Last week, Rivers United FC of Port Harcourt coached by Finidi George lost their home match in the ongoing 2025/2026 CAF Champions League against The Pyramids FC of Morocco.
Finidi George And Rivers United’s Continental Setback
Until that match, United were the last Nigerian football club still standing in this season’s quest for continental glory. The 3 other clubs from the league pursuing continental trophies had been knocked out in the very early rounds.
Like all the Nigerian clubs that have been participating in the various continental club competitions in the past decade (at least) Rivers United FC also merely succumbed to what was already very well known — the vast superiority of the performance of clubs from a few countries in Africa that have become far more advanced than Nigeria in developing their domestic leagues.
The Structural Crisis Behind Finidi’s Challenge
Without question, domestic Nigerian football has been in serious decline despite all efforts and pretensions to the contrary. It is no surprise that once-eager multinationals to be a part of the most-followed and most-popular sport in Nigeria, have been shying away from having a relationship with the leagues.
‘Prayer and fasting’ are now needed in the corridors of Nigerian football administration to attract their slightest attention again.
Also Read: Winning, A ‘Virus’ The World Must Now Live With — Odegbami
Although Rivers United FC have done tremendously well this season by surviving to this stage of the CAF Champions League, with the second leg still to take place later today in Morocco, it can take it for granted, or to the bank, that they have reached their final ‘bus-stop’. It may all end today!
The 4-0 trouncing of the Nigerian team at ‘home’ in Uyo, Nigeria, may be too high a mountain to climb.
A Familiar Continental Struggle For Nigerian Clubs
Incidentally, Rivers United FC are walking a road well-trodden by all Nigerian teams since one of them last won a continental trophy almost two decades ago.
Even Nigeria’s current Premier league champions, Remo Stars FC, the best and most professionally run club in Nigeria today, were handed a similar humbling experience by Mamelodi Sundowns FC of South Africa some months ago at ‘home’ in Abeokuta.
Kunle Soname, the chairman of Remo Stars admitted the yawning gap that exists these days between Nigerian clubs and those in a few African countries that have advanced the development of their domestic leagues. These include South Africa and some Maghreb countries – Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt and Algeria.
Why Finidi George And Nigerian Coaches Face An Uphill Task
These countries have significantly improved their infrastructure; they pay very high wages; they keep more of their players at home rather than racing to Europe on the migration train; they play on improved football grounds and facilities; and provide first-class television coverage without which the football business can never thrive!
Also Read: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly Of AFCON 2025 — Odegbami
Somehow, Nigeria has not managed to do any of these things well enough to alter the declining slope of her football.
Here, clubs can’t keep their best players; the playing grounds are not good enough; coverage is limited and not of high quality; allegation of corrupt practices still hangs over the league organisers; there is a dearth of truly outstanding stars to lighten up the leagues; and every trip around the vast country by teams by road is an ‘accident’ of insecurity waiting to happen.
These are not the ingredients that will produce a league that sponsors will fight over! Indeed, the leagues have been without any sponsorship interest for over a decade!
Finidi George Deserves Respect, Not Harassment
It is under this condition and atmosphere that retiring ex-international players from Europe, loaded with first-class coaching certificates, return to join the coaching ranks in Nigerian clubs trying to pass on their knowledge and gathering invaluable experience.
It never works out well for enough because the architecture of development needs to be fixed first. When they attempt to get into the national teams as coaches their ‘failures’ in the clubs are dangled before them and they are ‘rejected’ and asked to go get more experience. It is a frustratingly endless cycle.
The results of matches played at continental level by clubs handled by some of these coaches are often abysmal, and do not reflect the coaches’ true capability. Instead, they are a measure of the failure of the country’s domestic football and leagues.
Also Read: Super Eagles — An End, A New Beginning After AFCON 2025! –Odegbami
That’s why what happened to Finidi George last week, following the loss of Rivers United FC in Uyo, is unkind, unjust, unjustified, and totally reprehensible. The team’s defeat should never be attributed to his coaching deficit, but to a bigger malaise in Nigeria’s football as a whole.
It was most unfair for some disappointed fans to waylay, harass, abuse and condemn Finidi despite having done so well to take Rivers United FC as far as he did in this year’s very difficult and challenging CAF Champions League.
Retiring Nigerian international players who turn coaches cannot come with any magic wand to transform weak club teams, built on weak structures, into African champions.
Finidi George’s effort should be acknowledged, and he should be accorded respect, credit and encouragement, and not harassed by a few disgruntled and disappointed fans as happened last week. Let them go and tell football administrators to fix Nigerian football first, and leave poor struggling Nigerian elite coaches alone.
