New Telegraph 
A former Green Eagles player Felix Owolabi and veteran journalist Kunle Solaja are unhappy Nigerians, especially the youths are not keen on following local football, saying efforts should be put in place to ensure they are lured to the stadia to watch the domestic leagues. According to Owolabi, the destiny of football of any country lies in the strength of its local league, lamenting that it is bad that virtually all the players in the senior national teams ply their trade abroad with little or no provision for those who play in the domestic league.
He said such development was alien to them during their era, suggesting that the rot in country’s football gave birth to such ugly development and that further eroded the interest of Nigerians in local football. “We need to educate ourselves that football is not just about victory and entertainment, it is also involves empowerment; which should not come from the government only but also from the people. For instance, Atletico Madrid, a club in Spain, made sure that majority of the players in that team are from the community not from outside so they do not go outside to buy players and they are performing well,” he said.
“There are some of these companies that want to come into sports business but because the government has the capacity to cage them, they are entertaining fear and we all know that the government is the backbone of everything once they say they don’t want you that is the end if they want to accept you, they will accept you.” Solaja corroborated the ex-international’s view when he said, “Our football isn’t appealing anymore and our home grounds are devoid of stars like in the 80s when you can point out the likes of Segun Odegbami, Christian Chukwu and others; virtually all the top clubs then had stars. “I must confess that officiating is also one of the problems and it is not surprising Nigerian officials are not considered for international matches as they do in other times just because the level of our football has also reflected in the officiating.
“There is also dearth of facilities; I am not saying that clubs should own stadiums like they do in Britain, for instance, but in a league like Serie A, the clubs are owned by the government. For example, the San Siro stadium is owned by a local government there and that is the home ground that is shared between AC Milan and Inter Milan and that seems to be what we are running here, so it is not the issue of government that matters but what matters is what we make up from the grounds” he said.
He urged an improvement in the quality of football, noting that once it is done local clubs will begin to gain recognition again. “If the quality improves, they will also perform well in competitions like CAF Champions League. Furthermore, it is always good to take the government away from sports environment. All they just need to do is to provide the enabling environment which include facilities,” he said.
