How criminal convictions can help build Nigerian football – Oliseh

With Nigerian football in probably its lowest level yet, the former Super Eagles coach suggests desperate measures

Sunday Oliseh, former coach of the Super Eagles has suggested the conviction of criminals as one of the solutions to building Nigerian football.

Oliseh in his column, ‘Life is A Sport’ said if Nigerians – the FA, individuals and the government can secure the conviction of those who destroy Nigerian football, it will grow as others will desist from ruining it.

“Its (Nigerian football) state is so sad, that some of our citizens, maybe understandably, ignore our local league’s existence to the benefit of the English premier league or Other worldwide football competitions.

“This has consequently, crippled the means of livelihood of thousands of home-based Nigerian professional footballers and the related commercial football economy linked to It.

“The catalyst multiplier effect of this decay runs in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Unfortunately, many are unaware of the consequences or are just plain tired of worrying and feel helpless!,”

When suggesting solutions to the problem, the former Fortuna Sittard coach wrote that fixing the league is of utmost necessity.

”Fix The Local League.  How: for starters, introduce regulations and penalties that go as far as, but are not limited to criminal convictions. Etc…. for violations

“Enforcer? The National Football Federation, state FA’s, you, I, and especially the government.

“My point is, that effective government legislation and sanctions are needed and more to get our football back on track, urgently!”