Chairman of the Delta State Sports
Commission, Pinnich Amaju tells JOHN EGBOKHAN in this interview that Nigeria
would have had a better outing at the World Cup in Brazil if Coach Stephen
Keshi had worked with a team of technical experts working in the backroom.
The 2014 World Cup has entered the
quarterfinal stage , with no African team featuring amongst the eight surviving
teams in the tournament. African champions, the Super Eagles crashed out in the
second round, leaving in its wake tales of woes for many Nigerians, who were
expecting the team to do better.
What s your professional assessment
of our perfoamcne at the World Cup?
I feel that we as a people should
properly situate what we want to achieve in our life. I feel sad when I hear
people say that we did well at the World Cup. I also feel sad to see that
Nigerians are contented with just being amongst the participants in major
tournaments like the World Cup.
I strongly believe that if we do the
right things that we should be winning the World Cup. In 1994, after the USA
World Cup, we were ranked the fifth best team in the world. We were highly
regarded then but now the story has changed for the worse. And the reason for
our decline is complacency. Nigerians are so complacent. We are where we are
because we are not doing the right things. And doing the right things is very
simple. We should also be ambitious enough to play in the semifinals of the
World Cup. And our ambition should be backed with action.
Was the team to the World Cup in
Brazil not ambitous enough?
Many factors came into play to
determine the degree of ambition of the team. And to arrive at the right
answer, I am looking at the facilitating factors and predisposing factors. The
Nigeria Football Federation gave the team all that they required to have a
succesful World Cup. Six top friendly matches were organsied, camping was
top-notch, all the monies due the players were promptly and fully paid to
ensure that the team focussed on the task of excelling in Brazil. The only
money that was not paid was the FIFA appearance fee, which normally comes out
from FIFA some four months after the end of the tournament.
So I was shocked when reports of
players agitating for their share of the FIFA appearance fee came out.
Conventional wisdom would dictate that when there is agitation in a team, one
should also look at the top in determining who is behind what. It is also
common knowledge that some persons on the technical crew knew that they would be
out of job after the World Cup and aware of the bureaucracy in government, fear
that their share of the appearance fee was not going to get to them when they
would be out of service.
So if there is agitation in the
team, the first person to point at is the coaches because when any money is
paid, they also get a bigger chunk of it. I would not go further than that.
The predisposing factors are the
NFF, who gave the team all the supprrt to succeed. They also provided a
200-seater aeroplane to take Nigerian officials around in Brazil to watch the
Super Eagles matches. The facilitating factors are the coaches and what they
bring to the team. I do not have anything against Keshi. He has done so well
for Nigeria. He remains the first Nigerian to win the Nations Cup as a player
and a coach. The records are there, But I feel that he should also come down
from his high horse and show respect to the NFF, who are his employeer and who
have done a lot to make him succeed.
We failed to go further in Brazil
because our coaches did not adopt the scientific approach to winning matches.
Football has gone beyond having a coaching crew on the bench. The trend now is
to have the technical backroom staff, peopled by expert coaches, who win
matches from the bench.
I give you an example. Berti Vogts
was the head of the backroom of the USA team at the World Cup. The story was
said in Brazil that during the match against Ghana, that when the Ghanaians
equalised, that Klinsmann, who is the coach of the USA team, quickly sent a
message to Vogts to analyse the last five minutes of the match. Vogts responded
that one of the Ghanaian defenders was limping and that they should exploit his
side, which the USA team did and scored the winner. Klinsmann did this because
he recognises that he does not see the things that other technical experts
could see from afar. And that is largely because a coach is only thinking of
winning and what his players are doing. He hardly sees the defects and
strong-points of his opponents. That is why nearly all the teams at the World
Cup have the technical backroom staff. But Nigeria did not have that and that
was because Keshi did not want it. He thought that they were going to take his
job away and we all saw in Brazil that it could have been very different if we had
such technical experts in the backroom, advising Keshi during match days or
even before.
