By Jacob Ajom

One of the most expressive pieces of evidence that show that Nigeria football has taken a plunge was the 4-0 humiliation of the Flying Eagles by Argentina U20 national team. That followed a very disturbing development involving Heartland Football Club of Owerri.

During the week, the Nigeria Premier Football League received a jolt from the world football governing body, Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA). One of Nigeria’s most popular football clubs, Heartland of Owerri were slammed with a transfer ban for failing to meet their financial obligations to a former player of the club, N’goran Roland Adjoumani Koffi of the Ivory Coast. With the ban in place, the club can neither buy nor sell players for three transfer seasons.

FIFA Head of Disciplinary, Americo Espallargas in his letter to the Nigerian National League, NNL, outfit Heartland failed to comply with a previous ruling (Ref. No. FPSD-19817) directing them to pay Koffi his outstanding entitlements despite multiple reminders and payment deadlines issued by the world body. “The registration ban will remain active until the amount due is paid and for a maximum duration of up to three entire and consecutive registration periods,” FIFA stated in the correspondence.

The development has, no doubt, exposed the poor manner the Nigerian league and football clubs are being run. In Nigeria players welfare is relegated to the background as players are owed several months while club bosses eat fat. 

Former Chairman of Warri Wolves, Moses Etu said the plight of players plying their trade in the Nigerian league is symptomatic of a derailed system that lacks a structure. This has resulted in impunity and flagrant disregard for contracts between players and clubs. “Worse still, there is no punishment for negative actions by club officials.”

Said Etu, “We are not actually running a professional league in Nigeria. To a large extent we are not. The only improvement I have seen the Owunmi and Honourable Elegbeleye board record is in officiating. Now you can go away and win. I will equally thank the Nigerian football fans who have demonstrated a lot of maturity. Before now, there was no way you could go to Katsina, win a match and come back alive. You could not go to Ibadan and beat Shooting or come to Warri and win a match.”

Commenting on players’ welfare, Etu said, “Players’ welfare? Zero. Honestly, it’s bad. In Nigeria players’ remuneration is very poor. When players come out to talk, people start attacking them. When coaches speak up, they get worked against.

“You’re paying a professional player, in Nigeria’s topflight a paltry N250,000 or N300,000 — including accommodation and you expect him not to complain? With the way things are in the country now, it’s just not realistic. Some clubs go three or four months without paying. 

Sometimes they’ll pay in June and say, ‘We can’t pay July.’ Then maybe you’ll see another payment months later. How do you expect the players to focus and perform like that?”

He recommended that the NPFL board should put stringent measures in place to ensure clubs pay players their dues. “It’s the same way you have compliance officers in banks. Someone should be in charge of that in every club. If a team doesn’t pay, the league body should step in quickly instead of waiting for it to get messy.”

Etu said the FIFA ban on Heartland was an embarrassment to the NPFL board and not a disservice to Nigeria as it has taken an external body like FIFA to tell us that what we are doing is wrong. “It’s embarrassing that things have to reach FIFA before action is taken. If our own system worked properly, we wouldn’t be in that kind of situation. The truth is, we’re not really running a professional league yet. Until we take players’ welfare seriously, we’ll keep facing the same problems year after year.

“First, the league board needs to get serious. Before each season starts, every club should show proof that they can pay their players for the full season. They should submit all contract papers — let’s know what each player is earning. Then the board can assign officials to monitor payments and report if a club defaults.”

He continued, “In Europe you don’t hear about payment of salaries, bonuses and so forth because everything is done seamlessly. Players get what they bargained for and they give back to the clubs what is expected of them.”

It is shameful for us to wait for CAF or FIFA to come and tell us what to do. And it is affecting us seriously. See how our best legs are leaving the country. Look at how poorly our teams are competing in the CAF inter-club competitions. Just yesterday, the Flying Eagles were massacred by Argentina. When they started that team, some players who were with them left through agents. What these agents are doing to Nigerian football is bad. Once a player dorns the green-white jersey, the next moment he is taken away, often ending up in unknown countries just because they want to earn better than what they get here.