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| Barr. Akinwunmi |
Barrister Seyi Akinwunmi is the first Vice President of the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF. He spoke with NEW HUNTERS EDITOR, CHRIS ONOKPEGU on what the NFF is doing to stop age cheat amongst other things.
Sir, we want to commend
you for the good job you are doing concerning youth development but what are
you doing concerning age cheat because investigation has revealed that the last
NPFL/La Liga league that just took place was marred by age cheat. Players older
than 15 years participated for clubs because they want to win the maiden
edition of the tournament.
Thank you for the commendation. I don't want to
comment about any particular tournament but at the NFF Youth Committee, we do our
utmost to screen the players in our tournaments and check their birth
certificates, cross check the answers to specific questions etc. I assure you
we are winning the battle but you will agree that it will take time and a lot
of mental restructuring in our nation and in our football to totally eradicate
the minority who have refused to stop the attempt to cheat. Over the next few
years both proper record keeping and technology will help deal with this
unpleasant event of cheating
You will agree with me
that there are so many talented players in the country, are you working with
the coaches to help scout them out from the grassroot?
As you know, Grassroot football is majorly within
the purview of the State Football Associations, FA. I can confidently say we at
the Lagos FA are doing our utmost and are succeeding because we have a good
relationship with our State Coaches Association, I also know that many of my
colleagues do the same. However I think that the National Coaches Association
needs to do more although I recognise some of their constraints.
If yes, what type of
programme is being prepared for the coaches to teach the players and from what
age category are you considering for players to be scouted?
We need to get the coaching structure right in Nigeria.
First is to understand that Youth Coaching is a socialised field within the
sphere of coaching. The second is that we at the State FA’s need to encourage
Grassroots coaches within our jurisdiction to come forward for training and
probably local certification as a start. We can then take it from there. The
NFF will then take it from there. The issue of age at which player should be
scouted is a function of the education and training of the Youth Coaches
because the younger the players the more at risk they are with untrained
coaches.
So many football
academies are scattered across the country, do the NFF know them and their
programmes (what they teach the kids) or the age categories of the players in
these academies because so many of them have old players in their fold?
The NFF does not know all the academies nor can it
know them. A few years ago, requirements for registration of Academies were set
but it has not worked. In my opinion we should encourage the ones who meet the
criteria with incentive enough for the others to want to register. This is
cheaper and will certainly be more effective than trying to shut down those who
don't register. If for example we rule that only players from recognised
tournaments and recognised academies will be eligible to play for our youth
teams, there will be a clamour to register I'm sure. Also if we have an Academies
tournament with prize money you will find many academies coming out of the
woodwork to register.
Facilities are one of
the major problems hindering the discovery of talented players in the country,
what is the NFF doing to help out?
The NFF is somewhat handicapped in that area as it
not in charge of facilities in the various States and by virtue of the Land Use
Act, ownership of land resides in the individual State Governors.
So many young Nigerian
players outside the country are playing for other countries, do you have what
it takes to monitor them and what have you put in place to encourage them to
play for their fatherland?
This particular NFF has been doing a lot in this
regard and it's already yielding results, Leon Balogun and Troost-Ekong are already
stalwarts in the heart of our defence and there are many more coming but they
must compete with our locally grown players.
Unlike their male
counterparts, there are no female academies in the country, what are you doing
to encourage people to go into that or better still take the game to the
secondary schools where the likes of Ann Chiejine and others were discovered?
Again a lot of that work is to be done by the State
FA’s, at the NFF we are trying hard to support the improvement of the Female
league so that the young Female footballers can have genuine aspirations. Also
we intend this year to also have the National U15 Tournament incorporation with
the girls as well as the boys.
You have trained so
many coaches in CAF courses, but many of them who are supposed to handle
grassroot players are handling bigger teams while majority of them concentrate
on male players, what are you doing to encourage them to manage their female
counterparts?
When the Female football grows to where it should be,
there will be a natural gravitation in that direction.
Well done sir for
bringing another Clemens Westerhof in the person of Gernot Rohr, you gave the
coach a condition to qualify the Super Eagles for the world cup or get sacked,
how true is this?
I am not aware of such condition but that certainly
is our (and his) target.
If it is true, why are
you not considering building a team for the future or is it because we did not
qualify for past tournaments?
We are. Look at the average age of the Super Eagles
today.
Congratulations for the
new deals you just signed. Now that we have a new sponsor, are you going to be
paying players, coaches and officials immediately after every match or is it
still going to be the usual way of putting their pay together before making
payment?
Players, coaches and officials will be paid as
agreed.
Lastly, we don’t have
archive of players that have played for the national teams in the past, what is
the NFF doing to ensure that the upcoming players or generation get to know
these players? Some countries and clubs have libraries where these are stored
in form of printed magazine, video cds, etc. Do you have such plans?
Yes we recognise the importance of these and yes we
do have such plans. We already document more than was done in the past but a
lot more needs to be done.