Another example is the injury of
Ogenyi Onazi. That was not accidental. It was a deliberate plan by the French
backroom staff, who saw Onazi as the only threat to their ambition to reach the
next round. Ahmed Musa shone like a star in the first half but was taken out in
the second half by the French players, who crowded him and made him
ineffective. That is the work of the backroom staff . Football has gone scientific
but we went to Brazil with analogue system.
I also observed during the short
stay in Brazil that we were the only team, whose players warmed up before the
start of matches without the coaches around to watch and take notes. I may be
wrong on this but I saw the French team warm up with their coaches watching and
guiding them.
Another issue that cannot be brushed
aside is the perceived friction between Keshi and NFF. Keshi should realise
that the NFF are his employers. Aminu Maigari is accessible. Green is also
accessible, so I wonder where the friction is coming from. Keshi should respect
the NFF and the NFF should also respect the Sports Minister. Respect is
reciprocal.
Keshi has succeeded based on the
support he got from the NFF. Look at the game against Ethiopia, we were 10
minutes from losing when we scored two goals. That is the case of the hand of
God.
To succeed at the global stage,
Keshi must come down from his high horse by building his own capacity and there
are many windows to do it. There are several FIFA coaching courses and
internship courses with top European clubs.
But aside that, we need to have a
technical backroom crew. Dr. John Oganwon, who was the first graduate to play
for the Eagles, watched the Eagles match against Argentina with me, Fanny Amun
and Shuaibu Amodu. Amun wrote a script of how Argentina would play and score
their goals and it turned out that what he wrote down came to pass. I was now
wondering why these guys were not helping Keshi as backroom staff but was told
that Keshi said he did not want any help from any backroom staff.
People had mindset before going to
the World Cup. What was Keshi’s plan at the World Cup? Was it to win the
trophy? If his plans were to win the World Cup or develop our team for the
future, we would have said said yes, we tried. If he wanted to win the World
Cup, he would have gone with Obafemi Martins, Ikechukwu Uche and Ogbuke Obasi
because they are all match winners. I watched Obasi in action for his Schalke
during my trip to Germany and saw how he laid the assist that led to the first
goal and scored a beautiful goal, which made me call Keshi to ask if he was
watching the game and taking note of Obasi’s contributions and he said yes. But
I was shocked when these guys were not included in the team to Brazil for the
World Cup. Obasi was hot this season.
If Keshi wanted to develop and build
for the future, he would have stuck with the team that won the Nations Cup.
Players like Sunday Mba should have been taken to Brazil. How can one reconcile
the fact that a player who was dropped by a club in Scotland, was taken to the
World Cup. That was Reuben Gabriel. There are many things that are
inexplicable. We should go beyond this notion that we have tried our best
because we are blessed with talents ard should be doing better than what we did
in Brazil. Keshi knows better and we demand improved results from him.
But he has come out to say that he
would never coach the Super Eagles again
That is an unfortunate statement to
make but it might just be good news for Nigeria. But Keshi must remember that
this country has been good to him and he got so much from this country, from
the corporate sponsors and business moguls and the generality of Nigerians. So
for him to make such statement is just unfortunate. Even Delta State, where
Keshi hails from has appreciated his contributions to our sports development.
The stadium in Asaba was named after him. Capacity building is key to success
in sports. In Delta State, we regularly organise capacity training courses.
About three weeks ago, we brought in a former assistant coach of Arsenal to
Delta State to help train our coaches, referees and athletes.
And the person making these things
to happen is Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan, who in 2007, sent a bill to the State
House of Assembly for the establishment of the Delta State Sports Commission,
peopled by sports technocrats. Our orientation is just sports and that is why
we are where we are in sports in the country. If we are not winning, we are
dominating or amongst the top contenders. That is the legacy of the Uduaghan
administration and we got this far based on capacity buildibng. Which is what
we are recommending to the NFF leadership.
In going forward, what practical
steps should the NFF take?
