Keep politics out of football” is a phrase uttered more in hope than expectation, because few activities – sporting or otherwise – on earth are as political as football. Apart from the fact that football clubs are often directly organised along political lines and formations, it is the only sport that has a quadrennial global competition alongside continental competitions pitting every country that is interested in a battle against each other.
Football is such a potent political tool that everyone from rich businessmen to elected governments to brutal autocrats have been known to use to it to manipulate public opinion in line with their goals. In Europe, city councils and local governments have been known to spend several hundreds of millions of dollars effectively subsidising wealthy football clubs because the clubs are able to wield that much heft. In Nigeria, football was recognised as having so much political potency that former military dictator Sani Abacha effectively erased the distinction between football federation and government, allowing him use the Super Eagles as an image laundering project.
Despite all that was objectively wrong with Nigeria, one thing that nobody could take from the long suffering citizens of this country was the fact that their 11 designated representatives on the pitch wearing the famous green strip were amazing at football. Whenever the Super Eagles played in the 1990s and early noughties when I was growing up, it was a serious event going on, commanding everybody’s attention and commitment. For that brief hour and a half, there was national unity, purpose, pride and very often, joy.
Like Nigeria as a Whole, Nigerian Football Woes are Systemic, Not Incidental
Despite a series of false dawns over the past decade and a half, Nigeria has by and large failed to make it anywhere near the heights of the 1992 – 2002 period in footballing terms. One by one, the members of the so-called Golden Generation who famously won Africa’s first ever Olympic football Gold medal at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics retired from the game. In their place came a new generation of players who were expected to carry on the baton.
Instead, it has become increasingly apparent since around 2010 that the good times are well and truly over. There might be the occasional blip of unsustained success, such as the 2013 AFCON triumph in South Africa, but from a wide perspective, it is obvious that the new breed of Super Eagles footballers are just not as good as their predecessors. Arguably, this is partially their fault, but more importantly, it is a direct commentary on the deterioration of Nigeria that Africa’s largest population can no longer find a team of 11 footballers who can play a cohesive, visually appealing and broadly successful type of football.
The Golden Generation to a man, all ended up at Europe’s elite football clubs after building their craft and reputation here in the Nigerian league. The Amuneke’s, Okocha’s, Kanu’s, Yekini’s and Finidi’s were all steeped in a local footballing tradition that can be traced all the way back to Brazilian coach Otto Gloria who introduced what later became Nigeria’s trademark possession-based football style. From the local league, they went straight into Europe’s big leagues like the Netherlands, Germany, England, Spain and Portugal. There was no talk of Qatar or China or Belgian second division footballer getting a call-up to the Super Eagles – it was an elite-only affair.
These days, following the implosion of the Nigerian football league system, a Nigerian professional footballer has no defined career path from here to the zenith of the game, and so he must be satisfied with the first offer from Estonia or the Czech Republic where at least he will not be owed his salary and he has the hope of maybe playing well enough to attract he attention of a club from a better league. The pathway from Nigeria to European football no longer reads like “Sharks to Ajax Amsterdam,” but now reads like “Enugu Rangers to Ostersund of Sweden.”
When a team made up of such journeymen puts on the green Super Eagles shirt – fashionable as it might be – Nigerians have learned to either not watch them if they cannot stand disappointment, or to expect very little and praise their effort when they inevitably fall short of achieving anything. Within 20 years, Nigeria’s footballing expectations have plummeted from being global contenders to a shrug and a resigned “at least they tried” – something that is still a new experience for many of us who grew up in the glory days.
Fallen Standards and Expectations Mirror a Nation With An Identity Crisis
The footballing situation is analogous to how Nigeria’s self-expectations have fallen drastically over the same period. In economic terms, Nigeria no longer expects itself to play in the same league with countries of similar demographic size and potential like Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico, Bangladesh or Pakistan. While these countries explore nuclear technology and become increasingly important global economic centres, Nigeria only manages to be home to the world’s largest population of extremely poor people because well, where else should we be?
There is also no discernible plan to deal with the country’s slide and return it to the path of international relevance because with the exception of a shrinking minority, Nigerians no longer expect the country to achieve anything. Previously, Nigerians used to visibly bristle at the mention of the term “Golden Bronze,” because the perception was that Nigeria should always compete in the final, rather than the “losers final.” These days, a journeyman team led by a journeyman coach face neither praise nor condemnation – just resigned apathy and a lukewarm “at least they tried.”
At the same time, Nigeria still has the false self-image of a vastly important but sleeping giant, which creates an interesting cognitive dissonance. As with football, on the one hand, we are manifestly mediocre bordering on awful and we know it, but on the other hand we still expect some sort of miracle to help us to success even though we know we do not currently deserve it. The miracle of course, never comes, and we end up making do with what we have now, which is nothing at all.
We have extremely poor quality leadership from president down to local councillor, aged and inadequate public infrastructure, no budget to address our education and health investment deficit, an economy that only makes headlines for creating world-leading poverty levels; and now we also have a football system that will see a nation of almost 200 million people compete at the same level with the likes of Madagascar and Curacao. We are mediocre, bordering on awful in every way, but just not enough to motivate us to actually do anything about it.
Once upon a time, the Super Eagles had the most attractive brand of football in the world, rolling over everything in their path with panache and joy. Now they are a team that defends turgidly for 90 minutes, and then loses anyway. Who are they?
Who are we?
David Hundeyin
