2015 Afcon aftermath: Uzokwe NFF must initiate development of Home based Eagles

By Eddie Akalonu
Following Nigeria’s failure to qualify for the African cup of Nations in Equatorial Guinea next year, Ex-international Evans Uzokwe has said that the country will have no option than resort to building a national team made up completely of players based in Nigeria, Uzokwe, had stints with the defunct P and T Vasco da Gama of Enugu and Spartans of Owerri,  advocated that the Nigeria Football Federation must initate programmes for development of players from the grassroot as the bedrock of future national team. He said that if the federation adopted this approach, the country would have a good foundation to groom and nurture players in schools, local governments and states who present teams in different national competitions including the National Sports Festival. He insisted that laying a sound foundation is a veritable tool to marshal players that will constitute a home based Eagles. Developing football at grassroots is also the best approach that would free the country from the stigma of relying all the time on players based abroad.. “The Academical system of producing players is one good approach of restarting football.. Many of us passed through it before we got into clubs There was enough time to sharpen players skills before maturity for national duty, he said.. I am saying this because as  player though retired, my observation of the Eagles was that five or six days are too short a time to be prepare for a competitive game. If we have a system of having a home grown national team, it is easy to call up a few based abroad to join them for a game,” he stated. Adding “ I had predicted we would not qualify for Afcon. My honest observaion  was that that our team played incoherent football  and lacked direction”  “The team showed no character as the world know us and there was no unity of purpose. I saw that each player presented an orientation and style of the club and country  where  he plays. And if a coach lacks technical skill to mould an array of players into a formidable team, definitely there is problem. That was the case of the Eagles.” Uzokwe warned football administrators this way “we had always depended on miracles to achieve certain things. Right now it is very obvious to us we can no longer live by miracles in football. We just must build, we must plan and organize at the top. If we want to achieve results in future. If there is organization at the top then there will be a federation that can guide the national coach in building a formidable national team that we all aspire to have. A federation that is well organized will have policies at all times to guide behaviour of players He stated that the approach is exactly what any country which has (football) as agent of youth development and empowerment should. We should do the same.  “my suggestion is, if we can go back to  past practice of building the national  from teams around the country, that is using players from grassroots and top clubs around the country, it would alleviate some problems we have currently. It would help us fashion outthe Nigerian own football- character and pattern, so that when there is need to play we can easily invite some players from outside the country to mix with the team already in place at home . We will no more depend 100 percent on players coming from abroad. “