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It is easy to write
negative things about Nigeria. Smart writers think they only need to
use the word corruption in two or three places in their first paragraph
and readers would buy into their argument.

On May 20, Jamie
Trecker, senior soccer writer for American television channel Fox
Soccer Channel, used this low method in his ‘32 Teams in 32 Days’, a
series of analysis on teams participating in the 2010 World Cup in
South Africa. Surprisingly, he failed. This is despite opening his
piece with: “Nigeria is a kleptocracy (rule by thieves) that milks the
most populous African nation. Oil wealth has made this massive African
nation one of the most dangerous, most corrupt, most impoverished and
straight-out saddest countries on earth. Despite billions and billions
of dollars in annual oil revenue, virtually none of it reaches the
general population, instead lining the pockets of one “big man” after
another”.

Hatchet job

Like other foreign
views critical of Nigeria, Trecker’s analysis of the Super Eagles’
preparation for the World Cup was greeted with an uproar by Nigerians.
However, unlike other cases when Nigerians protest such analysis
largely out of patriotic fervour, the criticism of Trecker is due to
his atrocious research before writing on our national football team.
Were he a rookie, he might have been ignored, maybe even forgiven, but
he is an American sports journalist with 25 years experience who failed
to get his facts right; a cardinal sin in journalism.

Trecker’s ignorance
of Nigeria is apparent throughout the piece. In one paragraph he claims
there is a “North-South split in the nation along religious lines:
Christians to the North, Muslims to the South”, and that, “War is a
regular occurrence in Nigeria, and drug and arms smuggling have made it
an almost-failed state”. For Trecker’s education, Muslims are dominant
in the north and Christians in the South of Nigeria, not the other way
round. Also, depending on one’s definition of war, it can be argued
that the pockets of violent clashes Nigeria experiences do not amount
to war being a regular occurrence in the country.

One may be tempted
to explain these blunders on Nigeria as the failings of a sports
journalist who attempts to blend the country’s politics with football
but it is not only the political realities in Nigeria that Trecker
goofed about. He made unpardonable assumptions about the current state
of football in the country.

He claims that “the
team (the Super Eagles) tends to dissolve into pointless squabbles over
the usual, venal matters. Bonuses aren’t paid, roster choices are
always suspect and being a coach in Nigeria requires a hefty cash
deposit up front, because you’re not likely to see any more”.

Wide off the mark

Anyone familiar
with football administration in Nigeria today knows that Trecker’s
submission is yards away from the truth. One of the major achievements
of the Sani Lulu-led Nigeria Football Federation, since his election as
the federation’s president four years ago, is the prompt payment of
match bonuses to players and the technical crew of teams. In fact,
Trecker would have been correct had he followed the steps of Nigerian
journalists who now criticise the federation for paying players before
games. It is public knowledge, except to Trecker, that during the 2008
Africa Cup of Nations in Ghana, the federation and the team agreed on
all bonuses and payment was made promptly. It was the same during the
World Cup qualifiers, and Angola 2010. For four years now, not only
have our players been paid regularly, they have enjoyed frequent
increment in their earnings. In 2009, for instance, the Presidential
Task Force for the World Cup approved the doubling of players’ bonuses
from $5000 to $10,000. What then are the “usual, venal matters” Trecker
would like the world to believe plague our team? It was just impossible
for him to remain reasonable in the article.

No age restrictions

Rather than say how
the Super Eagles are preparing for South Africa 2010, the man who Fox
Sports prides as covering “the Champions League, European soccer and
the world game for FoxSoccer.com”, argued that “African and some Asian
players (note where some is placed) have routinely lied about their
true ages in order to play in the age-eligible competitions, and until
FIFA began cracking down on it, Nigeria was known as one of the worst
offenders”.

Considering that
there is no limit on players’ age for the World Cup, it is difficult to
understand how issues concerning age-grade football tournaments affect
our senior team’s preparation for South Africa. Of course we are
concerned when a coach fields players who may be too old to play but
how does the argument that “Kanu, allegedly 33, is still playing in
England for Portsmouth. Despite the fact that he may actually be closer
to 42, he’s going to play” make sense? Does Trecker know Kanu was
instrumental in Portsmouth’s success in the English FA Cup in 2008,
where he scored the only goal and they won? This year too, Kanu was
part of the Portsmouth side that played in the final of the league cup
against Chelsea. How then is he too old to be part of his national team?

But let’s agree
that Trecker is right in faulting Coach Lars Lagerback’s selection of
Kanu, one would then expect him to analyse Lagerback’s competence or
otherwise in leading the Super Eagles in South Africa. Instead of this,
Trecker launches an attack on Nigeria claiming:

“If he (Lagerback)
actually makes it to the Cup, it’ll be something of a miracle as he’s
already had one run-in over non-payment, and Nigeria has a habit of
firing their foreign coaches on the eve of a major tournament to reward
some politically connected local hack”.

This is all Trecker
had to say about the coach and his chances at the World Cup! It will
take a better fox than Trecker to convince any observer of Nigerian
football that Lagerback has had a run-in with our football authorities
over non-payment. Only last Thursday, Patrick Ekeji, the Secretary of
the Presidential Task Force on the World Cup, told journalists that the
“PTF has always moved fast in paying Lagerback all entitlements due him
up till May 31, 2010, contrary to what had been reported in the media
recently. The remittances are made into his nominated bank account. We
want to assure all Nigerians that his other entitlements for the months
of June and July will be paid to him promptly”.

Lagerback himself has not at anytime said he is owed money.

In concluding his
piece, Trecker tells his readers that, “First off, see if a coach
actually shows up. Next, see if the players take the field. After that,
see if the guys talk to one another. If you get all three, this team
has a good shot”.

If a coach showing
up, players taking the field and talking to one another is all a sports
analyst of Trecker’s position at Fox Sports thinks our team needs to
succeed at the World Cup, then President Goodluck Jonathan should go
ahead and sign the cheque he promised the boys would get upon victory
in South Africa. That is if anyone can take such a foxy analysis
seriously.

For Trecker’s article go to www.234next.com