Ex-international Jide Oguntuase says that the national team will continue to post poor performance until such a time the NFF and the coaching crew realise the importance of considering the country’s domestic league in picking players that will be part of the Super Eagles. He told The Catholic Herald Sports that it’s unfortunate that the football house has neglected home based players, concentrating all their attention on those plying their trade abroad even when such persons are playing in very low Leagues which he says negatively affects the development of the country’s football. “I have said it on many occasions that we must believe in what we have. We have quality players in our Local League but unfortunately once you”re not playing outside the shores of this country, nobody will be interested in inviting you to the national team which to me is absurd”, began the one time Plateau United winger. “When the forner Super Eagles handler, Gernot Rohr was in charge, I told everybody who cares to listen that so long as the FrancoGerman tactician continues to rely solely on foreign based professionals, he might not succeed and at the end I was vindicated. “

I”m also telling Nigerians now that the new Super Eagles Gaffer, Portuguese Jose Paseiro may also not succeed because of over reliance on foreign based professionals and this has started showing in the international friendly matches he has played with the team. “I expect him to visit our League venues on a regular basis or even send his assistants there in his absence and from there he can discover good players that will become part of the national team. ” As a person who has been on the system, I discovered that most of these foreign based professionals are not totally committed when playing for Nigeria unlike the home based players that will be ready to die on the field of play because they want to make name for themselves “, he stressed. The former Flying Eagles and Super Eagles player also carpeted the idea of the country’s foreign technical adviser not residing in the country noting that such an arrangement will not give him the opportunity to have a proper assessment of the players in the domestic League. “I’m yet to understand why the NFF will employ a coach and allow him to be operating from abroad. The ideal thing is for the coach to live here to enable him understand fully our environment, culture and mindset and with that visit or deploy his assistants to visit League venues regularly to scout for quality players and I want our football administrators to critically review this issue,” he concluded.

NSF: Yusuf Alli urges Edo athletes to shun drugs

As the 21st National Sports Festival holding in Asaba, Delta State, gets underway, the chairman of the Edo Sports Commission, Yusuf Alli has charged Edo State athletes to shun the temptation of drug abuse during the Festival. Speaking at a well attended meeting with athletes at the Samuel Ogbemudia’s Stadium before the team’s departure, Alli advised the athletes to refrain from buying drugs from patent medicine stores as that may lead to the use of prohibited drugs that could ruin their career. Alli, a former African long jump record holder stated that self medication has ruined the career of many athletes in the past. He explained that the State Sports Commission has a number of qualified medical personnel who could attend to any of their health issues. Thanking coaches and handlers of various Sports Associations for taking it upon themselves to camp athletes even when money was yet to be released by the State Government, the chairman maintained that in due time, whatever is owed them in terms of welfare would be given to them immediately money is made available. He charged them to be disciplined, shun rumour mongering and work as a team so as to achieve the desired result at the Festival. On rewards for medalists, the chairman noted that the Commission is working out the formular so as to avoid the pit-fall of short-changing some medalists at the end of the competition. According to him efforts will be made to work out what each medalist will get to avoid the mistakes of the past “I have been briefed on how medalists were short-changed during rewards in the past. We are going to ensure that before we leave for Asaba, we are going to document what each medalist will get from the government.” On monitoring of medals, he challenged the state sports monitoring team to be alive to their responsibility on monitoring activities as over 29 medals were stolen in connivance with some Edo state sports officials during the last sports festival hosted in Benin City