Lulu advises NFF to be transparent

Former NFF President, Sani Lulu Abdullahi has advised the present board to be transparent in their dealings with players.

Sani Lulu

Lulu who spoke to sports writers in Abuja, said the federation should always embrace a more transparency way of handling issues and be ready at all times to tell the players the true position of things in order to avoid such open confrontations.

He further argued that those who have continued to blame Keshi for failing to stop the players protest in Namibia over the $10,000 match bonus were unfair to him because even as he is the coach of the team, he has his limitations when it comes to such matters.

The former FCT Director of Sports however said to be able to enforce discipline in the national teams, the authorities must first, learn to keep to agreements reached with the players and be ready to make sacrifices at all times.

His words, “In recent times I have heard comments directed at coach Keshi which I find very unfair to him. The young man has achieved so much within a short time and should be given all the necessary support. I want his detractors to leave him alone, so that he can concentrate of rebuilding the Super Eagles for us"

“Even as he is the chief Coach of Eagles, Keshi has his limitations. It is the responsibility of the NFF to provide an enabling environment for the players to thrive. If any agreement has been reached with the players, it must be honoured. If there is any problem, the authorities should either make sacrifice or sit down with the team for discussions”.

The Kogi state-born sports administrator went on to cite three instances when he had to apply disciplinary measures, persuasion, negotiation and personal sacrifice to get things done while his tenure last in the office.

“I remember that before our 2010 World Cup qualifying match against Uganda, we played a friendly match against Tanzania and after the match, the players attempted to hold us to ransom over bonus but I resisted because there was no prior agreement. They could not succeed on that because there was no prior agreement".

“At the 2008 Nations Cup in Ghana, when Eagles qualified for quarter-finals, there was no money to pay their bonus. NFF had no money and the NSC too could not raise any money for us. I had to rush back home to borrow N30m from my personal account to go and settle their bonus. I did this to motivate the players. This is sacrifice.

“When we were to attend the 2007 FIFA U-17 World Cup in Korea, we needed over N80 million but we received just over N20m from the National Sports Commission, NSC. Faced with insufficient fund, we had to appeal to the players and also explain to them the need for sacrifice and they accepted. We prosecuted the tournament without any crisis”, he explained.

Lulu who commended the NFF for the successes recorded by the Super Eagles so far, maintained that for such successes to be sustained, the NFF must be ready to always provide a very conducive atmosphere for the players, the technical crew and other relevant stakeholders to thrive.