By Rotimi Fasan
AFTER its executive council meeting in Zurich last Wednesday, Nigeria’s Amos Adamu and Reynald Temarii of Tahitii were formally suspended from FIFA. Adamu, Nigeria’s sole representative in FIFA has, along with Temarii, a Vice President of FIFA, been at the centre of a cash-for-votes scandal that is threatening to bring FIFA’s house of corruption down on its head.

Specifically, they’ve been accused of asking for money in exchange for their votes from countries bidding for the hosting rights for the football World Cup in 2018 and 2022. They were busted, allegedly on camera, by undercover reporters.

This is definitely one piece of over-reaching on the part of Adamu should the case be proven against him. His suspension a week ago would appear to suggest this. After years of not particularly distinguished performance as one of Nigeria’s football managers, Amos Adamu’s long romance with FIFA might be entering its last days.

And not too soon for an association which membership looks like the life tenure of a typical African dictator. More on this later. We need not look beyond Nigeria to have an idea of what rot lies beneath FIFA activities.

The management of football in Nigeria has for many years been steeped in corruption but despite calls by Nigerians that things be overhauled, they have remained precisely the way they’d been. No sooner are steps taken in the direction of putting things right than voices get raised by the very people responsible for the rot accusing government of interference.

They say this confident of FIFA’s full backing. In a sense FIFA has, in the last few years, become the main bulwark of support for the corrupt managers of Nigeria’s football. They are quick to invoke its statutes to stymie every attempt to kick them out in order for things to be set right in the long-term interest of our football.

‘FIFA will ban Nigeria. Government is interfering in football!’ they’ll croak to drown the reforming voices of those disgusted with their antics.

When after the Super Eagles’ lacklustre performance in South Africa last June and President Jonathan announced that Nigeria would stay off competitive football for two years in order to put things right, these same elements were loud with their cry of FIFA ban. Ever the obliging headmaster, FIFA wasted no time in wielding the big stick, ready to pounce.

And like a chastised schoolboy the President reversed himself to the apparent joy of those who praised him for possessing a listening ear. They made it all look as if Nigeria needed FIFA’s permission to grow football on her soil.

Even worse, Nigeria was portrayed, not as a sovereign nation with certain inalienable rights, including that of association but as a department of FIFA. No! We fell down abjectly before FIFA. But all of that did not stop FIFA from imposing a stupid ban, again for what was termed government interference, following the flawed NFF election that has since been the subject of litigation.

Of course, the last 12 years, years during which Sepp Blatter, the Swiss-born President of FIFA, has held sway- they’ve been 12 years of increased visibility for African countries in FIFA competitions, culminating in South Africa’s hosting of the World Cup. But they’ve also been 12 years of corruption and dwindling influence, at least at the national level. Nigerian football has been one rolling stone that gathers no moss.

We’ve been stumbling on our feet, from one foolish decision to another.

Like our sports generally, Nigerian football has been totally uninspiring. But unlike the other sports, football has enjoyed far more than its fair share of official support. Money spent on it has, however, been money wasted.

Corruption is a major hindrance to any attempt to develop the game in Nigeria. There is no pretence at creating the right atmosphere necessary for the flourishing of football. It’s the same tired grandfathers that get recycled in the national teams.

Attention is fast shifting to female football which is already manifesting the same maladies associated with male football even though we like to deceive ourselves that the situation here is better than what can be expected from the old men competing against their children’s equals. We want to convince ourselves that the women have taken over even when it’s obvious we say that but only to stir the men’s envy and goad them to better performance.

Female football is in its present state of development, a mere sop to quench our thirst for the real thing from the men.  We are filled with nostalgia for the good old days when Nigerian football inspired pride in us. Not any more.

Yet all that I’ve mentioned, the rot that has been the defining character of Nigerian football couldn’t have festered without the likes of Amos Adamu. Their long association with Nigerian football, if for nothing else but its unproductive longevity, has been a disaster for the development of the game. This is not to crucify Adamu before he is adjudged guilty, but the truth has to be faced.

If things are to change the likes of Adamu should have no place in the game. And there are many of them- people who seem to be permanent managers of football however meagre their contribution has been. The truth also is that the rot in FIFA as in the IOC where officers remain in office for decades can only create room for corruption.

It’s strange how Western countries with all their talk of democracy could condone the kind of dictatorship that goes on in FIFA and the IOC. These institutions are led as if by monarchs whose tenure ends only at death. Sepp Blatter is in his twelfth year as FIFA president. Issa Hayatou has spent nearly 20 years in the saddle as CAF president, and despite failing health as had seen him in and out of hospital in Egypt recently, he has shown no sign that he would want to leave.

In Nigeria, we have seen a former president of the supporters club who, in the best tradition of sit-tight leaders, went on to create an unknown office of president-general after his tenure as president ended. Such is the stuff our football managers are made.

Only scandals as the type presently rocking FIFA can lead to the occasional house cleansing that is necessary for the emergence of a new order. We must for the sanity of football insist on full disclosure and possible sanctioning of anybody found guilty.