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Diego Maradona
admitted during the week that he was having problems selecting his
World Cup squad from the array of talents that constantly churn out
promising performances for their respective clubs around the world.

In a team where
Inter Milan trio of captain Javier Zanetti, Esteban Cambiasso, and big
striker, Gabriel Milito, are still looking up to the heavens to
convince the Argentine coach they are good enough to be in his squad
for South Africa, it would certainly be easy to agree Maradona has a
big problem on his hands. The three players were critically involved
for their Italian club as the Nerrazuri earned a berth in the final of
the UEFA Champions League for the first time in 38 years.

As part of the
efforts to prepare his team for their World Cup campaign, South Korea’s
coach, Huh Jung-moo, is already considering the use of oxygen tents to
aid their acclimatisation for the challenge in South Africa, after
learning they will be playing their second group game against Argentina
in Johannesburg, which is around 1,700 metres above sea level. That is
outside the fact that they still have Ecuador, Japan, Belarus, and
Spain to play between May 16 and June 3.

Both Japan and
Spain will also be playing at the World Cup and consequently, it makes
an interesting plan for the Koreans who had also played Zambia and Cote
D’Ivoire to test their might against African opposition. Nigeria’s
third group opponents, Greece, still have two build up games against
another two teams campaigning in the competition, Korea DPR and
Paraguay. Such is the importance some of our opponents have attached to
the global competition.

Different fate

But the same cannot
be said of Lars Lagerback, the Super Eagles coach, who surprisingly
named a squad of 44 players – including six home-based players, whom he
would only have the opportunity of meeting for the first time on May
20, barely 21 days to the kick off in Johannesburg. The rationale
behind the number of invitees were questionable abinitio, considering
some of the names who found themselves on the list. Granted that
Lagerback will need to rely on experienced players after being given a
mandate to guide the Eagles to the semi finals of the first Mundial to
be hosted on Africa soil, but even the veterans may lack match fitness
as over 50 percent of our top players are not seeing regular action for
their respective European clubs.

The Nigeria
Football Federation may not have a say on the fate of our players at
their clubs, but it has certainly thrown spanners into Lagerback’s
preparation by failing to organise friendly matches to help the Swede
decide on who merits to be in the final squad. Interestingly, the
Eagles coach will only meet his players eight days after the FIFA
deadline for the submission of 30-man provisional list for the World
Cup.

Greed or shrewdness?

The scheduled
friendly against Colombia will only come up on May 30, and there are
still issues concerning the venue as well as appearance fees. The snag
is partly because of the demand of the NFF as hinted by its spokeman,
Demola Olajire.

FIFA gave $1million
dollar for each of the 32 participating countries to support their
preparation, and they will also receive $8million for playing in the
group stage of the competition. Yet, the NFF is waiting for other
countries to make lucrative offers to play our Eagles. Reported
proposals from countries like Paraguay, Ecuador, and North Korea have
suffered futility. China backed out of a friendly with South Africa,
but the host announced Jamaica replaced China barely 48 hours later,
and they won the fixture 2-0 at Kickers Offenbach Stadium, last
Wednesday.

Explaining the inability of the NFF to organise any friendly match for the Eagles in an interview on BBC, Olajire said:

“We have always
received appearance fees, as well as other essential welfare packages,
so we cannot descend to a step lower. Nigeria seriously needs these
friendly games, but we cannot back down on our demands for the team.
These friendlies offer us the opportunities of preparing the Super
Eagles for the World Cup, as well exploiting the brand Nigeria, Super
Eagles, and World Cup participation.”

It is not the first
time Nigeria has appointed a new coach months before the World Cup, but
the Eagles could be having arguably the worst pre-World Cup preparation
ever.

Bora Milutinovic
took over from Phillip Troussier barely five months to the 1998
Mundial, but the team still played Holland, Yugoslavia and Germany in
build up games, albeit with some awful results. And even in February
2002, when Adegboye Onigbinde replaced Shuaibu Amodu about four months
before the Korea/Japan edition, the Eagles still played teams including
Kenya, Scotland, Paraguay, and China, with the last two taking part in
that year’s tournament.

Lagerback may not
openly express his frustration at the level of ineptitude at the NFF,
yet he would have something to allude to if he fails to lead the Eagles
past the group stage in South Africa. Besides, he would only need to
walk away with a handsome $1.3million after his World Cup adventure
with Nigeria.