The humiliating 4-0 defeat of Nigeria’s home-based Eagles by Sudan at the African Nations Championship in Zanzibar on Tuesday is a damning indictment of the rot that has consumed Nigerian domestic football over the past two decades.
When a team comprising players from the Nigeria Premier Football League cannot compete with Sudan – a country with far fewer resources and a smaller football infrastructure – it signals a crisis that demands immediate and comprehensive intervention.
The statistics tell a story of systemic decline that should shame every stakeholder in Nigerian football. Since Enyimba International’s back-to-back CAF Champions League triumphs in 2003 and 2004, no Nigerian club has won a continental trophy. More alarmingly, Nigerian clubs have been so ineffective in continental competitions that the country had no representative at the recent Club World Cup in the United States – a tournament that featured teams from across Africa.
In the considered opinion of this newspaper,this represents a catastrophic fall from grace for a league that once boasted continental champions like Shooting Stars (1976), Rangers International (1977), BBC Lions (1990), and Bendel Insurance (1994).
The challenges facing the NPFL are well-documented but persistently ignored. Inadequate infrastructure means teams play on pitches that would shame amateur clubs in well-organised leagues. Financial instability has turned once-proud clubs into shadows of their former selves, with players often going months without salaries.
Poor governance has created an environment where mediocrity thrives while excellence is systematically undermined. Limited media coverage means sponsors have little incentive to invest in a product that struggles for visibility, creating a vicious cycle of underfunding and underperformance.
Security concerns have transformed what should be celebratory occasions into exercises in crowd control, with many matches played in near-empty stadiums. When fans cannot safely attend games, football loses its soul and clubs lose crucial revenue streams.
The cumulative effect of these challenges has been the creation of a league that exists in name only, producing players who are technically deficient, tactically naive, and psychologically unprepared for the rigors of international competition.
The absence of vibrant school championships at both secondary and tertiary levels has further compounded the crisis. These competitions once served as crucial talent pipelines, identifying and nurturing young players who would eventually graduate to professional football.
The systematic dismantling of school sports programs has created a talent drought that the NPFL has been unable to address through alternative pathways. Without proper grassroots development, the league is forced to work with a shrinking pool of players who lack the technical foundation necessary for success at higher levels.
The contrast with countries that have maintained robust domestic leagues is stark. While Nigeria’s clubs have stagnated, teams from Morocco, Egypt, and South Africa have consistently performed well in continental competitions because they have invested in infrastructure, maintained professional standards, and created sustainable business models.
These countries understand that domestic league strength is directly correlated with national team success and have acted accordingly.
The Nigeria Football Federation bears significant responsibility for this decline. Rather than providing leadership and vision for domestic football development, the NFF has focused disproportionately on the senior national team while allowing the foundation of Nigerian football to crumble.
This short-sighted approach has produced the current situation where the Super Eagles depend entirely on foreign-based players while the home-based pool shrinks annually.
Corporate Nigeria must also shoulder blame for the NPFL’s predicament. While banks and telecommunications companies eagerly associate themselves with European football through expensive sponsorship deals, they have largely ignored the domestic league. This misplaced priority sends a clear message about where their loyalties lie and contributes to the marginalisation of local football.
The time for excuses has long passed. The federal government must treat football infrastructure development as a national priority, not an afterthought. State governments must be compelled to provide adequate facilities for their clubs instead of treating them as political tools. The NFF must restructure the league to ensure financial transparency, professional management, and sustainable growth.
Most urgently, there must be a comprehensive revival of school sports programs. Without this foundation, Nigerian football will continue to produce players who lack the technical skills and tactical understanding necessary for international success.
The current generation of home-based players, as demonstrated in Zanzibar, simply cannot compete at the continental level.
The CHAN tournament was supposed to showcase the talent available in African domestic leagues. Instead, it has exposed the bankruptcy of Nigerian football development. While other countries use such tournaments to demonstrate their progress, Nigeria has provided a masterclass in institutional failure.
