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Madness may mean a
terrible state of psychiatric disorder, lacking common sense and not
reasoning logically, or an excessive interest in something almost to
the exclusion of everything else. Is it what we are discussing today?
Or are we trying to play around the title of one of Kongi’s best
sellers – “Madmen and Specialist”? The answer interestingly is no!

I have no
intention, in anyway, to be rude or offensive. I preach and teach
respect, not only for human beings, but also for institutions,
especially those I believe are ordained by the greatest sportsman
Himself, the Lord God Almighty. Take it or ignore it, whether we like
it or not FIFA has been put in place globally to administer football
and there is nothing anybody can do about that now. This is one
organisation you can only hate to love or love to hate, especially in
Nigeria. Don’t even think of beating them. The only thing you can
successfully do is join them and do their bidding.

What ails FIFA?

But I ask once
again, is FIFA M.A.D.? Or let me simplify the question a little bit
more. Is FIFA M.A.D. in Nigerian football? Have you now got the gist?
No? Okay, I will explain. M.A.D. is an acronym for “Making a
Difference”. Aah, so now you get it and I can hear some of the readers
saying stuff like – “Paul, you must be mad”. No, I reject that by fire
and by force, but I agree, if you say I am M.A.D.

Let me quickly
confess however, that this title is borrowed from Tony Marinho, a
thorough bred Nigerian, M.A.D. from his base in Ibadan.

The answer to the
question ‘Is FIFA M.A.D.?’ as far as I am concerned is no. Does FIFA
for instance not realise the fact that constitutionally, the National
Sports Commission (NSC) and the so-called Nigeria Football Federation
(NFF) are illegitimate and therefore have no right to administer
sports, especially football in Nigeria? Would anyone in FIFA claim not
to be aware of the fact that about 98% of the football teams (not
football clubs) in Nigeria are funded by government with tax payers’
hard-earned monies? I am absolutely sure that no one in FIFA can claim
not to know that “the tune is dictated by the one who pays the piper”
and it can’t be different here in Nigeria. Would FIFA claim not to be
aware of this fact – 20 years after the founding of the Nigerian
Football League, we are yet to have a football Club in Nigeria,
according to the guidelines of the so-called statutes that were meant
to establish the football clubs? Does FIFA not know that the natural
administrative pyramid that should be in place, from the local
government areas (LGAs) to the state and eventually to the National
level – that pyramid, that should provide the Associations, from the
LGAs, where genuine grassroots developmental football programmes for”
catch-them-young” initiatives – do not exist in Nigeria?

The two-faced nature of FIFA

Well, if it is true
that FIFA is ignorant of some or all of the issues raised above, then,
someone should please do us one big favour, by informing Primo Corvado,
FIFA’s representative sent in to monitor the forth-coming NFF
selection, now rescheduled for Thursday August 26, 2010, that the ‘FAIR
PLAY’ gospel preached by FIFA is still strange to us here in Nigeria.
Please let Corvado know that here in Nigeria, medical doctors,
carpenters, engineers, architects and even farmers (and I refer to them
in he most derogatory manner, for the purpose of this write-up) aspire
to become President of our football ruling bodies. Let him know for
instance that there are no football associations in most our LGA’s and
where they exist, the associations are administered by officials of the
ministry of agriculture.

Please tell
Corvado, that the selection exercise he has come to monitor is shrouded
in deceit, uncertainties and controversies. If Corvado himself believes
in decency, it behoves him as a gentle man to publicly respond to the
protests sent to FIFA by Segun Odegbami and other NFF Presidential
aspirants.

It will also be
appreciated if FIFA can declare – publicly, how much has been invested
on football development in Nigeria. Truth is that nature abhors any
form of vacuum and there is so much information vacuum as regards this
sensitive issue of funding of football. I am one of the several
subscribers to the monthly FIFA magazine and we read of millions of
dollars invested on football development especially at the grassroots
level by FIFA in developing countries. Has Nigeria benefited from this?

Permit me to end
this piece on a rather serious note. Can FIFA dare to make a difference
by calling on the federal government and state governments to stop
funding football in Nigeria?

Let FIFA call the bluff of the NSC and Bio in order to stop all the
“shakara” going on now. And finally, maybe Bukola Olapade, a.k.a.
“Ozoganga” was right when he submitted that the next NFF President
should be a mad man or woman. I would have voted for you my friend, but
unfortunately Mr Corvado of FIFA will not allow me. So, I say
congratulations in advance to whoever is chosen on Thursday. But be
prepared to be M.A.D.