Good afternoon Everyone
Can we officially term this an Afternoon blog and treat it as such? I think we should. So going forward, we would dish out an Unai Emery blessed “Good afternoon” as we start the blog. The other news is that after such a long wait, the new League season resumes this weekend.
We will have a season preview tomorrow but my foremost and most important thoughts today are on the CHAN Debacle and what exactly is the issue with our league football. For starters, the ongoing CHAN has been a disaster.
Not totally unexpected and adding Mr. Eric Chelle into the mix makes the “tragedy-waiting-to-happen” even hastier. Our League is plagued by a lot. There is hardly anything about the League that is in the “acceptable” category. Sponsorship, followership, Organization, Welfare, Player/Coaching Development, Branding, TV, etc.
All these work hand in hand toward the final product we show to the world. I’m trying to concisely put my thoughts inside a 500-word blog post but we cannot honestly expect our teams to successfully compete in the Continent unless we build first.
A league that loses its best legs every season cannot be ready to rule Africa. This is why any NPFL team in the Continent cannot get beyond the Group stages of the Competition. The bar is set so low that the target is just making it to the Groups.
Other teams play with the goal to win it. We play to land in the spots that produce money. Money to be invested in the team to build academies and aid development? Nope. Money that gets channeled into people’s pockets.
We aren’t honest about our goals as a footballing country. The likes of Morocco are an envy to all of Africa today because they have invested in their football and all their teams are flexing their muscles. In fact, they were 45 minutes away from yanking the trophy from our girls in July.
We look like fools expecting to grow oranges where apples were planted. Recently, the League Boss, who clearly doesn’t know what he is doing, was advocating for the introduction of VAR. I have a post waiting in my drafts that I will share one day.
The new League season is here and there is no TV for the League. Players are earning as low as $32 per month. Yet we want to flex muscles with teams that even their academy players earn a lot more than that.
The performance at the CHAN should leave us no surprises. Any decent footballer in the League should work hard to ensure they make a good exhibition for themselves when the deals to take them out of the League arrive. Cos as a League, we are merely ticking the boxes – no one is fazed by us. We are horrible.
That’s all I can put together right now. I have a fuller one in the works for another time. Till then, relax, we aren’t beating Africa any time soon. Same goes for the teams playing in the Continent this season.
Back tomorrow
‘EnyimbaEnyi
