'Why there's no future for Nigerian football'

Alabi

Top sports broadcaster with Silverbird TV and Rhythm FM, Jide Alabi, has warned that there’s no future for Nigerian football unless Nigeria itself gets its act together.

Speaking with OOB, Alabi, who started out as a musician before veering into Nollywood and then broadcasting, gave his candid view of Nigerian football. 

“I think it has a long, long way to go. And I also believe that under the present circumstance, as much as efforts are being geared towards getting the best out of the Nigerian league, for as long as the governments are still there, owning and managing club sides, we’re not gonna go anywhere.

“We’ve seen that when it comes to government, people believe that it’s free money and they mess a whole lot of things up. Honestly, I’m one of those people who believe we can float another league entirely  from what we’ve right now that will not allow any government to own any club there, but just businesses and companies owning the clubs that will be run professionally just like the English Premier League and let’s do football business.

“For as long as we don’t see it as business, clubs will continue to owe players, continue to exploit players and a whole lot of things will not work right. It’s always very painful when you hear that a state government is owing a club and you expect the boys to be playing and to win. They (governments) have too much influence. They want to choose the coach and tell the coaches which players to play. Those things are not good for football. You are not serious yet and until you’re ready, you’re not ready.”

Considering he has an idea of how Nigerian football can move forward, OOB asked him if he was doing anything about it or he’s just satisfied with having the idea in his head.

“I’m making a good move about it. I’ve proffered the solution on my programme. I’ll continue to talk about it, continue to propagate it and you don’t stop until you see that objectives are achieved. I’m talking to other people as well. Government is using football as a political tool and we must let them realize football is business, that they cannot run clubs, so they should sell their clubs to private investors or lease them out to people that will manage them properly. And if we don’t do that, oh men, oh men!

“And then the country itself. The roads are so bad. Hardly will you see teams travelling in one month without one accident or the other. They can’t afford to fly and so many things are just not together. But like I always say, if Nigeria gets it right, we will get football right as well.”