Nelson opens up
...why Vogts failed in Scotland
By PAUL EREWUBA
Sunay, February 11, 2007

•Nelson Photo: Sun News Publishing

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Consultant to the Pepsi Football Academy, Ian Nelson, has advised that the new Super Eagles’ foreign Technical Adviser, Berti Vogts, should not be judged by his poor records in his last job as the coach of the Scottish national team.

Vogts was booted out as Scotland coach after he failed to qualify the nation for the European Championship and the last World Cup in Germany.

Critics of the German coach have argued that he’s as good as his last assignment, but Nelson, who is incidentally from Scotland, told Sunday Sunsport in an exclusive interview that Scotland lacked top-class players, which was why Vogts failed there.

Nelson stated that if the German had just half of the talents that are bound in Nigeria, Scotland would have won the World Cup.

He commended the Nigeria Football Association (NFA) for defying all the criticisms to appoint the German, pointing out that his coming was timely in view of the latest scandalous outing of Super Eagles in their last Tuesday’s international friendly match against the Black Stars of Ghana.
“I’m a Scot, and I’m in a position to say that there was little or nothing Vogts could have achieved with the kind of players at his disposal in my country,” Nelson stated in the interview.
He also commented on Flying Eagles’ performance at the last African Youth Championship (AYC) in Congo Brazzaville, describing it as disaster.

“Flying Eagles outing in Congo took us back to the dark ages,” he said. “The NFA must start the process of rebuilding the team immediately. It’s not yet late since the World Youth Championship (WYC) in Canada will begin in June.” Excerpt.

You’ve been an advocate of getting a foreign coach for the Super Eagles, now that Berti Vogts, who incidentally coached your country, Scotland, has been contracted to tinker the Nigerian team, what is your assessment of the German?

Vogts has got briefs for the job he’s to do in the country. We cannot question that. He didn’t do very well with Scotland. By and large, he has been involved in German football. He knows all about World Cup and he is definitely an accredited coach. His stay in Scotland was disappointing, and he failed as a coach. But I would say that he failed because Scotland lacked top-class players.

He couldn’t select good players because there wasn’t a pool of excellent players, which he could use. Most of the players were either from Rangers or Celtic and a coach could be lucky enough to scout one or two good players to play for Scotland, because most of those players were imported. But Vogts didn’t have the strength and depth of talents to select a good team for Scotland. I think that was probably the main reason he didn’t get much success.

Coming to Nigeria, of course, he has got an awful strength and depth of talents to select from, because Nigeria has got a lot of them. There’re more people in Lagos than what you have in Scotland as a country. So, Vogts would have a very wide range of choice in terms of team selection. But one only hopes that he would be able to carry on and make his selections without any interference from some other quarters. Then, of course, he could be judged on the basis of the skills Nigeria has.

I hope he gets free hands. But for sure, Vogts is definitely a good coach.
Beyond that, Vogts needs to know Nigeria, not just understanding the people, but also to develop the game from the youth level. He has to develop the indigenous coaches also. These are the major things he has to do for the country, he has to selection the national team, embark on youth development programmes, starting from the Eaglets to the biggest category and he must develop the indigenous coaches.

If Vogts must get significantly involved in youth development programmes here, he has to live in Nigeria to do that. He has to come up with a programme whereby the NFA can actual run competitions for the basis of selecting young players at different age categories. Then he would have committed himself and his knowledge to this country for the future.
Meanwhile, I advise that the indigenous coaches should be updating their techniques for better recognition.

Yes, I make bold to say that Vogts will contribute quite significantly to the success of football in Nigeria. I’m confident about that, but politics must be played down to enable him deliver.
What do you think about Flying Eagles’ performance at the last AYC in Congo Brazzaville?
I was disappointed. It was like taking us 100 miles back from Siasia’s 2005 team, which won the championship in Africa and went to win silver at the world stage, and they did so well against Argentina in the final.

The recent outing was so disappointing. I wonder if Coach Godwin Uwua had problems in selecting his team. I also doubt the ages of some of those players we saw playing for Nigeria in Congo. I wonder whether the coach was under pressure while selecting his team. Am yet to know. But I’m aware that the team in Congo were not the best Flying Eagles we should have sent out to represent Nigeria in the championship.

What do you suggest we should do now?
We should start a rebuilding process for the Flying Eagles. There is still time, because the WYC in Canada is slated for June. There is still plenty of time to get better players provided the process starts now. Let’s pull together the best talents and make Nigeria proud at Canada 2007.
I think there was a mistake in terms of players’ selection. That’s why everybody is disappointed. There’re a lot of talents in the academies and local leagues within the country; we should work and fish them out.

Meanwhile, we must make sure that the ages of those boys to be selected for the WYC are within the acceptable limit.

Has Globacom been able to lift the standard of our football with their sponsorship drive?
Globacom has made a very significant investment into Nigerian football. The amount they have put into the game is huge, relative to when we did it with Pepsi Pro-League. We would never have considered that sum of money. We equally know that they are bankrolling Berti Vogts’ salaries.
Telecasting our football has been a problem in the country. So, do you think that Globacom would be able to reap what they have sown into the Nigerian football?

I don’t know if Globacom are going to get any payback. It is going to be extremely difficult for them to repeat the huge sum of money involved in the deal if there’re no benefits for the communication giants. Big benefits come from media coverage of league matches. You also get benefits from the huge spectator turnouts at match venues. But we all know that these avenues are no longer feasible in the Nigerian scene.

So, I am worried that Globacom may not break even. It’s a good thing that they put in so much money into the Nigerian League, but I’m worried about the future. Television coverage is purely on satellite, so, where is the benefit coming from?

I implore those who administer Nigerian football to work very hard to help Globacom. They should help to give them something back for their huge investment. But it’s going to be a very tough task.
Moreover, majority of Nigerian soccer fans don’t even know the names of our local players due to lack of television coverage. We don’t even have well-known stars in the local league, who can draw people to stadia, and as you know, it’s stars that attract spectators to match venues. So, it’s really a big challenge!