The fourth week games of the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) will be held this weekend across the country. The league deserves some plaudits, even with only three weeks played; some positives could be gleaned from it. The first is that away wins have become a recurring decimal; it is not a happenstance any more as it was in the past. For instance, last week, three away wins were recorded, even one in the dreaded Sani Abacha stadium, Kano that used to be Kano Pillars ‘fortress in the past.
The first two weeks also produced not less than two away wins per week. What even surprised me is that till date, no league venue has witnessed any disturbance as result of the host team losing. In the past, we would have witnessed ‘war’ with the away team players escaping with their lives. The referee and his assistants would have had some tales of woes to tell. But here we are, home fans go home accepting the outcome of the games. While the fans deserve pat on the back for behaving maturely, the bigger pat goes to the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) for their unalloyed support for the football league body, who has not wavered in their desire to see sanity return to the league. However, it is still too early to begin to sing praises. Let’s wait till the end of the season before singing hallelujah. The NFF was in the news again on Thursday, this time for the right reasons.
Against all expectations, the football body asked Austin Eguavoen to continue the Africa Cup of Nations qualifying tournament with the Super Eagles. Recall that Eguavoen was called upon to handle the team’s first two games in the qualifiers earlier in the month after the football house failed to get a foreign coach as it promised after Finidi George resigned. Note that even before Finidi resigned, the NFF was compelled to give Finidi the nod due to pressure from Nigerians who wanted a Nigerian to manage the team. Eguavoen, however, did not disappoint when called upon, and there are some who believe that he should be allowed to continue. He defeated Benin Republic that ended Finidi’s reign 3-0 and drew goalless away to Rwanda. If not for poor refereeing, Super Eagles should have won the game in Rwanda 1-0.
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The biggest surprise after the two games was that the NFF continued its search for a foreign coach. We can only guess why the football body failed. My guess is the integrity deficit plaguing the football house, and I believe this is why many of the foreign coaches decided to dine with the NFF with a long spoon. It is not that there are no coaches out of jobs in Europe, coaches who would love to coach a star-studded team like the Super Eagles, but NFF’s reputation for disregard for laid down process must have made them to have rebuffed the attraction of managing the Super Eagles. I will leave Nigerian football for now and turn to England where Arsenal have become an endangered species as far as the Premier League is concerned. It may sound preposterous that Arsenals now an endangered species in a league they have won several times and finished runner-up in the last two seasons. There is a consensus among its fans that referees are biased against it. This allegation has been taken to a ridiculous extent that there is an insinuation that referees are doing the biddings of the FA. Not only that, it is alleged that the FA prefers other clubs to win the league, with Arsenal not among the favored clubs. These allegations are undeniably grievous, even as they could not be proven beyond reasonable doubts.
The biases across the allegations are nebulous enough that one will need the American CIA and the FBI, the Israeli MOSAD inclusive and the British MI5 to come up with incontrovertible facts to pooh-pooh them. Statistically demonstrating referee bias would take data that will be out of the world to gather. Though, there are one or two instances that Arsenal supporter’s always allude to, these are, however, not enough to prove referees bias against the Gunners. Even among the British writers, opinions are divided with many believing that such allegations are out of the world. There is, however, consensus among the writers that even if referees are biased against the Gunners, the players have let their indiscipline give the referees the opportunity of achieving their clandestine goal. Dan Tracy in article in 2021 noted, “Their indiscipline which is perhaps getting them into trouble. In three of their last seven Premier League matches, a run in which they have failed to pick up a single win, they have finished the contest with only 10 men on the field and no matter how hard Arsenal are seen to be trying, indiscipline is largely proving to be their undoing. “It is undermining everything that the Arsenal manager is currently trying to achieve and although Gabriel’s sending off against Southampton was at the lower end of the perceived indiscretion scale, it only served to offer another headache for the coaching staff.” Bulldog Drummond in an article titled “How referees are now penalising arsenal for tackles, but letting other clubs run free” posted on 13 September 2024 noted with dismay the biases against the Gunners this season. He concluded that all Premier League clubs have increased their tackling this season but fouls called against them are not commensurate to that of Arsenal.
“This season, Manchester United increased their tackling by 35% compared with last season, but the fouls called against have increased by less than 1%. OK so maybe their entire squad has been taught to tackle without fouling during the summer and so encouraged to tackle more. Seems unlikely but you never know,” Drummond wrote. “On the other hand, Arsenal have increased their tackling by a very modest 7% compared with last season, but the fouls called against them have gone up by a whacking great46%. That is a massive turnaround. Have Arsenal defenders suddenly forgotten how to tackle? Or are referees being more picky about tackles? “We wondered and so quickly turned to look at other clubs. Aston Villa, for example, have increased their tackling by 46% and the fouls called against them have gone up by just14%. Nothing like Arsenal’s figures. “Manchester City have increased their tackling by 10% but the fouls called against them have gone down by 43%. Perhaps that is not surprising, it is the way things always go for Manchester City. “And to take into account this weekend’s game, Tottenham have increased their tackling by 17% but their fouls have only gone up by 7%! “This situation looks utterly ludicrous.
How could every team learn how to tackle better, without giving away so many fouls, while Arsenal have totally forgotten how to tackle? Concluding, he noted, “To my mind, if ever there was big news in football, this is it. Either Arsenal have, during the summer, totally forgotten how to tackle (which would be a big story in itself), while all the other clubs have improved (another big story the media has missed) or else someone has said to the referees – “we don’t like the way Arsenal are improving. Do something about it will you?” Because of the above, it behooves Arsenal players to realize that they are an endangered species. This is because in their game against Brighton at the Emirates, Brighton’s Joao Pedro booted the ball halfway across the pitch in the first half and got nothing for it, but Declan Rice got the slightest touch on the ball and was sent off. Against Manchester City last Sunday, Jeremy Doku escaped a caution for kicking the ball away on the halfway line when Arsenal were given free-kick, but Leandro Trossard was not spared as he was shown the matching order. The man that refereed the City Arsenal last Sunday also referred their reverse fixture last season at the Etihad. While Kovacic last season should have been shown a second yellow, the referee reason was that he does not want to spoil the game. But last Sunday, there was no such discretion extended to Trossard. He was ready topsoil the game for Arsenal. Arsenal players should by now understand that they don’t give any referee the opportunity of dealing with them. The four points they threw away this season was because of such infractions that should have been avoided. Arsenal, please don’t let indiscipline cost you the title shield this season.
