By Richard Animam
Former NFA Chairman Anthony Kojo Williams was head of Nigeria’s football governing body for few months. Within that period, it was crystal where he wanted football in the country to be. He had lofty ideas, great plans for professional football, and the domestic league which if implemented would have seen Nigeria in football rise.

•ANY HOPE? Super Eagles players discuss during one of the international friendlies before the woeful outing at the World Cup in South Africa.

He also wanted to bring some sanity into the way the game was governed but his fellow board members, did not understand him. They saw what he was doing as  huge and unattainable and quickly got him out of the football body and today, Nigerian football is worse for it.

With all the hullabaloo surrounding football in the country- the NFA election, Super Eagles poor showing at the World Cup, the probe of some NFA board members etc  Saturday Sports called up Williams and as usual, it was vintage Kojo Williams, he said it the way it is.

“As long as we have government both at the federal and state levels in control of football, we would never have professional football in Nigeria.  We would  just be fooling ourselves, our football will continue to be a big joke, a total charade”, he said.

According to him, the way out of this circle of doom in which the country’s football is in now, would be to take football away from state governments. “Look at the way football is run now, all the Premier league clubs are government owned, the NFA is at the mercy of the Sports Ministry cum Federal government and the structure has been like that for years.

“What is happening in Nigeria today is that football is been run by state governments.   The Ministry of Sports is centre of it all. And that at the structure for many years. All the autonomy they claimed has never worked. If you look at the way the previous football body was thrown out, it is clear that the Ministry had a hand in it.

It was the ministry that gave Mr President the wrong advice and the moment they knew what they were doing, they quickly called the State Sports Commissioners and chairmen of state football associations a.k.a stake holders to vote out who they wanted out.
“As long as this goes on, we will be fooling ourselves”, Williams said.