League: Nigeria’s Football Structure Terrible – Onigbinde

With chairmen of football clubs  having a running battle with the League Management Company, LMC, former Head Coach of  the Super Eagles, Adegboye Onigbinde, has said that the only way football could thrive unhindered in the country was through a viable administrative structure.
Onigbinde told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos during the week that the ongoing rancour between the League Management Company (LMC) and club owners was needless.

Adegboye Onigbinde

The veteran coach urged
the contending parties to sheathe their swords and close ranks for the long overdue improvement of the country’s domestic football league.
Onigbinde, who is also a CAF and FIFA instructor, attributed the early exit of the country’s clubs from CAF competitions as a symptom of the problems afflicting domestic football.
It could be recalled that Heartland FC of Owerri, Lobi FC of Makurdi and Kano Pillars FC of Kano, were all sent packing from the preliminary round of the competition.
The only club left in any CAF competition is Rangers International FC that dropped to the CAF Confederation Cup from the CAF Champions League.
Rangers International got trounced 3-1 by CRD Libolo FC of Angola in Luanda, after battling to a goal less draw in the first leg in Enugu.
The defeat effectively consigned the 1977 winners of the then African Cup Winners Cup competition to the lower rungs of continental competitions.
“Everybody will now heap the blame on the club, but it goes beyond the players and it is not just about kicking the ball on the field. We keep saying the same thing over and over, but nothing is being done. I am beginning to sound like a broken record,” he said.
Onigbinde urged the authorities to be steadfast in its bid to repackage the NPFL for a better and more conducive atmosphere for players and the clubs.
“There shouldn’t be any rancour between the LMC and the club owners, they need to comport themselves in a manner in which more sponsors will be willing to do business with them. We do our things upside down .
There is no cause for the rancour, the administrative set up is terrible. A house divided against itself is not a marketable brand.
If we get our administrative structure right, there will be development at all levels, including our clubs. It is bad that clubs now fight for players and these are shameful developments,” the former Eagles Coach added.