The FIFA U-17 World Cup
SWITZERLAND's victory at the end of the 13th edition of the FIFA Under-17 World Cup tournament (Nigeria 2009) on Sunday, November 15 is well deserved. The Swiss team which won all of its seven matches to get to the finals, showed great technical depth, team spirit and discipline. The achievement is made even more memorable by the fact that this is the first time the Switzerland team would win an international trophy.
The Swiss emerged champions after beating three-time champions, and defending champions, the Golden Eaglets of Nigeria 1-0 in an entertaining final match played at the capacity-filled National Stadium in Abuja. Seferovic Haris headed in the lone goal halfway into the second half to give his country victory in the presence of outgoing FIFA President, Sepp Blatter, a Swiss, and Nigeria's Vice President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan.
There is no doubt that the victory would further encourage the Swiss football team to aspire to greater heights. Nigeria won the Silver trophy in addition to other trophies for individual performance, while Spain took the Bronze. The tournament provided all the participating countries the opportunity to reassess and re-organise their teams for better future performance as well as the discovery of new football talents on the global stage. FIFA is in order to have rated the tournament as successful, although the hurried preparation by the Local Organising Committee (LOC) and last minute approval of Nigeria for the tournament by FIFA caused some logistical hiccups. FIFA Vice President, Mr. Jack Warner had just about four weeks to the tournament declared that Nigeria was not ready.
The effect was evident throughout the tournament. First, there was poor awareness of the tournament, resulting in near-empty stadiums in many centres. State governments and the federal authorities had to distribute free tickets in order to encourage football fans to go to the stadiums. Second, many of the football pitches were either uncompleted or poorly finished; facilities were also inadequate. Many of the challenges also included the failure of the electronic score-board in Calabar, power outage in Kano, flooded pitches in some centres, and poor handling of media accreditation. Broadcast stations and other service providers even threatened to boycott the game over debts that were being owed by the Local Organising Committee. (LOC). By far, the most embarrassing report is that of financial impropriety, which has now prompted the Federal Government to order a probe of the Local Organising Committee.
It will be recalled that there had been issues with finances from the beginning. The Federal Government initially rejected the hosting right when the LOC presented a budget of N35 billion. This was later slashed to N9 billion which government approved. In the course of the tournament however, it was disclosed that the LOC had spent as much as N12 billion which it failed to account for in the face of mounting debts and protests by creditors. So miffed was the Minister of Sports/Chairman of the National Sports Commission that his office had to issue a circular stopping further disbursement of funds to the LOC until previous disbursements had been accounted for. It was a development that portrayed the country in a bad light given a history of the mismanagement of public funds by officials. We note that the LOC displayed gross inefficiency in the management of the tournament. Reports that committee members shared money and vehicles meant for the tournament should be probed. The Federal Government has promised to engage the services of an external auditor. We support the idea. The report of the probe must be made public and whoever is found guilty should be sanctioned accordingly.
One other problematic issue before and during the tournament was the controversy over the age of some players. The U-17 World Cup is an age-grade tournament that is used by national football federations to identify budding soccer stars and improve youth football. But the objective is defeated when over-aged players are featured. It was right, therefore, that FIFA took steps to screen the age of the players. Greater consolation can be drawn however from the fact that FIFA has now promised to restructure its age-group competitions in response to allegations of age-falsification particularly in the U-17 tournament.
Hosting the tournament provided Nigeria the opportunity to rehabilitate and equip eight standard stadiums across the country. We recall that this was also the case in 1999 when Nigeria hosted the FIFA U-20 World Cup tournament. In 2003 when we hosted the All Africa Games (COJA), a lot of sporting equipment were also procured. But many of the facilities were soon abandoned. There were reports also that the stadiums were stripped bare by corrupt officials immediately after the tournaments. This should not be allowed to re-occur.
We call on the respective state governments to ensure that proper stock is taken of all the facilities procured for the U-17 tournament and that they are protected and preserved. It would amount to sheer wastage not to do this. The stadiums should also not be abandoned. They can continue to serve as centres for sporting activities. They can in fact, be handed over to private companies or teams to be managed on agreed terms.
It is regrettable, that the 60,000-seater National Stadium in Lagos was completely left out of the tournament. The stadium that used to be the cynosure of eyes in the 80s has been allowed to become one huge monumental waste. The abandoned structure is now a hot spot for all manners of activities while the 20,000-capacity Teslim Balogun Stadium across the road now dwarfs it. This abandoned stadium is a metaphor for many ills in the country with particular reference to infrastructural decay and official negligence. Nigeria has a history of recording huge financial losses after hosting an international sports tournament. It is a shame.
In all, it is not enough to host international tournaments for prestige reasons alone. There should always be a greater emphasis on the development of talents, sports and tourism. The country gains when the right persons are selected to manage the process. It is of no use to engage persons who have no quality experience to manage major competitions or even run the sports ministry. The authorities should look into this and make necessary amends. We demand openness and accountability from all stakeholders. We hope that Nigeria has learned lessons that would help her to do better in the future.
