Former Nigerian international Segun Odegbami has disclosed that Nigeria must build a proper administrative and developmental system to achieve consistent success.
In an interview on Channels Television’s breakfast show on Friday, Odegbami argues that leadership positions should go to football-loving technocrats instead of political appointees, insisting that changing leadership alone will not fix deep-seated structural issues.
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Following the resignation of NFF president Ibrahim Gusau and several board members, Odegbami welcomed the departure as an opportunity to clean up the administration and appoint leadership that will create a sustainable football system capable of producing success consistently.
“In the past almost 30 years or so, we have tied ourselves into a knot.
“We have removed, one way or the other, the people on the board and we might as well just say, ‘Look, let’s get a new set to go on,’ but we’ll get the same results.
“Football is a sport that everybody is an expert. Everybody has an answer, and everybody is right.
“The answer lies in unknotting this complicated situation that we have, that is not making things clear, so that everybody can have a clear idea of what we need to do to move forward,” he said.
Reacting to claims by the outgoing NFF president that he was leaving Nigerian football better than he found it, Odegbami acknowledged that the administration may have recorded some achievements.
“I’m sure he believes what he says and if you look at the issues that he’s talking about, yes, he has achieved some level of success,” Odegbami said.
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“But as far as the man on the street is concerned, if your team does not win on the field of football, you have lost. That is the only measure for success or failure of a sport like football.
“You have to have a production line, a seamless production line, so that every year, as Brazil has done, they have always gone to the World Cup,” he said.
