The Sun News On-line

Former captain of the Green Eagles, Aloysius Atuegbu, has hailed the decision of the Nigeria Football Association (NFA) to form a home-based Super Eagles.
The man whose robust midfield play earned him the sobriquet: ‘Block Buster’, described the development as “the right step in the right direction,” stressing that the team being assembled by Coach Okey Emordi should form the nucleus of the squad that would represent Nigeria at the 2010 World Cup finals in South Africa.

Hear him: “For once, the NFA have taken a bold step to reposition Nigerian football. The decision to form a home-based Super Eagles is the best thing the present NFA have done. I score them 100 per cent for that initiative. This is what I had expected them to do when they came on board.
“I expect that the team being assembled by Coach Emordi would form the bulk of the squad that will represent Nigeria at the World Cup finals in South Africa in 2010.

“The home-based Eagles are made up of players who are hungry to make names for themselves. The foreign-bases Eagles have nothing to offer, because they believe they have arrived since they earn a lot of money at their various clubs in Europe.
“Clemence Westerhof succeeded as Super Eagles’ coach because he used home-based players who were hungry to make names to launch themselves into lucrative careers in Europe. That was how the Dan Amokachis, Finidi Georges and Rashidi Yekinis of this world emerged as superstars,” he recalled.
Atuegbu also hailed the NFA for appointing indigenous coaches to tinker the Super Eagles and the rest of the national teams, while assuring that other indigenous coaches would rally round the national team coaches to ensure they succeed.

“I am happy that the NFA appointed Nigerian coaches to handle the Super Eagles. I have explicit confidence in the abilities of the Shaibu Amodu-led technical crew. I can assure you that the rest of the indigenous coaches in Nigeria will support them. We will give all the national teams coaches our total support. The era of witch-hunting is over. We shall all work together with the national team coaches to ensure they succeed,” he promised.

The head coach of Keffi United assessed the 2007/08 league season and predicted that the Globacom Premier League would witness a photo finish. Although he scored the season 75 per cent success, he advised the NFA and Nigeria Football League (NFL) to improve on the aspects of officiating and security at league venues in the coming season.

“The current league season is the best in recent times because it has been keenly contested. You cannot point the team that will win the Globacom Premier League even with two matches to go. It’s going to be a photo finish. That simply means that our league is improving.
“If you have a good team now, you can win both at home and away unlike before when teams win at all cost when they are playing at home.

“However, the NFA should do more in the aspects of security and officiating. I believe if adequate security arrangements are put in place, our referees will do better. When the referees know that they are protected, they will officiate without fear or favour. I expect that by 2010, we may have about two or three Nigerian referees that will officiate at the World Cup finals.”

The former Mighty Jet of Jos midfielder, however, frowned at the return of the era of boardroom points in the Nigerian League, as witnessed in the current season.
“I am surprised that the era of boardroom points is here again. When the current NFL board came on stream, they said the era of boardroom points was over, but it appears we are back to embrace it again. It is not good for our football development.

“If a club have a genuine reason why points should be awarded to them in the boardroom, they should be given the points. But a situation whereby clubs are punished because a player left a team for another due to poor welfare should not be enough reason for awarding boardroom points to teams. Clubs should not be encouraged to owe players their sign-on fees and other legitimate allowances. Whenever a player is not satisfied with the welfare package in a particular club, he should be allowed to seek for greener pastures elsewhere,” he reasoned.