Adekunle Salami 
There was heartwarming news recently from the Nigeria Football Federation with the announcement of CAF B License taking place in Nigeria next month. This is a massive boost for Nigerian coaches to upgrade themselves. It is what many of us have been calling for because there are required standards for the coaches on the continent to attain. Not just any coach can be on the bench for a CAF Confederation Cup match or CAF Champions League match without having the expected certificate. Some Nigerian coaches have been victims in recent times as they took their teams out only for them to operate from the stands. It is shameful. Most of these coaches complain that it takes a whole lot financially to travel out for coaching courses but one would have expected that management of teams in the Nigeria Professional Football League should be sending their coaches out for courses during the break in the season. Proprietor of Remo Stars, Kunle Soname, whose team is now the model for many others in the country, revealed that the management send coaches of the teams to courses abroad regularly. The current coach of Beyond Limits, the youth team of Remo, has been to seven countries for different coaching courses.
As I salute the NFF for this initiative I am also surprised that only 25 slots were provided for the programme. I do not know the yardstick to be used for picking but the number is grossly inadequate for coaches who have been yearning for this. More of this will in the long run impact on the standard of play of our domestic league teams.
The development of coaches is crucial to the game especially because the country’s representatives on the continent on regularly disappoint followers of the game.
In this football season, the continental representatives – Enugu Rangers, Remo Stars, Enyimba, and El-Kanemi Warriors – each received $50,000 from CAF as participation fees in the preliminary stages of the 2024-2025 Champions League and Confederation Cup.
Enugu Rangers and Remo Stars represented Nigeria in the Champions League as the champions and runners-up of the 2023-2024 NPFL campaign, respectively, while Enyimba, who finished third in the league and El Kanemi Warriors, who won the Federation Cup, represented Nigeria in the Confederation Cup
Sadly and as usual, three of the four teams representing Nigeria crashed out early in their respective assignments. Enyimba managed to clinch a ticket to the group stage only to again crash out when it mattered most. In the Group D of the competition Enyimba finished third in a group of four with only Zamalek of Egypt as the major threat. Al Masry Club of Egypt and Black Bulls of Maputo were also in the group but Enyimba could not earn enough points to move on. Enyimba’s 3-0 defeat in Maputo and the 1-1 recorded at home against Al Masry were the setbacks that affected them. The Nigerian team travelled to Mozambique in batches and only managed to play the match after lots of logistics issues and flight hitches.
Many administrative issues affect the country’s football negatively. There is no reason why Enyimba cannot arrive in Maputo three days before a game. Same goes for other teams. Remo Stars, Rangers and El Kanemi did not take the continental games seriously. These teams do not have preparations befitting of continental games. They simply honour the matches and that is why getting a result is always tough. Teams from Niger, Togo and other countries knock Nigerian teams out when the reverse should be the case ordinarily.
Going forward, a deliberate effort should be made by the NFF and the NPFL to ensure the four teams are well educated about the importance of the assignment they have at hand. There was a time NFF did attach national coaches to the continental teams to further assist them. Some of these teams are also not playing on a good surface or on their home turf, and this further narrows their chances. Teams should also be travelling to other parts of the continent for pre-season training to further boost preparation.
Nigeria was lucky this time that the country’s slots were not reduced from four to three. The country was poor but narrowly made the cut. Stade Malien’s loss to CD Lunda made Nigeria to move to 12th position in the coefficient table while Mali dropped to 13th. Only top 12 countries produce four teams and Nigeria earned the very last spot. This is too sad and the danger of producing fewer teams lingers till next season except the representatives perform much better next term.
For such, I believe Nigeria can do much better if these teams put their minds to it. The management should get sponsors to fund them more for the trips such that the players should feel good enough to deliver their best when on duty. The way these teams manage to participate in away games with tears affect the overall results and in most cases, they falter also at home. The recurrent continental flopping must stop.
