences, if you don’t compete, you cannot be in top form for continental challenge. Another aspect is, some of the clubs are not well structured. Look at what happened to Heartland FC, it shows that they are not serious and well-structured.

Odiete claimed that clubs all over the world, even in South Africa, have structures on ground. They have club houses, functional website, training pitches, they travel by air but the day Heartland FC won the Federation Cup, they travelled by road to Owerri, Imo state,

“A FA cup champions. We are not just serious the way we manage our clubs. We are just answering premier league clubs but we don’t have structure of a premier league club. If not for the doggedness of our clubs, we just in a while bulldoze our way and achieve one thing and we think that is all. There is no shortcut to success; we should do things the way others do it to achieve greatness all over the World. It is a shame for a Mozambican team to defeat Lobi Stars 7-1.

He said the way forward is for us to have a functional league body that would devour of any court case and the administrators should also insist on a standard for all the clubs in the country. “If you can’t meet the standard, don’t run a club, it is not that people will say they are a clubside, ordinary office, they don’t have let alone other things. If only we can ensure those things, we will get ourselves back on track at the continental level.”

A football fan, David Osondu, believes that the lack of cooperation amongst Nigerian clubsides also contribute to the failure of some of the clubs. He said there is nothing wrong if Enugu Rangers meet Enyimba of Aba officials to get hints on how to play in the continent or politics involved in the game.

Some analysts believe that the results recorded on the continent by Nigerian clubs, shows that the Nigeria Professional Football League, NPFL still has a long way to go.

With the crashing out of the other clubs, can Rangers carry Nigeria’s continental hopes and make it to the lucrative group stages of the CAF Champions League? Only time will tell.