Foremost facility expert, Ebi Egbe has warned that the sorry state of pitches across the country will continue to affect sports development adversely if the authorities continue to neglect them.
Egbe in this exclusive interview said that no national foreign coach would invite home based players to the national teams as they usually play on undulating surfaces.
He observed that some of these pitches are so bad that they appear as if they are not meant for football in the first place. “Whenever I see our players play on these pitches on TV, I want to cry. Nigeria is too advanced for all these things that are happening to our football. If you bring the best coaches to Nigeria to coach the national team, it’s going to be so difficult for him to pick even the highest goal scorer in the Nigeria Professional Football League because of our playing surface. The coach can only pick goalkeepers. Don’t forget that our national team coaches don’t have time to start teaching our local players how to control the ball on zero undulating because most competitions we go to are being played on zero undulating surfaces.”
The facility specialist further warned that local players might not be able to stamp their places in the national teams even in the next 50 years unless investment are made on playing surfaces to help these talents enjoy the proper standard pitches required for their development.