We should start planning on how we
would reach the final of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, not the 1918 version in
Russia. And the players that won the FIFA U-17 World Cup in UAE in 2013 should
form the bulk of the team. NFF should through their coaches monitor them well
and we should go for a new coach, preferably a foreign coach because he does
not have any afinity with anyone here. And the coach must not be in the mould
of the Luis van Gaal of the world. All we need is a determined, hardworking and
career-driven coach, who will deliver on the results that we earnestly dream
of.
Chairman
of the Delta State Sports Commission, Pinnich Amaju tells JOHN EGBOKHAN
in this interview that Nigeria would have had a better outing at the
World Cup in Brazil if Coach Stephen Keshi had worked with a team of
technical experts working in the backroom.
The 2014 World Cup has entered the quarterfinal stage , with no African team featuring amongst the eight surviving teams in the tournament. African champions, the Super Eagles crashed out in the second round, leaving in its wake tales of woes for many Nigerians, who were expecting the team to do better.
What s your professional assessment of our perfoamcne at the World Cup?
I feel that we as a people should properly situate what we want to achieve in our life. I feel sad when I hear people say that we did well at the World Cup. I also feel sad to see that Nigerians are contented with just being amongst the participants in major tournaments like the World Cup.
I strongly believe that if we do the right things that we should be winning the World Cup. In 1994, after the USA World Cup, we were ranked the fifth best team in the world. We were highly regarded then but now the story has changed for the worse. And the reason for our decline is complacency. Nigerians are so complacent. We are where we are because we are not doing the right things. And doing the right things is very simple. We should also be ambitious enough to play in the semifinals of the World Cup. And our ambition should be backed with action.
Was the team to the World Cup in Brazil not ambitous enough?
Many factors came into play to determine the degree of ambition of the team. And to arrive at the right answer, I am looking at the facilitating factors and predisposing factors. The Nigeria Football Federation gave the team all that they required to have a succesful World Cup. Six top friendly matches were organsied, camping was top-notch, all the monies due the players were promptly and fully paid to ensure that the team focussed on the task of excelling in Brazil. The only money that was not paid was the FIFA appearance fee, which normally comes out from FIFA some four months after the end of the tournament.
So I was shocked when reports of players agitating for their share of the FIFA appearance fee came out. Conventional wisdom would dictate that when there is agitation in a team, one should also look at the top in determining who is behind what. It is also common knowledge that some persons on the technical crew knew that they would be out of job after the World Cup and aware of the bureaucracy in government, fear that their share of the appearance fee was not going to get to them when they would be out of service.
So if there is agitation in the team, the first person to point at is the coaches because when any money is paid, they also get a bigger chunk of it. I would not go further than that.
The predisposing factors are the NFF, who gave the team all the supprrt to succeed. They also provided a 200-seater aeroplane to take Nigerian officials around in Brazil to watch the Super Eagles matches. The facilitating factors are the coaches and what they bring to the team. I do not have anything against Keshi. He has done so well for Nigeria. He remains the first Nigerian to win the Nations Cup as a player and a coach. The records are there, But I feel that he should also come down from his high horse and show respect to the NFF, who are his employeer and who have done a lot to make him succeed.
We failed to go further in Brazil because our coaches did not adopt the scientific approach to winning matches. Football has gone beyond having a coaching crew on the bench. The trend now is to have the technical backroom staff, peopled by expert coaches, who win matches from the bench.
I give you an example. Berti Vogts was the head of the backroom of the USA team at the World Cup. The story was said in Brazil that during the match against Ghana, that when the Ghanaians equalised, that Klinsmann, who is the coach of the USA team, quickly sent a message to Vogts to analyse the last five minutes of the match. Vogts responded that one of the Ghanaian defenders was limping and that they should exploit his side, which the USA team did and scored the winner. Klinsmann did this because he recognises that he does not see the things that other technical experts could see from afar. And that is largely because a coach is only thinking of winning and what his players are doing. He hardly sees the defects and strong-points of his opponents. That is why nearly all the teams at the World Cup have the technical backroom staff. But Nigeria did not have that and that was because Keshi did not want it. He thought that they were going to take his job away and we all saw in Brazil that it could have been very different if we had such technical experts in the backroom, advising Keshi during match days or even before.
