Welcome to another weekend of quality sports, football in particular.
Last weekend, national teams entertained us amid FIFA International break. It was an opportunity for the national teams to play their various qualifiers.
While, Africa kicked off its 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying series, Europe continued its National League championship, while Latin American countries were involved in their 2026 World Cup qualifiers.
However, with the return of club football, fans are in for another beautiful weekend of quality football, be it in the Premier League, the La Liga or the Italian Serie A. The German Bundesliga is not left out with French Ligue 1 also angling for recognition not minding the exit of Kylian Mbappe. Nigerians will also focus on the Turkey SuperLig because of Victor Osimhen’s move to Galatasarray earlier in the month.
Top of the bill in the Premier League this weekend will be the North London derby between Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal on Sunday. It is a game that holds so much for the two sides because of their rivalry. Aside the above, Arsenal title credential will be put to the test as the Gunners will play two crucial games that could make or break their hopes of winning the league having missed the league shield by whiskers in the last two seasons.
After playing Tottenham on Sunday away, the Gunners have another tough task at the Etihad next Sunday when they play Manchester City. Arsenal fans will be worried as these two games against Tottenham and Manchester City could derail their title ambitions.
Paul Merson, Sky Sports football expert and columnist, puts the fate of the Gunners succinctly, “The Gunners need four points. If they get anything less, then you start to worry because you are playing catch-up against a machine in Man City.
If they draw against Spurs and lose at Man City a week later, they’re probably going to be seven points behind and I think that would be it. I know there are 30-odd games left but I just can’t see how they make up the seven points.”
Liverpool is another club that will generate interest following their impressive performance since the league kicks off. The Reds beat Ipswich 2-0, Manchester United 3-0 and also beat Brentford 2-0 to leave them level on points with champions City at the top of the table, albeit in second place on goals scored. Liverpool will play Nottingham Forest at Anfield in a game they are expected to win.
Manchester United will be guest of Southampton in the early kick off today. League leaders Manchester City will be at home to Brentford.
This weekend games are just the fourth week in the 38-league games format. Let us leave any conjecture out for now, but it will not be out of tune to state that the Premier League referees might have decided that Arsenal will need divine intervention for them to win the league this season. The Gunners have always been at the receiving end of referees’ inconsistency in the league.
The international break offered a great opportunity to witness another opportunity of what an indigenous coach as represented by Austin Eguavoen can do. Forget the inglorious reign of Finidi George, whose two games tenure was nothing but chaos.
But this time around, Eguavoen, in his fourth missionary journey as Super Eagles head coach, did not fail as he brought orderliness and discipline into the team. There was unity and this was replicated on the field in the two games he superintended. Beating Gernot Rohr led Benin Republic 3-0 in Uyo before securing a goalless game against Amuvubi of Rwanda in Kigali is a no mean feat considering how the team performed after the last AFCON where it placed second.
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Expectedly, Eguavoen during the week told the world that his mandate has ended and has returned to his seat at the Nigeria Football Federation headquarters in Abuja as its Technical Department head.
And because nature abhors vacuum, the NFF is constrained to search for a new coach for the team. The Minister of Sports Development, Senator John Enoh, gave credence to this saying during the week that the process for getting a new coach for the Super Eagles is on.
This unending search for a new coach is a self-inflicted one, because of our penchant for a foreign coach. This erroneous belief that it is only a white-skinned man that can manage the Super Eagles is responsible for this unending search.
As the Bible states in Galatians 6 verse 7, “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.”
The federation’s past misdemeanor has caught up with it. It is looking like only foreign coaches, who have been pushed to the wall, those who have no place to go will likely be available for the Super Eagles.
Let’s not deceive ourselves; there is no coach worth its salt that will want to do business with an NFF that is reputed for not honoring its contractual agreement. The football house is reputed for owing salaries for months. It treats coaches with disdain. What we’ve failed to realise as a country is that those coaches doing business with the NFF are doing so because they need the Super Eagles to launch themselves into the international scene and hopefully will get a better job elsewhere. That’s what Portuguese Jose Peseiro just did refusing to renew his contract after taking the team to the final of the AFCON in Cote d’ Ivoire. There is no denying the fact that German Bruno Labbadia rejected the offer to manage the Super Eagles because of the trust deficit in the NFF.
We live in a fool’s paradise with the erroneous belief that the Super Eagles is a brand that coaches in the world will fall over themselves to manage the Super Eagles. Yes, the Super Eagles are a big brand. But is the team properly managed and positioned to attract the sort of coach that it deserves? Your guess is as good as mine. We all know that the Super Eagles are one of the most poorly managed team in the world. A time I ask myself, does the NFF knows the worth of the Super Eagles. I am at loss. If the NFF knows the worth of the team, why treat it with levity? Why treat its biggest brand with such high disdain? Is it that the NFF does not know how to do with the team? If it does not know why not hire a marketer to rebrand the team? Honestly, the Super Eagles need rebranding. Winning will make it easier, but before the team can return to winning ways, there is need to have a quality manager that will be the face of the team. It is not only foreign coaches that want to dine with NFF with a long spoon. Some Nigerian coaches of high repute don’t want to have anything to do with the team. Look at the way Finidi George was embarrassed.
What of Sunday Oliseh, who also resigned abruptly? Late Stephen Keshi was not spared of the inglorious treatment by the NFF
The truth is, NFF needs to look at itself in the mirror. Whatever the mirror brings is nothing but the truth. The NFF must ask itself why only indigenous coaches are angling to manage the Super Eagles for now? The football house should make a U-turn on its modus operandi and turn a new leaf.
Even if the NFF secures the services of a foreign manager for the team, can it afford to pay the coach? How will the football house raise the funds? With the exchange rate at N1, 600.00 to a dollar, with the hardship in the country, can the body withstand the uproar? Let’s assume the body wants to pay a foreigner $100,000.00 per month. This means it will be ready to cough out N160 million monthly. A local coach will not even earn this in four years. How will the NFF convince Nigerians and the government that such investment is worth it?
Let the NFF rebrand, change course on the foreign coach issue. The only way out for the NFF now is for the body to get off its high horse and get a Nigerian to manage the team. Eguavoen has proved that Nigerians can do the job.
While Paseiro abandons the team without a guide to two crucial matches, Eguavoen steadied the team with a convincing 3-0 bashing of a team that humiliated it 2-1. He went on to pick a valuable away draw in Kigali and has restored Nigerians’ confidence in the team.