Particularly, they should leave Finidi George alone! He has done more than a yeoman’s job this season!!
2 Comments
“With all due respect to “Mathematical Segun Odegbami, the gulf in class between Remo Stars of Nigeria Vs Memelodi Sundowns is a reflection of, not grassroot coaching, but the fact that Nigerian league lack the Financial wherewital to compete with the South African or North African leagues, particularly Moroccan, Egyptian and Tunisian leagues.”
By Tony K, CSN, 25th Oct, 2025.
That was my reaction to one of Segun Odegbami’s weekly writings on Nigerian sports, where he alluded to “Grassroot coaching” as the bane of Nigerian football in the aftermath of the home thrashing of Remo Stars by visiting Memelodi Sundowns of South Africa at the preliminary stage of CAF Champions league.
One hair brained, narcissist called me a “liar” for stating this obvious fact that the lack of funds due mainly to the rapid devaluation of Naira, paticularly in the last 20 years has made the Nigerian clubs unattractive to both local and international decent footballers and related personnel.
Take South African League, for example. The top 3 teams are coached by foreigners: No 1 club, Memelodi Sundowns is coached by Cardoso- a Portuguese; Orlando Pirates and Kaiser Chief’s are managed by North Africans- Moroccan and Tunisian (or Algerian), so can see the effect of big money in even attracting decent Coaches and footballers. Memelodi parades Portuguese and Brazilian players alongside the best South Africans who are comfortable with the welfare and football infrastructure (good football infrastructures cost good money, unavailable in Nigerian league clubs.)
To buttress the point I made then, I referenced the likes of Osimhen, Chukwueze, and more recently Fredericks, Tochukwu Nnadi and Sani Suleiman who all left Nigerian shores without ever playing in NPFL, but thriving initially in backwater European teams in Azerbaijan, Slovakia, Serbia before moving to Belgium, Norway, Denmark and progressing into top 5 European Leagues. These players were coached at Grassroots by Nigerian coaches and they excel abroad, from where the come to play top-notch football for Super Eagles.
Nigerian Super Eagles competes very favourably against the best of African national teams yet our NPFL teams are miserably uncompetitive against the top 15 football clubs in Africa. No rationale Nigerian player will receive the comparative peanuts in NPFL and stay whilst they see those who hop away to South Africa, North African clubs getting 10times more, never mind Europe where they get 20 times or more in Wages, with better insurance and other welfare packages.
By Odegbami coming back to reason and saying that Finidi and the Nigerian coaches are not to blame- instead blaming funding and structures- which I insisted is the bane of local Nigerian teams, we are now on the same page.
Yen yen yen yen yen…….bunch of shameless hypocrites…… LMAOOoo.
I guess Nigerian economy was at par with Europe when the likes of Enyimba, Rangers, Julius Berger, Dolphins and then Kano pillars campaigned in CAF club competitions in the early 2000s, some getting to the Semi finals, some finals and some becoming eventual winners.
We even had worse football infrastructure in the country at the time, not now when we have renovated facilities across the country. It was never this bad that our representatives will continually get eliminated at the first hurdle or be disgraced home and away like we have witnessed this season.
The Nigerian league was never bouyant nor well funded all through that period…..yet we remained competitive on the continent, largely because we had seasoned, competent and experienced coaches and club administrators who knew how to go about running clubs and preparing them for continental challenges.
Enyimba had Felix Anyasi Agwu, Rangers had Davidson Onwumi, Sunshine stars had Mike Idoko, Dolphins had China Acheru (or so) Julius Berger had a certain Chief Olukanmi……. people who knew how to run clubs……not forgetting seasoned coaches with international experience such as Kadiri Ikhana, Fatai Amao, Lawrence Akpokona, Musa Abdullah I, Gbenga Ogunbote and the likes.
All of a sudden, mediocres both in thinking and in person have found excuses for blatant failure and incompetence…… LMAOooo. We will swim and sink with our own gang have suddenly woken up to the fact that the Nigerian league is not well funded…… LMAOOooo. We have many talents in our league advocates have suddenly realised we lack the right infrastructure to match north and south African leagues….. LMAOoo….as if there was any time we ever had
Bunch of failures.
Continue making excuses for mediocrity.
Lack of funding is the reason why you teams are collecting goals in 4s and 5s on home soil.
Even Sudanese teams in a war torn country are not getting molested in such manner….. LMAOOO
Shameless bunch