Football and the sporting industry
By Anthony Akinola
THE U-17 World Cup Final was preceded by a contest for the 'third place' between Colombia and Spain, which the latter won one-nil. Yinka had enthusiastically predicted that the Final would be decided by a similar score-line in favour of Nigeria. Unfortunately for the patriotic prediction, it was Switzerland the rival nation that scored the only goal of the match, with Nigerians and their footballers emotionally and frantically seeking an equaliser which never came. The god of soccer would appear to have refused to smile on Nigeria, as the woodworks came to the rescue of Switzerland a couple of times.
Yinka is the wife of the economist, Dr. Ayo Teriba. She would not be mistaken for a football enthusiast. Fiercely devoted to her home, she does a lost of reading at her free time. I watched a few football matches together with the family during my visit to Nigeria, and it was Yinka's enthusiasm that reminded me how passionate Nigerians could be about football and their nation. Not surprisingly the supply of electricity suffered its usual epileptic feat in the course of watching the U-17 Final match. Yinka's fear that the youth could soon be marching towards the offices of the provider was allayed when supply was promptly resuscitated. Nigeria's provider of electricity, clueless men and women though they are, know when not to play with fire!
Nigerians are patriotic. They genuinely love their nation, and do not need any lecturing about this. The failure of the Nigerian state, as it is today, is the failure of leadership. With proper guidance from a leadership that is equally patriotic and doing the right things, Nigeria can actually rise to be one of the great nations of the world. A massive and productive population provides ticket to the top echelon of world power, with a population nearing 150 million people, Nigeria is halfway in this respect. A united Nigerian nation can be great.
Now back to the question of football and sports generally, it need not be over-emphasised that sports constitute an element of national power. It is not by accident that the nations associated with successes in sports are also the most powerful nations of the world. Be it the United States of America, China or Russia, the sporting industry thrives in all these nations. Nigeria can join the league of successful sporting nations by evolving a national policy that helps its development and propagation. Preparing for, or participating in a global event should not be the sole reason for taking sports seriously.
Nigerians, as we all know, are compulsive enthusiasts of 'the beautiful game' of football. Football came to Nigeria with colonization, although it could still have been here even without it. One could recollect in the 1950s what we all called 'town's team'. In my days as a young pupil or student of a primary school and secondary school, I watched and participated in inter-school football matches - with trophies at stake. Nigeria should return to that old tradition as a way of developing a proper league system like the ones that exist in some European nations such as England, Spain, Italy and France.
There are footballing talents in the nook and cranny of the Nigerian society seeking an opportunity for self-expression. For us to do well consistently in global events, we need to fish out talents where they reside. Honestly, one cannot be too impressed with Nigerians fighting over foreign football clubs such as Manchester United and Barcelona, when they should actually be celebrating their own. The foreign clubs do not know much about those Nigerians killing themselves here, and there is nothing to convince me that some of them would not be spat at if they venture into those stadia where racists and racism predominate.
Be that as it may, football today is a major economic industry. In Europe, for instance, football provides employment opportunities for thousands. From those who tend the fields to the managers that tend the footballers, many earn their living on football. Football science is even studied in some European universities! There might have been a time when parents would assume children were wasting valuable time playing football - not any more! With top players earning millions of dollars and living lives that professors can only dream about, a football-playing child is now perceived as a potential source of fame and prosperity for any family.
Football, as I once argued in an article, can help the case of Nigerian unity. Nigerians need to interact ethnically, and football contests between towns and states can actually foster that interaction. If a football team from Kano is doing well, why should someone from Ikere-Ekiti not be one of its supporters? After all, we are here in Lagos and Enugu fighting over Chelsea and Arsenal which are English clubs. One likes to see a Nigerian league involving clubs all over the nation, rather than a few clubs in relatively big cities.
The Williams sisters, Venus and Serena, left Wimbledon earlier this year with about two million dollars between them, and that was for two weeks work! How one wishes these sisters were from some village in Nigeria where their wealth can make a difference in the lives of the poor. There are numerous Nigerians who can be successful tennis players, but regular feeding on 'Iyan' or 'fufu' hardly helps the cause of professional tennis. Tennis is not just a recreational sport, but one in which the adults of nations flex their muscles and project the national image.
Most of the countries we associate with professional tennis today have national academies where young men and women of immense talent are helped to achieve great dreams. No individual can single-handedly achieve fame in tennis, not least because it is one sport that requires substantial financial input. Mr. Williams doubled as coach and sponsor of his daughters, and how proud could any father have been today having two famous multi-millionaire daughters and a family that has now become historic! One wishes his type of success for many Nigerian homes.
More importantly, one wishes the generality of Nigerians successes and celebrations in future sporting activities. One had tried to contemplate how frustrating it would be if 'the giant of Africa' were not to be represented in the most spectular event ever in the African continent. Our road to participation in 'South African 2010' kept every nerve restless for quite a long while. We can rest our nerves for the time being, knowing that the usual patriotic tension will return in the summer of next year. At least we are all gifted in the philosophy of self-consoling. Suddenly Yinka and I agreed that qualifying for South Africa 2010 soothed what would have been the pain of our Under-17 not retaining the trophy they defended so gallantly.
- Dr. Akinola lives in Oxford, England.
