Why did they cancel the female AFCON?
You know what they call Juju politics? You are looking at something and you are captivated but what you are seeing is not the main thing. CAF came out to tell the world that they were going to create African Champions for Women for the first time in 2021. The women all got excited by that pet idea and they forgot the major announcement in the communication which CAF said that the only competition for women in Africa has been canceled.
People didn’t realise it until two days after and they found out that what was their own had been taken away from them. You didn’t need to cancel the Women’s Cup of Nation because it is the only competition the women have known; it’s the only developmental plan. We understand the COVID situation but why cancel it and not just postpone it. First, they didn’t even have a host as the host Congo said they were not hosting anymore. Nigeria put in a bid but when COVID came nobody followed the bid. All the states have tried to host it. But CAF needed to keep jealously the heritage of that competition and its main one which the Nation’s Cup is. Now that they’ve canceled, let us wait to see when the next edition will hold, maybe they will even find a host.
But the focus from the international body is now on Women’s football. FIFA has gone into its reserve to bring out money to develop women’s football and that is critical. That is telling everyone who is involved in the game that the women are coming, receiving attention and watch carefully for the women’s game. You saw the captain of the United States, Megan Rapinoe, the woman who took on Trump and she still says she wants to be the president of America. She won the World Cup with America in style. She won FIFA’s best player and she just doesn’t talk with her boots, she talks well. And that is the power of women’s football. Growing now, in Nigeria we have seen some efforts at keeping the game alive but the structure needs to be adjusted. And with the money being pumped into the sport, every national association has been giving money specifically for women’s football all across the globe. Let’s see how they spend that money. The schools are there, how many girls’ schools have football pitches? And it is said that once the women start playing football the whole family will be involved in the game, the scope of the game will expand and its more money for the game and the future.
The women now will not only be carrying their girls to go play football, the girls will also talk to their friends to watch football. So it’s the right thing and some people say it’s coming late. They would have been in the forefront of pushing the game. And Nigeria women have been good, they’ve been in almost all the World Cups but they’ve not gone past the quarter-finals; we’ve won the Nation’s Cup 9 times. People talk about the things that are lacking in Nigeria and it affects Sports. Let the society improve and the sports will take a cue.
Why is it that we don’t get sponsors for our league?
That’s not true. We have sponsors for the league it’s just that we have not packaged the league sufficiently enough to attract the right kind of sponsorship. At one point when this league was vibrant, there were a lot of sponsors and suddenly there was different distractions. Even the Sun newspaper declared the chairman of the league, man of the year 4 years ago. Some of the big communication companies, the beverage company have been sponsors.
There was Pepsi, Bournvita just a few. In this country, the National television has killed Nigerian sports and that’s the truth. They are supposed to be at the forefront of broadcasting Nigerian League matches if it means going to borrow money from Central Bank to get the kind of facilities to cover Nigerian League matches across Nigeria. Tell me anywhere in the world where the state broadcaster is not involved in the game. If we had a National television that was pushing high our league with all the network broadcasting of our football on a daily basis, who will be interested in all these European leagues?
In South Africa, SABC sport is part of their defining operation; they go out to cover their sports? same thing in the UK, Sky and BBC and in Italy its Italian TV. Once our television is right and we have the right kind of facilities to cover matches within the state and you bombard the airways things will change. Our journalists don’t have the opportunity to train again. I tell my colleagues as president of African sports, you must endeavor to promote your own even as it is bad; you have to look at the good side. There is beauty in the ugliness that is why people like masks. There must be a deliberate effort. For me, they must be a revolution in their side and have our billionaires do something deliberately.
How has the COVID affected the business of Sports?
I must tell you these are difficult times. You try to project and you don’t get answers. Basically we are sport solutionists from the business perspective but the business is not even happening. The highest event was postponed as well as all the big events.
In our country, nothing is happening and we are there looking and hoping and as Bob Marley will say you don’t want to hope in vain. It’s really tight but we are finding new ways of doing old things, getting to look again at our own sports firmament, see some of the bright sport we can latch unto and give people joy all round. On the radio now, I try to mix Sports with Music to find a new fuel to excite the youths.
How are you adjusting to the new normal?
The new normal means when you are going out now the first thing you think about is not even your car key but your face mask. It’s the normalcy that is in reverse.
Do you worry that survival is the new game?
Survival is key that is why we are going back to the things that can keep us up, what are the survival kits? Now we are beginning to look at farming again, people need organic food. Oil is a fading resource and people are looking at farming and the knowledge industry. At AIPs, International Sports Press Association, we’ve been doing considerable work trying to not only create awareness of the new culture; there will be a seminar tomorrow on the cost of reporting for women journalists.
Just as FIFA is focusing on Women football, the International Sports Press Association is also getting the women. We have seen that there are more women in the business yet in the newsroom the men are still dominating, the bylines are still men. You go to all the schools of communication and journalism, the women are there in numbers. We have to give them a hand and together we all move and face the business of journalism and the women are not doing badly.
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