Last night in Rabat, Morocco, the Super Eagles decided to boycott training ahead of their FIFA World Cup Qualifying Play-Off game against Gabon.
The players said that their bonuses have been owed since 2019. It is a story I have heard before. And it leaves our World Cup qualification hopes in danger.
11 years ago, I was a younger journalist who stood in front of the team’s hotel in Campinas, Brazil, waiting for the Super Eagles to walk to their team bus to drive to the training ground. They had a FIFA World Cup Round of 16 match to play in two days against the 1998 World Champions, France.
But we waited and waited, and no players came out. I could see coach Stephen Keshi in the holding area, fully dressed up and ready to go to the bus. But the players were nowhere to be seen.
He must have received word from them about the boycott and decided to return quietly to his quarters.
We wanted answers. So, we turned to the team’s media officer, my senior colleague Mr Ben Alaiya (may his soul rest in peace), for the answers that we craved and needed to tell the rest of the world.
I watched my video recording this morning as journalists quizzed Alaiya for answers, to which he didn’t have any. He was as surprised as the rest of the press corps outside the hotel.
A bad omen
In the melee that followed, a French journalist told me in excitement that the omen was not good for the Super Eagles. He said that they would lose against France due to the distraction of bonuses and their failure to train that evening.
He told me that he had seen something like that happen to the France team four years before in South Africa, where camp disharmony led to their poor form and inability to get out of the first round despite being one of the favourites.
I didn’t believe him. I thought that it did not really matter and that the hunger from our players would see them through on the match day.
The Super Eagles finally emerged the next afternoon as they bade the hotel and the fans in Campinas farewell to travel to Brasilia for the Round of 16.
I wrote an article titled, The dishonourable road to Brasilia in my Goal.com column that day. I predicted that everything would unravel in Brasilia, the same city where a Ghana team that also protested over bonuses also lost to Portugal and was eliminated.
Lo and behold, despite the huffing and puffing of the Super Eagles, Nigeria lost 2-0 to France in that encounter.
It was a game in which we stood no chance against the better-organised French.
And did any of our players ever apologise for that exit? Did the country ever call them to reckoning?
Did we ever have an inquiry as to how the NFF leadership could have better handled the situation? We simply moved on without any repercussions.
A repeat in Rabat
Once I saw the news of the boycott in Rabat, all I could think about was the voice of the French journalist from more than a decade ago.
This time around, we face an organized Gabonese side that is eager to make its mark with an accomplished striker like Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
Yet we are once again in a state of disarray. Players are unhappy at how they have been treated by the NFF leadership. Many fans are wondering, “Why choose this time? Why not after the qualifiers?”
But the ways of footballers are not logical. They win and lose matches every time. So, it is part of their lives. But the fans and the country always feel betrayed when things like this happen.
We need to sit on the necks of the NFF to do better by the players. It is the only way that we won’t see a repeat boycott in the next decade on the eve of another very important game.
For now, take what you will from this. Expect nothing much from Thursday’s game to keep your mind sane. The omen is not positive.
