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Godwin Izilien! You remember him? He’s the Golden Eaglets’ coach who was accused of extorting money from players during the Under-17 African Championship in the Gambia in 2005. He was also accused of going to the Championship with players whose godfathers had the muscle to cajole the coaching crew.

Looking back at the super flop of the team in the Gambia, Izilien said if he had another opportunity to tinker any of the national teams, he would be wiser.

A typical Nigerian you may say, the coach who spoke to Daily Sunsport in Benin City recently, did not admit that he sacrificed meritocracy on the altar of favoritism while selecting his team for the African Championship, but philosophically said: "My eyes are wide open now.

"What happened in the Gambia in 2005 was an eye opener," Izilien began. "I’m wiser now. And if I have another opportunity to handle any of the national teams, I can’t make such mistakes again. Our outing in Gambia was poor and should better be forgotten. Though the good thing is that it taught me some good lessons in coaching."

Now a coach with relegation-threatened Insurance Football Club of Benin, Izilien has refused to comment on the Gambia disaster since 2005, opting rather to sit on the fence as if all those accusations were baseless.

"I’m very convinced that I made some terrible mistakes in the Gambia in 2005 and I paid so dearly with my job. I refused to talk about the matter since then in spite of all the accusations, because I did not want to rock the boat.

"If I have a second chance to handle any of the national teams now, I would be a better coach. I won’t fall as an easy prey to all those hawks in the football house again.
"I’m a Nigerian and I’m ready to work for my country if I’m called upon again.
"I believe I can still come back as a national coach because I was not given the chance to prove myself with the Under-17 team in 2005."

Don’t bother to ask Izilien if players were imposed on him, as he would say: "I have no comment. Let’s allow the sleeping dog lie. What happened in the Gambia is now history."
The embattled Insurance coach wants the Nigeria Football Association (NFA) to have an implicit confidence in the local coaches. He appealed that the Glass House should never leave the football destiny of this country in the hands of any foreigner again, not even World Cup winners like Felippe Scolari and Fabio Capello!

"The NFA are damn right," he said. "The foreign coaches have failed us. A Nigerian coach would have done better than Berti Vogts at the last Nations Cup in Ghana. For me, our outing in that championship was a national disgrace, even worse than the Gambia debacle.

"Nigeria is blessed with good coaches just as we have abundant players. Any of the indigenous top-class coaches can lead the Super Eagles to a good outing in South Africa in 2010 World Cup. But the NFA must give the coach absolute support for him to succeed."

Looking quite ruffled, Izilien confessed that he had seen the other side of life since 2005, stressing that things had been difficult but he had managed to patch on.
"Coaching the national team is a different ballgame from handling a clubside," he said. "It has been rough handling Insurance FC. And the experience is more harrowing when your team are face-to-face with relegation and you can’t do anything to salvage the situation.
"Football at the local scene is not growing. We can do better if we improve on the pitches," he added.