Another example is the injury of Ogenyi Onazi. That was not accidental. It was a deliberate plan by the French backroom staff, who saw Onazi as the only threat to their ambition to reach the next round. Ahmed Musa shone like a star in the first half but was taken out in the second half by the French players, who crowded him and made him ineffective. That is the work of the backroom staff . Football has gone scientific but we went to Brazil with analogue system.
I also observed during the short stay in Brazil that we were the only team, whose players warmed up before the start of matches without the coaches around to watch and take notes. I may be wrong on this but I saw the French team warm up with their coaches watching and guiding them.
Another issue that cannot be brushed aside is the perceived friction between Keshi and NFF. Keshi should realise that the NFF are his employers. Aminu Maigari is accessible. Green is also accessible, so I wonder where the friction is coming from. Keshi should respect the NFF and the NFF should also respect the Sports Minister. Respect is reciprocal.
Keshi has succeeded based on the support he got from the NFF. Look at the game against Ethiopia, we were 10 minutes from losing when we scored two goals. That is the case of the hand of God.
To succeed at the global stage, Keshi must come down from his high horse by building his own capacity and there are many windows to do it. There are several FIFA coaching courses and internship courses with top European clubs.
But aside that, we need to have a technical backroom crew. Dr. John Oganwon, who was the first graduate to play for the Eagles, watched the Eagles match against Argentina with me, Fanny Amun and Shuaibu Amodu. Amun wrote a script of how Argentina would play and score their goals and it turned out that what he wrote down came to pass. I was now wondering why these guys were not helping Keshi as backroom staff but was told that Keshi said he did not want any help from any backroom staff.
People had mindset before going to the World Cup. What was Keshi’s plan at the World Cup? Was it to win the trophy? If his plans were to win the World Cup or develop our team for the future, we would have said said yes, we tried. If he wanted to win the World Cup, he would have gone with Obafemi Martins, Ikechukwu Uche and Ogbuke Obasi because they are all match winners. I watched Obasi in action for his Schalke during my trip to Germany and saw how he laid the assist that led to the first goal and scored a beautiful goal, which made me call Keshi to ask if he was watching the game and taking note of Obasi’s contributions and he said yes. But I was shocked when these guys were not included in the team to Brazil for the World Cup. Obasi was hot this season.
If Keshi wanted to develop and build for the future, he would have stuck with the team that won the Nations Cup. Players like Sunday Mba should have been taken to Brazil. How can one reconcile the fact that a player who was dropped by a club in Scotland, was taken to the World Cup. That was Reuben Gabriel. There are many things that are inexplicable. We should go beyond this notion that we have tried our best because we are blessed with talents ard should be doing better than what we did in Brazil. Keshi knows better and we demand improved results from him.
But he has come out to say that he would never coach the Super Eagles again
That is an unfortunate statement to make but it might just be good news for Nigeria. But Keshi must remember that this country has been good to him and he got so much from this country, from the corporate sponsors and business moguls and the generality of Nigerians. So for him to make such statement is just unfortunate. Even Delta State, where Keshi hails from has appreciated his contributions to our sports development. The stadium in Asaba was named after him. Capacity building is key to success in sports. In Delta State, we regularly organise capacity training courses. About three weeks ago, we brought in a former assistant coach of Arsenal to Delta State to help train our coaches, referees and athletes.
And the person making these things to happen is Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan, who in 2007, sent a bill to the State House of Assembly for the establishment of the Delta State Sports Commission, peopled by sports technocrats. Our orientation is just sports and that is why we are where we are in sports in the country. If we are not winning, we are dominating or amongst the top contenders. That is the legacy of the Uduaghan administration and we got this far based on capacity buildibng. Which is what we are recommending to the NFF leadership.
In going forward, what practical steps should the NFF take?
We should start planning on how we would reach the final of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, not the 1918 version in Russia. And the players that won the FIFA U-17 World Cup in UAE in 2013 should form the bulk of the team. NFF should through their coaches monitor them well and we should go for a new coach, preferably a foreign coach because he does not have any afinity with anyone here. And the coach must not be in the mould of the Luis van Gaal of the world. All we need is a determined, hardworking and career-driven coach, who will deliver on the results that we earnestly dream of.
