By Patrick Omorodion
These are not ordinary times for the Nigeria Professional League (NPL) as well as its President, Chief Oyuki Obaseki, following the scandalous 9-0 result recorded by Zamfara United Football Club of Gusau against Kaduna United on the last day of the 2008/2009 season.
Obaseki
Going by the result posted by the NPL all through the season, the best results recorded by Zamfara United before the scandalous 9-0 were those recorded against Kano Pillars and Akwa United.
At the beginning of the season last September, Zamfara handed Pillars a 3-1 spanking and waited until March this year before it recorded its best result, 3-0 against Akwa United. During the course of the year, they even lost a home match against visiting Gateway Football Club of Abeokuta by 1-2 on January 18, 2009.
If a club which had a poor run all through the season and were on the verge of being relegated could wake up and pound Kaduna United, who were at the middle of the pack, 9-0, then something must have been amiss.
Two seasons ago, Akwa United Football Club of Uyo were caught in the same quagmire and needed 13-0 to remain in the elite club of football teams, they got it and heavens did not fall. The club and Akwa Ibom State sports council defended the result, claiming it was possible, as the team worked hard for it.
The probe instituted by the league body came out with a no-case-verdict and Akwa United remained on stream for Premier League action. Surprisingly, the same ‘fraud’ has caught up with them, sending them back to the lower division and they have shamelessly filed a protest on the 9-0 result of Zamfara United against Kaduna United.
Even though people should not shed a tear for the Akwa Ibom team, commonsense calls for the NPL to probe the scandal because if they fail to do something about it like it was with Akwa United two seasons ago, then it would not be wrong to predict the death of the league in Nigeria in a matter of time.
When match-fixing
occurred in Italy, the issue was properly investigated and the clubs, Juventus and AC Milan, high profile clubs for that matter, were not spared. Italian football was the best for that decision, as the national team rose from the ashes of that national disgrace to lift the 2006 World Cup in Germany.
Last December during a parley with sports journalists at the Airport Hotel in Ikeja, Chief Obaseki, leading his team at the NPL said “the league has had its challenges, but the difference is that we at the league have not allowed those challenges to overwhelm us. We have seen them as the tonic and that is why we have been able to wax strong with great strides and feats.”
I guess that Chief Obaseki, a.k.a. Moving Train, is allowing the Zamfara scandal to overwhelm him already against his pronouncement last December by saying that nothing will come out of the probe. No matter the involvement of two of his board members in the two cheating clubs, Chief Obaseki, if he wants the Nigerian League to retain its reputation as shown by the recent rating by FIFA, must investigate this scandalous results, the amount to be spent doing so notwithstanding.
great nation, good people indeed! why do we Nigerians love fraud? why do we have such a low capacity to be sincere? must we rig everything? is obaseki still wondering why Nigerians dont watch his league of criminal officiating, hooliganism and den of match fixers! kudos to the shameless akwa united atleast they can still recognise match fixing, even if obaseki’s NFL does not have the ability to do so. Oh God pls give us men that can say and stand for truth, cos we too many of them stand for only monetary gains. So that this dying league will not end up in the burial ground. Amen.
lets not talk about nemesis here, the leagues reputation is at stake. if obaseki cant see this, then he should take a bow. last years case against akwa united should be reopened and the case of zamfara be investigated and all teams punished severelly as a deterrant. does obaseki expect someone to come say the match was fixed before he knows it was actually fixed?
9ja people like and condone fraud a lot that is why it thrives well in the country. In other countries both the losing and the winning teams should have been punished gravely to forestall its re-occurence. What happend two seasons ago was that everybody looked the other way therefore the foundation for more daylight robbries was layed solidly. No, Nnaemeka! ‘The evil that men do’ lives with ‘them’ these days. That is why nemises caught up with akwa united. Now they’re crying foul. Haba akwa, shame on you! The 9ja mentality of winner takes it all works against development of any kind and in all fields. We have to change this and float, or live it and sink with it, period.
Okay.
It’s a pity that these shows of shame are striving in Nigeria Premier League (NPL). Still, the organisers expect us to spend our time to watch such rubbish.I believe this case of match fixing should be properly investigated before NPL is buried, because it’s already dead.
Good luck.
It is said that:’The evil that men do lives after them’.Akwa United had set an ugly precedent last 2 seasons and Zamfara United has now judicially noticed that precedent.So,Akwa United should &will not be heard to complain.The NPL made a judgement in per curiam but nonetheless stood by it.Now,i urge them to follow that decision as the present case is on all fours with that of Akwa United.