At this stage of our football history we should be ashamed of the fact that we have few coaches that could stand in for CAF Champions league business.
Alas! Some coaches might have got the experience to mount the podium, but when the required qualifications are not met, you can’t feel what you haven’t imagined.
The earlier we realise the imperative of building the capacity of our coaches the better for the future of our football, for there is a big gap begging to be closed.
It is disheartening to see most of the European players who actually retired from active football few years ago now standing in the dug out for big teams. Their transition has been so easy and facilitated by a modus operandi that prioritize – This part of what continue to give Europe the edge.
It all boils down to our system which makes it so difficult for merit to triumph over undue interference that has formed the bottleneck against a substantial progress. A good structure is bound to be sustainable as you can’t build something on nothing.
Much to this again is that, despite the efforts of some coaches to add to their papers, they are still at the mercy of the authority who refuse to host seminar even after paying the required charges. For some coaches, their resume is filled with ‘in view’- an indication that the programme hasn’t been done or result haven’t been issued.
The first ever CAF ‘A’ license coaching course to hold in Nigeria was in 2016 with a total number of 43 coaches in attendance. Since then, we have not had any similar seminar and now that CAF decided to uphold her standard, we have few hands to throw in.
Even, there were last hour changes in a team on the issue of gaffer while another club was compelled to get a foreigner in other to move at par with the new regulations.
Some coaches alleged that money have been paid for various courses, yet nothing to show for it.
Coaching courses seldom hold and whenever it held, ‘opportunism’ has always placed a burden on the integrity of the excercise which is meant to give the society a good ‘teacher’ that is believed will produce a good ‘student’.
For our coaches, it is a situation of not being able to give what you don’t have and nothing more. Many of them also choose to take advantage of the looseness of the system. How?.
Statutorily, one can only be a coach of all standard in Nigeria by graduating from the National Institute of Sports of any cadre ( Basic, Diploma and Advance Diploma). We have seen many coaches with all the CAF licenses that doesn’t posess any certificate from NIS.
The denial to allow coaches live up to their potentials continue when we talk about how football administrator frustrate their efforts. Could they have even help them when the so called administrator are not qualified to be in such position. Who is even a qualified football administrator? We shall talk about that someday.
In the interest of the future of the game, it is expedient and important for concerned authorities to start prioritising our coaches capacity enhancement and improvement with a lot of programmes.
Only NPFL/Laliga can’t cater for the need to improve our coaching system even as our standard couldn’t give them any substansive job to materialise what they have learned bearing in mind that it is not a ‘workable certificate’.
This is a challenge to the leadership of coaches in Nigeria and the NFF to rise beyond primitive sentiment and create a meritorious blueprint for our coaches to learn through and impact with.