- See more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/07/keshi-got-wrong-brazil-amaju/#sthash.YbRYWxMI.dpuf
The 2014 World Cup has entered the quarterfinal stage , with no African team featuring amongst the eight surviving teams in the tournament. African champions, the Super Eagles crashed out in the second round, leaving in its wake tales of woes for many Nigerians, who were expecting the team to do better.
What s your professional assessment of our perfoamcne at the World Cup?
I feel that we as a people should properly situate what we want to achieve in our life. I feel sad when I hear people say that we did well at the World Cup. I also feel sad to see that Nigerians are contented with just being amongst the participants in major tournaments like the World Cup.
I strongly believe that if we do the right things that we should be winning the World Cup. In 1994, after the USA World Cup, we were ranked the fifth best team in the world. We were highly regarded then but now the story has changed for the worse. And the reason for our decline is complacency. Nigerians are so complacent. We are where we are because we are not doing the right things. And doing the right things is very simple. We should also be ambitious enough to play in the semifinals of the World Cup. And our ambition should be backed with action.
Pinnich Amaju
Many factors came into play to determine the degree of ambition of the team. And to arrive at the right answer, I am looking at the facilitating factors and predisposing factors. The Nigeria Football Federation gave the team all that they required to have a succesful World Cup. Six top friendly matches were organsied, camping was top-notch, all the monies due the players were promptly and fully paid to ensure that the team focussed on the task of excelling in Brazil. The only money that was not paid was the FIFA appearance fee, which normally comes out from FIFA some four months after the end of the tournament.
So I was shocked when reports of players agitating for their share of the FIFA appearance fee came out. Conventional wisdom would dictate that when there is agitation in a team, one should also look at the top in determining who is behind what. It is also common knowledge that some persons on the technical crew knew that they would be out of job after the World Cup and aware of the bureaucracy in government, fear that their share of the appearance fee was not going to get to them when they would be out of service.
So if there is agitation in the team, the first person to point at is the coaches because when any money is paid, they also get a bigger chunk of it. I would not go further than that.
The predisposing factors are the NFF, who gave the team all the supprrt to succeed. They also provided a 200-seater aeroplane to take Nigerian officials around in Brazil to watch the Super Eagles matches. The facilitating factors are the coaches and what they bring to the team. I do not have anything against Keshi. He has done so well for Nigeria. He remains the first Nigerian to win the Nations Cup as a player and a coach. The records are there, But I feel that he should also come down from his high horse and show respect to the NFF, who are his employeer and who have done a lot to make him succeed.
We failed to go further in Brazil because our coaches did not adopt the scientific approach to winning matches. Football has gone beyond having a coaching crew on the bench. The trend now is to have the technical backroom staff, peopled by expert coaches, who win matches from the bench.
I give you an example. Berti Vogts was the head of the backroom of the USA team at the World Cup. The story was said in Brazil that during the match against Ghana, that when the Ghanaians equalised, that Klinsmann, who is the coach of the USA team, quickly sent a message to Vogts to analyse the last five minutes of the match. Vogts responded that one of the Ghanaian defenders was limping and that they should exploit his side, which the USA team did and scored the winner. Klinsmann did this because he recognises that he does not see the things that other technical experts could see from afar. And that is largely because a coach is only thinking of winning and what his players are doing. He hardly sees the defects and strong-points of his opponents. That is why nearly all the teams at the World Cup have the technical backroom staff. But Nigeria did not have that and that was because Keshi did not want it. He thought that they were going to take his job away and we all saw in Brazil that it could have been very different if we had such technical experts in the backroom, advising Keshi during match days or even before.
Another example is the injury of Ogenyi Onazi. That was not accidental. It was a deliberate plan by the French backroom staff, who saw Onazi as the only threat to their ambition to reach the next round. Ahmed Musa shone like a star in the first half but was taken out in the second half by the French players, who crowded him and made him ineffective. That is the work of the backroom staff . Football has gone scientific but we went to Brazil with analogue system.
