By Gracious Akujobi After Super Eagles failed to qualify for Afcon 2015 by playing a draw with South Africa on Wednesday in Uyo, Nigerians have called that we all return to the drawing board.
Governor Babatunde Fashola however believes that for that to happen players will have to come from the local league and players who are bench warmers in their clubs abroad should not be given commanding roles to play.
Fashola who was speaking on a TV programme said national team is not a place to teach players how to control balls, adding that it is a place where players with same football philosophy are brought together to achieve one aim.
“At the national team level, national team football is not the same thing as club football. You can buy stars into a club but you can’t buy nationalities even with the dual nationalities and all the flexibilities that FIFA had created.
“When you go back to the time when the national team was at its best most of our players were playing in the local league, a few players from outside like Rashidi Yekini who were playing outside where playing first team football even if it was in small clubs like Victoria Setubal”.
The First man of Lagos state says the solution to the problem of Eagles is for the local based players to be made more relevant in the team and players who go abroad to make the right moves which will be beneficial to them and Nigeria.
“The solution to Eagles failure to qualify for Afcon is for coaches to go back to the local league. We became African Champions by going with local players and bringing in some experienced players who were playing first team football. Most of those players now like Mikel Obi are not playing first team football anymore
“You don’t expect somebody who plays 15 minutes or 30 minutes every week to suddenly come and give you 90 minutes command performance, he is going to burn out” he concluded.
