Oscar Igbokwe aims higher

Bussdor United Football Club of Port Harcourt last week rewarded players and officials of the club for their wonderful showing in the professional league where they ended up in the top five position.

General Manager of the Club, Ibiso Dakoru told nigeriasports.com that though the team did not achieve their preseason target of promotion to the Premier League, the boys did well since it was their first season in the professional league.

According to Ibiso, the management of the club is proud of the modest achievement of the club which is less than five years old on the scene.

"Considering how old we are, you will understand that we must appreciate the fact that we are already playing in the professional cadre when some of those who started with us are still in the amatuer ranks."

After the event, nigeriasports.com caught up with club president, Oscar Igbokwe who bared his mind on Nigerian Football in 2004.

nigeriasports.com: How do you feel about the 2004 season that just ended?

Oscar Igbokwe: I feel terribly bad about the league. I was disappointed with the system. You know these are part of the things that discourage people and companies to sponsor soccer in Nigeria. There is no encouragement from the  NFA. From beginning to the end of the league, no meeting was called, no discussions. All over the world where they have premier league or any other league, once in a while there will be seminar there will be discussion between those incharge of the commissioning of sports and those involved in sports sponsorship. But such thing never took place in this country probably because they don’t have time. All they know is draw time table for teams to play without realizing the need to call people for dialogue and find out what is their problem, so that they can unite and find a lasting solution to such problem. I was thinking that during the midseason break there would be a seminar or discussion to improve on the next phase of the league. I now realize why  individuals who go into football sponsorship recoil after first experience. I am only appealing to NFA to learn from their mistakes and do something to help the league grow.

NS: So what do you think should be done?

OI: I know they know what to do but if they don’t they should call us. They should call people who are interested in soccer who involve their money because when you involve your money, you will be interested. You will be more interested in what is happening to what affects your investments. So you don’t fill a place with sycophants, people who are not interested in soccer, who have not involved their money or know what it means to involve money in football. They should not be more interested in money. Yes everybody likes money including, myself but they should be focused first to achieved the purpose for which they are there. Money is not everything.

NS: What about the sponsorship of the league?

OI: Honestly I am yet to have a feel of sponsorship in this year’s league. I have not had a feel of globacom the sponsors. This is the third time I am saying this; they should redefine what globacom is doing in the league. May be they do in premier league but I am not aware. They should re-define it and let us know where they are coming from and where they are getting involved in first division. Sponsorship of league should be all encompassing.

NS: There was a lot of crisis in the league especially in the second phase of the league. Do you have any advice for the FA?

OS: I have been calling on NFA to do something especially in the division one. They should form a system to find the best out of the best. I have said it time without number, NFA should introduce a zoning system in first division league and do away with home and away madness. They should create football zones in the six geopolitical zones and create their centres in places like, Calabar, Enugu, Ibadan, Kano, Bauchi and Lagos or otherwise. People from the East will go to the West for their matches and others like that. That is the only way you can find out the best in Nigeria at least for the lower rungs of the league. I have a good team but three matches I played in Lagos were bundles of disappointment. I am talking of a games where a player will dribble a goalkeeper and score a goal and someone other than the goalkeeper will carry the ball in his hands and the referee will say it is no goal.

NS: At Club level what do you hope to do for a better 2005 season?

OI:Like I said earlier, we have to go back to the drawing board and come up with our master plan again and see what we can do. But with this NFA attitude that discourages football investment I don’t know, if it continues, next season will be my last in the league. You see, it is not easy to spend your own hard-earned money and get turned around by some people just like that. I am not saying that I am an angel but things should get better not worse. This will make people come to stadium to watch division one league matches. Why people don’t come to matches is simply because of what is happening, which is most discouraging.

NS: YOu are Bussdor of Port Harcourt but you play games in Aba?

OI: You see I believe so much in one Nigeria. I am from Imo State, grew up in Aba and is doing business in Port-Harcourt. It is just that we found a space here and Aba people love us and they watch our matches. Again as a business endeavour we hope to make money from gate takings and we can’t do that without people coming to watch our game. I love Port-Harcourt but football followers there like watching big league like the premier league and we are not there yet. Aba people are wonderful to that effect because people ordinarily don’t watch first division matches. I have a good management that I trust and no part of my technical crew will be tampered with. They did their best. A coach must not be condemned all the time things go round. In our last match in the league, a player threw away a penalty, the coach did not tell him to do that. We will also inject in some new players to get ready very well for promotion next season. We have the materials, so we are hopeful.

NS: What is your take on the foreign coach issue

OI: I don’t want to talk about that, as I go into what I know very well. Sometimes it is good to bring in someone to assist but that should not amount to sending away the ones we already have but just to assist the ones we have. It is just that we in this country like respecting outsiders, we don’t like to respect our people. All we need is discipline because we have good players but we Nigerians are not disciplined. And when there is no discipline you cannot get the best. We need people who would instill discipline in our players to show them that football is business. Nigerian players think they are in the game for entertainment without knowing it is purely business and they do that and earn their living by doing just that - playing. There is no free gift in football, you work, you earn your wages, our people must get that into their system.

 

By Chigozie Chuwuleta

 

 

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