By Bukola Kayode
The Reform Our Football coalition has called on President Bola Ahmed to step in to rescue Nigerian football from years of mismanagement and rot.
Secretary-General of the group, Ms. Kemi Yesufu, made the call at a press briefing held in Abuja on Monday.
Yesufu who presented the 5-point demand of the coalition, pleaded with the President to save Nigerian football by backing far-reaching reforms.
Chief of the reforms sought by the group is the restructuring of the voting system of the Nigeria Football Federation to widen number of voters who will elect the Federation’s Executive Committee.
She said: “53 people cannot decide the fate of 250 million football loving Nigerians. We need a more robust voting block comprising of all sports stakeholders including ex-footballers, supporters club, professional and amateur leagues designates, coaches, referees, Sports Writers Association, football administrators, Football Associations and Professional Bodies, the media, Anti-Corruption and Sports NGOs etc, must be duly represented”.
Yesufu also demanded that the Super Falcons be treated with respect because the team as ten-time WAFCON champions have earned it.
She said: “The Super Falcons, Our Pride, the Heartbeat of Africa are being treated like second class citizens. What they make these ladies go through is modern day Systemic Slavery as they can’t even speak up for fear of being blacklisted because this is the stock in trade of the NFF.
“Their International Windows are being serially wasted and they have been successfully set up for an abysmal performance at the forthcoming WAFCON. They are silently crying for help, hence we are pleading their cause because they deserve to be treated with dignity and not as one inferior to the men which has consistently been the case”.
The group also urged the First Lady, Senator Oluremi Tinubu to ensure that the NFF prioritises issues affecting the Super Falcons.
On the issue of age-grade football teams, Yesufu, lamented that they have been the most impacted by the years of mismanagement.
“Our age grade football has practically gone into a coma. Our Golden Eaglets, the five time World Champions no longer qualify for a Mundial they once dominated. The Flying Eagles are non-existent and don’t make the World Cup anymore. The U-23, our Olympic Eagles who once dominated the world have gone into extinction and our darling Super Eagles have missed out on two World Cups back to back. All these can be traced back to the fact that the age grade football is non-existent”, she stated.
Finally Reform Our Football called for transparency in the recruitment process of national team coaches.
The coalition also demanded that NFF implement FIFA’s new rule which states that female national teams are coached by women either as Assistant coaches or as the manager of the teams.
She said: “Coaches surface after being appointed under the most controversial and secretive process. We are never aware of the process of selection and what qualifies them as the best candidate, the football community never gets to know the deliverables, nor how to make them accountable. All we get is names being thrown at us. FIFA has mandated head coaches or assistant of female teams to be female and it’s only a matter of time before it becomes an all female affair, but NFF is still selecting male coaches to head female teams across all categories of female football in Nigeria (U-17, U-20 and Super Falcons), all have male coaches”
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