Nigeria Content Online

I recognise the
right to complain or register displeasure with a team’s poor play in
any sport. But such should manifest in realistic and civil manner and
must be in context of the game or match.

Taking it from the
top, I think the Lagos crowd at the Teslim Balogun Stadium when the
Super Eagles took on Sierra-Leone in a friendly should have been more
restrained in its reaction to Eagles’ play in the last twenty minutes
or so given certain known facts. One, it was the first gathering of
many individuals as a team under a new manager, Samson Siasia. Two,
team talk, tactics get awhile to go from handlers to players
individually and collectively in terms of interpretation and execution.
Three, many of the players were debuting for their country so needed
support not boos no matter what. Four, a city that has not seen
international football since Sunday Oliseh’s captaincy and tsarist
tendencies put the demand on the NFA to play anywhere else but Lagos
for reason of boos and jeers when their legs could not carry them
anymore. The Lagos crowd should have been a bit more careful and
accommodating. The Super Eagles will come good; they need time and our
support not boos. Last match day behaviour was over the top and
condemnable. A repeat will not be good for anyone. Let the Lagos crowd
put a lid on it or be ready to forget international football for
another long while.

What we need now

This week I have
decided to add something different for freshness, fans should cheer
Eagles with pet names following the style of great footballers like
Edson Arantes Do Nacimento aka Pele, Jair Ventura Philho aka Jairzinho,
Eusebio Fereira or simply Eusebio, Raul Gonzales or just Raul etc to
push them to greater heights. That’s what we need now.

I will continue to
update the list. Let us support and encourage our footballers not boo
them. And if there are people to boo and jeer go to the Glass House
(Nigeria Football Federation secretariat) in Abuja you will find them
there. And they are aplenty.

Last line

Arsenal FC just
proved something I always believed in, that if you have your heart in
anything and you are positive about it, it’s done. That is the stuff
that gave them victory against mighty Barcelona in the first leg
Champions League encounter at the Emirates.

One more performance like that at Camp Nou in the return leg,
Arsenal would have killed bookmakers and betting companies. That is
football for you. Next week then.