Nigerian footballers lack initiative – Maigari

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The average Nigerian footballer lacks initiative as he always depends on coaches to tell him what to do on the pitch, as this display digitalised football, which in turn has led to the drop in quality of play, even as most of the players lack commitment and are not patriotic enough.

This is the view of the President, Nigeria Football Federation, Alhaji Aminu Maigari, while speaking with sports journalists in Bauchi, saying that most of the footballers do not reflect on their performance after each match to see where they went wrong and what they could have done differently.

According to Maigari, instead of the players to reflect on their bad outings, they heavily rely on what they were told by their coaches.

Maigari stated: “The quality of football has dropped you will agree with me. As you know we don’t have quality footballers nowadays. The great players of those days are not there now.

“We rely so much on digital football now as most of our players do rely on coaches.”

Maigari said of his days as a player: “I never waited for my coach to say this is what I want you to do for me.

“I used to sit down after every game to analyse the game I played to see how I performed. If it was not what I expected, then I needed to improve.

“That thinking is not there now as players rely on their coaches.

“They are digitalised by relying on what they are told to correct the mistakes committed on the field. That is the drop in quality, which Nigerian football is not an exception.”

He also blamed lack of commitment to the cause of the fatherland, indiscipline and unpatriotic attitude as part of the reasons Nigerian football suffered a serious downfall last year.

The Super Eagles’ failed to qualify for the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations, which gets underway next week in Equatorial Guinea and Gabon is one of such failures.

Maigari said that some national team players simply refused to show signs of commitment whenever the donned the Green-White-Green colours of the country, adding that they were not disciplined as well.

He said: “Some of the players themselves don’t show signs of commitment when they are playing for the national teams.

“They are not patriotic enough, they are not disciplined.

“The commitment, the discipline is just not there. They don’t value wearing the Green-White-Green national colours.”

The football federation boss stated that instead of the players to concentrate on the tasks ahead of them, most of them were fond of getting themselves distracted using gadgets, adding: “I had to go mad with the players when I banned them from using some unnecessary gadgets in the camp like computers, music head phones, etc, just to make them concentrate. As early as 6a.m., you will see the players busy looking for internet facilities, which is uncalled for.”

He submitted that the era of lackadaisical attitude on the part of players had gone for good as the NFF has moved to correct the anomaly with a view to bringing back the smiles to the faces of football-loving Nigerians, with the appointment of former Super Eagles captain, Stephen Keshi “who we believe the players respect, so much matured and he is in very good agreement as they relate very well with him. That will assist us to go many places during competitions.”

He noted that the federation was also determined to change the fortune of the game for the country, adding: “That is why we assembled home-based players that we believe are hungry to play for the Super Eagles to give us what we are agitating for the country. So, I’m sure gradually we would eradicate this mess in our football.”