Triumph of the Underdogs
By Victor Ugborgu
Monday, August 28, 2006
The big names in the Nigerian league fail to impress as they suffer humiliating defeats in the hands of clubs hitherto regarded as underdogs
Frustration, anger and disappointment was the lot of many big teams in the 2006 Globacom Premier League which ended last week. Enyimba of Aba, Sharks of Port Harcourt, Julius Berger of Abeokuta, Shooting Stars of Ibadan, Lobi Stars of Markurdi and Gombe United, all are still licking the wounds inflicted on them by the underdogs.
Enyimba won the Premier League last year and was expected to perform even better this year. The club recruited more talented players for the task of defending its title and recorded some good result in the early stages of the competition. Suddenly, their fortunes started dwindling and the team could not make the list of the best four teams in the country.
Lobi Stars of Markurdi was another team that started the league with high expectations. The players hoped to perform better than they did in the previous years. They were one of the country's representatives in the CAF Champions League for 2006. Two years ago, they were knocked out in the second round of the Confederation Cup by Green Buffaloes of Zambia. It was based on the need to improve on their past records both in the local league and continental level that Tunde Disu, their coach, mobilised the players for the task ahead of them. "We were able to make Lobi a factor in Nigerian football in 2005, and we are going to build on that for the League and continental competitions. I'm going to evolve different formations that will see us through," Disu boasted.
But when the chips were down, Lobi Stars neither made any impact in the Champions League nor ranked among the first ten teams in the local league. The team may be demoted to the second division judging from the low points they scored in the league.
Another team that disappointed its fans was Sharks of Port Harcourt. Despite the huge amount of money pumped into the team by the Rivers State government, the club could not break even. The team will compete in the lower division next year. Football analysts attributed Sharks woes to the exit of Amodu Shuaibu, the former coach. Shuaibu guided the team to the third place in last year's FA cup, but had to leave the club following a disagreement between him and the state government.
Julius Berger of Abeokuta also disappointed football lovers in the 2006 league season. The bridge boys, as they are popularly called, had a big ambition at the beginning of the season. They set out to improve on their past records. But at the end of the league season, Berger failed woefully and was demoted to the lower division. Many players are yet to come to terms with the demotion of the club. Babatunde Yusuf, captain of the team said it was a painful experience to see their club being relegated to the lower division. "It is very sad for us considering the pedigree of the team in the Nigerian soccer circle. We cannot really adduce any factor for our demotion. But all we know is that we will surely bounce back," he said.
Another big club that could not find its rhythm in the 2006 league was Heartland FC of Owerri. Despite the more than N100 million the Imo State government expended on the club in two months, the management of the club was unable to pay players sign-on fees and other entitlements which affected the morale of the players. The club did not make any impact in both the local league and the CAF Confederation Cup. Their most embarrassing outing was the 5-0 loss to their opponents from Equatorial Guinea. Newswatch learnt that Chris Okewulonu, the coordinator of the team, has been making frantic efforts to persuade the players to stay with the club for the next football season. The players are said to have concluded arrangements to pursue their career in other clubs.
Shooting Stars of Ibadan, Dolphin of Port Harcourt and Gombe United are other examples of disappointing outing in 2006. But it was a different story in camps of Kwara United of Ilorin, Wikki Tourists of Bauchi, Ocean Boys of Delta and Nassarawa United. These clubs emerged the best four teams that will compete for honours in the super four league series. The first and second teams to emerge would represent Nigeria in the 2007 CAF champions competitions.
But sports analysts and administrators have criticised the conduct of the 2006 league. Adegboye Onigbinde, former coach of the Super Eagles said the division of the Premier League into two parts was responsible for the poor performances of some teams. He blamed the Nigerian Football League, NFL, for poor officiating that characterised some matches which led to violence in some venues.
Felix Ayansi-Agwu, chairman of Enyimba said his team's non performance in the league was a calculated attempt by the NFL to pull it down. Agwu criticised the leadership of NFL headed by Onyiuku Obaseki for doing nothing to improve the fortunes of the league despite his trip to England to understudy the English Premiership. "The most disheartening is that our league is not even televised. It is a big shame and an indictment on the people who run the league. If our league games are beamed live, so many fraudulent activities going on in the game will stop," he argued.
Indeed, the 2006 Nigerian league was characterised by surprises, disappointments, intimidations, and incidents of match fixing. Some match officials in a bid to save their lives had to award questionable penalties to home teams to escape the wrath of the restive home fans who wanted victory at all cost. In some other cases, some teams had to play to the gallery to enable their "opponents" qualify for promotion to the next division. For instance, the last pro-league match Akwa United defeated Calabar Rovers 13-0. Newswatch learnt that the "arrangee" football match was to enable Akwa united secure promotion to the premier league. In 2004, Insurance of Benin was on the verge of being relegated to the second division. They badly needed to beat Kano Pillars, their last opponents in the Premier League by a wide margin to qualify for a continental engagement. Insurance went ahead to score seven unreplied goals against Kano pillars. That has been the lot of the Nigerian league over the years which has attracted a lot of criticism.
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