The Super Eagles

The Super Eagles will be at the Confederations Cup after the intervention of Fifa officials.

The embarrassment of players holding the Aminu Maigari-led Nigeria Football Federation to ransom over their match bonuses is no longer news but the fact that the football managers left the team and went on their merry way to Brazil should be news and it should be of extreme concern to all football lovers in the country.

That it also took the intervention of Fifa to get a commitment from the players that they will be in Brazil is additionally laughable. So Fifa is in control of the Super Eagles now and will be paying their bonuses?

But the first shock is that our football officials left the team in Windhoek for Brazil. What are they going to do there if the team does not go? Will they pull on the Nigerian jersey and confront Tahiti on Monday? The attitude and character of these officials has been exposed to the entire world to see – they simply do not understand their roles as football administrators and leaders – they are in it for personal gain and glory, put simply.

When the house is on fire, the father abandons his family to go take some shots of rum is not the attitude that needs to be reflected here. While the football authorities laid off some of the backroom staff of the Super Eagles after the Nations Cup win, they followed that up with the employment of the likes of James Peters, Amodu Shuaibu and Kashimawo Laloko on higher salaries than those that were asked to go. So how does that tally with being broke?

The Eagles have also been on a win bonus of $10,000 for over five years and the reward they get for winning the Nations Cup is a cutting of that bonus – how does that make sense?

As they are also complaining of being broke, they sponsor the trip to match venues for hangers-on, journalists, family and friends – how does this tally to being broke?

The NFF officials should seriously look at the mirror and not at a prism so that they get the image of what they actually look like. Yes, nobody is perfect but the mark of great minds is that they are always striving to get better.

Without the Super Eagles, there won’t be any need to be junketing around the place. They should ask the football officials of countries like Benin Republic, Eritrea and the likes what they do the year round as their teams never get to qualify for any tournaments then they will know.