Good decision ... but as much as I
am very much against violence of any form, is the decision of the referee to
rule out Remo's goal correct? If not, the referee should be punished too!
Sir,Naija football its so
pathetic..Remo stars fans got it wrong, they should have protested in a
legitimate way instead stoning him. Think since LMC saw the injury sustained by
the referee they care less about punishing him
Okay... but how will LMC correct or
stop bad refereeing?
That's an issue no one refused to
address..
I beg to disagree that they have
refused to address it. First LMC doesn’t appoint Referee. And we can knock NRA
that trains Referee and the appointment committee that pick referee for
matches, but these guys are doing a yeoman job behind the scene.
They are
dealing hard with issue of incompetency and bribery, the other part is
Harassment/intimidation and this beyond them. One reason some of us want our
match venues cleaned up, take the fear(thugs) off. If after this, referees now
mess up a game, we can confidently say water he is incompetent or corrupt. The
two is even to differentiate.
An incompetent referee will be so erratic in his
decision making to both teams, while a referee that has been bribed will show
it and favour the team that bribed him. But presently now, we can't determine
this. Imagine a referees officiating out of fear (because he has been harassed,
threatened), the fear can make him make mistakes during matches. But that
shouldn't be attributed to incompetency or bribery.
This is where the challenge
is. more reason every stakeholder need to be on the same page if we want to
solve this officiating issue or else. We will just be on the same circle.
One question I often ask, why do
journalist/analyst often say a stadium is a difficult ground for an away team
to get result from? What makes those ground difficult, is it because the home
team plays some invisible or Shaolin-Soccer football? The day we honestly
answer these questions means we are getting to a solution point to many or our
reoccurring problems in NPFL.
Fapohunda Olufemi John g logistics is another
problem..I remember few years ago Gombe United was to play2 Shooting stars and
they arrived liberty stadium around 3:30pm..they were beaten by 3:0 if I could
recollect. It's Not that Gombe had a bad team but how can a team travel more
than 17hours sometimes in a Rickety bus packed with players and then go2
straight into a game? The administrators would go by flight and players by
road..terrible roads..
Does that happened in Europe. Sometimes players are crammed in hostels with 4 or 5 in a room while admin rent executives suites with their girlfriends..so tell me the2 result of such away matches..logistics is one major problem
Does that happened in Europe. Sometimes players are crammed in hostels with 4 or 5 in a room while admin rent executives suites with their girlfriends..so tell me the2 result of such away matches..logistics is one major problem
Another one is poor pitches..Some
home teams are used to their very poor pitches which is only good for POLO..
Imagine a team with a lurch green pitch going to play in such an away pitch which they hardly train on..what do you think the result would be?.in Europe the stadium could be small but the FA is very particular about the playing turf..so if Man U plays Barnsley the turf is good for football unlike here.
Imagine a team with a lurch green pitch going to play in such an away pitch which they hardly train on..what do you think the result would be?.in Europe the stadium could be small but the FA is very particular about the playing turf..so if Man U plays Barnsley the turf is good for football unlike here.
I also found out that there are
disparities on different pitches..some are grass while some are synthetic. You
can't play ball on a synthetic turf the way you play on grasses.
Synthetic turfs are popular in Russia perhaps because of the climate..
Do you know how hot synthetic pitches are in the scorching sun? Some players can't reach their maximum capacity sometimes..Ibadan, Agege and few others are synthetic while Akwa ibom, Gateway, Bauchi are grassese
Synthetic turfs are popular in Russia perhaps because of the climate..
Do you know how hot synthetic pitches are in the scorching sun? Some players can't reach their maximum capacity sometimes..Ibadan, Agege and few others are synthetic while Akwa ibom, Gateway, Bauchi are grassese
With all due respect, all the
problems you mentioned, I'm sure you know money solves them all. From, clubs
providing good travelling arrangement, to having standard grass pitches, to pay
good salaries et al. All of us, we have a picture of viable clubs/leagues, but
we aren’t on the same page on how to get our clubs/league there. For me, I
choose to focus on the FUNDAMENTAL; every other problem will be sorted out as
soon as we can get the fundamentals sorted. We have 3 important stakeholders:
--Club players and coaches
-- Match officials
-- Paying Spectators.
A league
that has all these 3 stakeholders FUNCTIONING well cannot lack monetary flow
(from sponsors, investors et all). But in our league, reverse is the case. These
entire 3 important elements don't have CONFIDENCE in the league.
**Spectators--
lost confidence in officiating, quality of football played, and stadium
security.
** Players-- Lost confidence in officiating, general stadium security
** Match officials-- Do no have confidence in stadium security.
Now if you
critically look at these 3with their lack of confidence, they are tied to one
particular problem and the source of that problem is in all our match venues.
If we narrow things down, and with deep knowledge of Nigerian-spectators hip
mindset, we will get the solution right there. I did write an article in 2017
or thereabout, you can read it here.
The truth is, if we don't solve the match venue problem and get clubs to play
good football home and away, get good officiating home and away, then real
spectators won't come. And if spectators won't come we can never get the money
the league requires to pay good salaries, treat he players well, give good
pitches among others.
Presently, state govt & private owners are trying,
you and I know the problem, they can't do more than this. but investors ,
sponsors are out there, if the followership,spectator hip didn't increase, they
won't come in. That is the issue. You know what he potentials are there,we just
need to get things right from our respective match venues. and we are good.
