From FIFA, The Unexpected Verdict
By Christian Okpara
Forget the troubles that heralded the just concluded Nigeria 2009 FIFA Under-17 World Cup hosted by eight Nigerian cities. Don't even think of the scandals that have trailed the activities of the local Organising Committee of the competition.
Look on the positive side, and there are so many lessons to learn from the competition. One is that Nigerians are some of the best organisers of international events. Well FIFA says so with statistics to back up the good news about Nigeria 2009.
The world football governing body, just before the end of the tournament, rated Nigeria 2009 as one of the best ever organised Under-17 World Cup in several aspects, and they have the figures to back up that verdict.
On November 13, 2009, a day before the final match between defending champions, Nigeria, and eventual winners, Switzerland, FIFA President, Sepp Blatter in Abuja, accompanied by a number of dignitaries including the President of the Organising Committee for the FIFA U-17 World Cup, Jack A. Warner and Sports Minister, Sani Ndanusa, where the body looked back at event over the previous three weeks and concluded that the competition had exceeded their expectations.
According to FIFA, Nigeria 2009, before the final match, which had over 60,000 spectators in attendance, the average match figures across the eight centres was 13,576, compared to Korea 2007, which had 8,347 and Finland 2003 that recorded an attendance figure of 5,738.
The figure was only surpassed by the inaugural edition of the competition in China in 1985, which recorded an average of 38,469, Egypt 1997 with average figure of 19,781 and Peru 2005 that had 17,244.
Coming to goals scored, Nigeria 2009 recorded a total of 150 completed strikes, as against Peru's 111, Finland 2003's 117 and Trinidad 2001 with 102. Only the Korea 2007 edition had more goals with 165 completed strikes.
Such was the satisfaction Blatter felt after the semifinals that he concluded that Nigeria showed that football competitions thrived in countries that had good followers of the game.
Blatter, who said he could not come to Nigeria in the early days of the competition, agreed that the country had all the ingredients to host bigger tournaments.
According to the FIFA helmsman, "It is the second time that this competition has featured 24 teams, giving a total of 52 matches in eight different cities and stadiums. I am very happy with the success of this competition after the headaches we experienced before the initial kick-off. Since it started, though, we have realised how successful the tournament has been. FIFA is happy to have organised the competition in this country - and not only FIFA, since the teams themselves have all expressed their satisfaction."
One of the problems that dogged the competition even before the first ball was kicked was the complaint that some countries brought over age players to the tournament. That allegation the body tried to solve with the Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) tests to determine if players complied with the age limit.
He said, "For years now, FIFA has been combating this problem together with the national associations and confederations. After the research and tests carried out thanks to MRI techniques, we have reached the conclusion that the players who have taken part in this competition are all in their 18th year at most, as the regulations stipulate.
"For us, the subject is therefore closed. There is no more need for me to discuss this problem unless someone has proof that requires it to be looked at again."
He was, however, not satisfied with the qualifying criteria for the second round, since using the fair play count knocked out some teams, which had the potential to fight for the crown.
He said, "We need to look into the use of fair play in the elimination of teams when they have the same number of points, the same goal difference and the same number of goals scored. Fair play in this case means yellow cards and red cards, but these cards are at the referee's discretion.
"Very tense games can result in just one or two yellow cards, whereas others without the same intensity can sometimes finish with eight or nine cards. We need to look at this problem with the organising committees of the various competitions."
Beyond the statistics and the other issues raised by the performance of the teams, Blatter was particularly happy that the competition threw up some players, who have the potential to emulate the class of 1997 in reaching the highest level of the game.
1997 threw up such stars as Ronaldinho, Thierry Henry, Xavi Hernandes, Michael Owen and Iker Casilas, among others.
Blatter has high regards for Borja of Spain, Sani Emmanuel, Stanley Okoro of Nigeria, Sebastian Gallegos of Uruguay, Orfano Esteban of Argentina, Ben Khalifa Nassim and Seferic Harris of Switzerland and Possati Marco of Italy.
But beyond that, the players, according to Blatter, have better chances of success in their future career than their predecessors in the competition.
To FIFA Vice President, Jack A. Warner, who was the Chairman of the Organising Committee for the competition, Nigeria 2009 taught him that one always has to keep believing in the ability of human beings to come good when it matters most.
"I say that in particular for the Nigerians, because in their first match Nigeria was losing 3-0 to Germany. The spectators began booing their team and leaving the stadium - and today Nigeria are in the final and are getting ready to play in a full stadium which is ready to lift them up.
"Nigeria has shown it has the enthusiasm to organise a FIFA World Cup in a higher age group, but it is not yet ready as things stand now. But I want to say that with time Nigeria can stand among the most respected hosts of international competitions. Nigeria 2009 has taught that the country can do it. It is up to you to actualize this belief," he said.
On the chances of African teams at the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa(tm)
The difficulty African or Asian teams face in terms of winning the World Cup isn't just a technical one but also a mathematical one. Until now, we've only had world champions from Europe and South America. When you have 32 teams, including 13 from Europe and four or five from South America, there is a group of 17 teams from which the champions have always emerged. For the others, they need to be stronger in terms of technique and tactics to reach the semi-finals. That said, in 2002 we saw that Korea Republic were able to reach the semi-finals, so in South Africa next year I really hope to see an African team do at least as well. That nearly happened at Italy 1990 when there were only 24 teams. Cameroon came very close to reaching the semi-finals that year, having lost very narrowly to England in their quarter-final. We'll see what happens for the local sides next year with an African atmosphere at the tournament.