I also observed during the short stay in Brazil that we were the only team, whose players warmed up before the start of matches without the coaches around to watch and take notes. I may be wrong on this but I saw the French team warm up with their coaches watching and guiding them.
Another issue that cannot be brushed aside is the perceived friction between Keshi and NFF. Keshi should realise that the NFF are his employers. Aminu Maigari is accessible. Green is also accessible, so I wonder where the friction is coming from. Keshi should respect the NFF and the NFF should also respect the Sports Minister. Respect is reciprocal.
Keshi has succeeded based on the support he got from the NFF. Look at the game against Ethiopia, we were 10 minutes from losing when we scored two goals. That is the case of the hand of God.
To succeed at the global stage, Keshi must come down from his high horse by building his own capacity and there are many windows to do it. There are several FIFA coaching courses and internship courses with top European clubs.
But aside that, we need to have a technical backroom crew. Dr. John Oganwon, who was the first graduate to play for the Eagles, watched the Eagles match against Argentina with me, Fanny Amun and Shuaibu Amodu. Amun wrote a script of how Argentina would play and score their goals and it turned out that what he wrote down came to pass. I was now wondering why these guys were not helping Keshi as backroom staff but was told that Keshi said he did not want any help from any backroom staff.
People had mindset before going to the World Cup. What was Keshi’s plan at the World Cup? Was it to win the trophy? If his plans were to win the World Cup or develop our team for the future, we would have said said yes, we tried. If he wanted to win the World Cup, he would have gone with Obafemi Martins, Ikechukwu Uche and Ogbuke Obasi because they are all match winners. I watched Obasi in action for his Schalke during my trip to Germany and saw how he laid the assist that led to the first goal and scored a beautiful goal, which made me call Keshi to ask if he was watching the game and taking note of Obasi’s contributions and he said yes. But I was shocked when these guys were not included in the team to Brazil for the World Cup. Obasi was hot this season.
If Keshi wanted to develop and build for the future, he would have stuck with the team that won the Nations Cup. Players like Sunday Mba should have been taken to Brazil. How can one reconcile the fact that a player who was dropped by a club in Scotland, was taken to the World Cup. That was Reuben Gabriel. There are many things that are inexplicable. We should go beyond this notion that we have tried our best because we are blessed with talents ard should be doing better than what we did in Brazil. Keshi knows better and we demand improved results from him.
But he has come out to say that he would never coach the Super Eagles again
That is an unfortunate statement to make but it might just be good news for Nigeria. But Keshi must remember that this country has been good to him and he got so much from this country, from the corporate sponsors and business moguls and the generality of Nigerians. So for him to make such statement is just unfortunate. Even Delta State, where Keshi hails from has appreciated his contributions to our sports development. The stadium in Asaba was named after him. Capacity building is key to success in sports. In Delta State, we regularly organise capacity training courses. About three weeks ago, we brought in a former assistant coach of Arsenal to Delta State to help train our coaches, referees and athletes.
And the person making these things to happen is Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan, who in 2007, sent a bill to the State House of Assembly for the establishment of the Delta State Sports Commission, peopled by sports technocrats. Our orientation is just sports and that is why we are where we are in sports in the country. If we are not winning, we are dominating or amongst the top contenders. That is the legacy of the Uduaghan administration and we got this far based on capacity buildibng. Which is what we are recommending to the NFF leadership.
In going forward, what practical steps should the NFF take?
We should start planning on how we would reach the final of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, not the 1918 version in Russia. And the players that won the FIFA U-17 World Cup in UAE in 2013 should form the bulk of the team. NFF should through their coaches monitor them well and we should go for a new coach, preferably a foreign coach because he does not have any afinity with anyone here. And the coach must not be in the mould of the Luis van Gaal of the world. All we need is a determined, hardworking and career-driven coach, who will deliver on the results that we earnestly dream of.
- See more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/07/keshi-got-wrong-brazil-amaju/#sthash.YbRYWxMI.dpuf
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