Potential in the sense that
presently there are two clubs DANA Air partners with. look critically they use
it for CSR not real partnership. But it tell us something, if we can get things
right, an the club can attract real followership, high net worth who fly's all
the time, you will see all other airlines coming to support our clubs on other
to target their support base. That is it.
For me, let's leave the matter of
administrators having good travels and players move on rickety bus. Let take it
as a phase in our development. Before Nigerian music and comedy industry grew
to this, you know how many times today’s stars, like Tuface, Ali Baba and co
travel on the road, bad rickety buses, night travel, just for show, and yet
they must still perform well.
Today the guys can afford to fly, many of them
can afford airlifting their crew members, they have endorsements et all. So
Nigerian league players too should know this is a phase in our league
development. What they must constantly have at their mind is, irrespective of
the challenges, we must give our best, both home and away, the growth of the
league means they will enjoy more. Also businesses that surrounds the league.
That is it.
Same goes for good infrastructures. I'm
sure you've watched Zambian league on TV, they might seems to be having it
good, but they don't have the king of infrastructure, stadia wise we have, if
you look critically. Government here is trying, with little infrastructure we
have, we can still make it better.
Natural or Artificial grass shouldn't be our
major concern, in a developing league a lot of things comes up, we all just new
to be on the same page. You will agree artificial grass has saved us somewhat
interns of quality of play, yet it has its own issue, but there are been
solution.
You know I'd artificial grass is watered before, and during halftime,
it reduces the heat effect considerably? That means clubs can keep watering
their pitches. When we have grown to a point that clubs have enough money, they
can build their own stadium just like Arsenal did and put their own natural
grass that they can maintain.
You know why, LMC is struggling to
get high net worth sponsors, and clubs couldn't even attract any, simply
because league followers hip hasn't improved. The best year of our league was
2016(Year Rangers won the league, you can read the report on LMC website), for
me I know its not a success that can be sustained.
Because the fundamental
problems were still there. What happened afterwards, we retrogressed. Spectatorship
wise we are down the ladder, and how do we attract investment, thus way, its
impossible.
The number of spectators and league followership is what pull
investors. And the spectator ship itself must be some quality. Presently, LMC
is struggling to tie down even technical partnership for their new TV
arrangement. We all know how Supersport left, I respective of other challenges,
if the league was growing, they could've stayed, they could've used the league
as a premium show in their bouquet, but in a situation that African magic
Yoruba is more premium than the league, what do you expect.
They spent average
N10million to cover an NPFL match, in which they can use same money to bring in
5new Yoruba films which they still reshow an get more subscribers than the
league. So these are issues.
So like I said earlier, our match venues
are where the issue is. The system or the NPFL model isn’t the problem. I used
to be a radio/TV football analyst, but I'm more for development. When I begin
to go deep into the issue, my orientation change, its world apart.
Sometimes
some people thinks Pinnick, Irabor ad the like who are trying to do something
are proud, but hey aren’t. they knows some deep things, they have an idea, it
takes somebody that knows deeper things and can prefer better solutions with
all everything factors in those guys respect/listen to. But you can't keep
echoing the problems thy already know around them or providing a shallow
solution and you expect them to listen, thy not have that time.
And hence, it
will look like they are proud. Although, i have my personal business, but when
I'm chanced I do provide feedbacks, ideas to LMC, I do have their ears, even if
they will not do it, at least they can pick out of it and add to their own
idea.
And presently, here ideas being muted in order to clean up our match venues
make it conducive. Take the thugs off, and bring back the confidence that all
the 3 most important stakeholders (Match officials, Players, spectators) need
to perform optimally on the field of play.
I only hope the LMC and the club
owners who will drive this can be proactive about it. But I think they
themselves are trying to be on the same page. And I also think LMC is trying to
solve their TV issues. They need the money to run any other programmes they
want to run.
All what we need now is for everyone
to be on the same page.
-- Collectively take out our number one enemy, the
thugs(or anyone that are always quick to was to fight at our match venues) You
notice in entertainment industry, they like using EKO Hotels hall. That is some
place where a VIP table can be in millions and you'll see people coming, but
football too should have it attraction if we clean it up eye with the little
infrastructure we currently have.
Those who smoke cannabis (igbo) and those
fight in match venues are our number one enemy, its not government ownership or
club administrators now. If we take the guys off, and our league grows, its
easy for private investors to come in and take over from government. Its more
easier for community ownership too.
Because high net worth people are following
the clubs and they can pull funds together to run the clubs. If you recalled, early
2017, when Enugu state government, sacked Christian chuckwu led Rangers
management, and went or managerial restructuring, you know who made that
happened, some supporters carrying placards and all that. This could happen
because of the spectators’ hip/followers hip they had in 2016. So if you can
take deep analytical view of issues and projections, we do have a solution to
bad management and government ownership in our hand.
So, you see that every other
problems we often talk about are secondary right, if we can get the basics
right, every other problems will be solved easily or they even fizzle out with
time.
The second common enemy we ad is European football, but I know with good
football (with some bit of showboating) + TV coverage, we will take our
spectators back. if it can happen in Nigerian music, then it can happen with
Nigerian league football. But staying on the same page, get the basis right I
the koko.
Sorry for my long response. But
please take your time to read this, you'll find one or two to add to your own
ideas. We all need to move local league football forwards because that is the
only thing that can help businesses that are dependent on the league to grow
too.
If the followership of the league are improving, the league won't grow,
same to other businesses attached to it.
** Being an exert from a random
Facebook discussion with some NPFL faithful.
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