OPINION: Death of Nigerian Football, by Eddie Iroh

On Tuesday, March 12, when Barcelona Football Club of Spain played AC Milan of Italy in their UEFA Champions League encounter, an angry young Nigerian Kemi Martins kicked off a raging storm on Facebook.

Martins, a very articulate and regular blogger called Nigerian football fanatics some unprintable names. She continued: "They will be following Chelsea and Barcelona around whilst their nation is being raped! How does the fate of Barcelona or Chelsea affect the price of fish in your village? ... They won't invest their time in valuable things that will improve the quality of their reasoning. How will Nigeria change if you continue in your folly?"
While Martins's outrage appears to brand football as a waste of time, I have a different take on the matter. I am a football fanatic and make no apologies for it. Nor has my love for the sport deprived me of any opportunity for self-growth or prevented me from doing the best I can when the occasion arises. But here is the difference. I grew up with football in Nigeria, specifically Enugu Rangers International. Although we all deceive ourselves that sport and politics do not mix (flash back to China and the US and the 'Ping-Pong diplomacy' that changed their relations in the 70s), it was the political significance of Enugu Rangers winning the Challenge Cup, one year after the defeat of Biafra, that endeared the club to the hearts of Ndigbo in the early 70s.
To come from the war front and 'conquer' Nigeria so soon after Ndigbo had been given a bloody nose in battle was a psychological, political and sporting morale booster for a defeated people. On match days, Enugu stadium would be packed to the rafters, with standing room only. We forgot our misery and reveled in the victory that had eluded us in the battlefield. It was more than sport; it was politics as well. But it WAS sport, if you pardon the deliberate contradiction, because the focal issue here was that Rangers played fantastic football. It was a joy to watch Rangers play. The all-conquering Brazilian team of those days could not hold a candle on them.
The superstars of Rangers - Christian Chukwu, Nwabueze Nwankwo, Harrison Mecha, Kenneth Ilodigwe, Godwin Ogbueze, Emmanuel Okala, and a host of others - were heroes, even demi-gods in our youthful eyes. Interestingly, not a single one of them had played abroad, nor did they have access to foreign football matches on television. Indeed radio was the main medium for enjoying football and iconic broadcasters like Ishola Folorunsho and Sebastian Offurum made their names as sport-casters. More important for me, even after I went to study in the UK a few years later and fell in love with Liverpool Football Club, Rangers remained my club and retained my loyalty till today.
But what we have now is literally a different ball game. It would appear that our love for the game and support for local players have migrated to foreign lands and foreign clubs. On match days in Europe and Nigeria, while Warri Wolves or Shooting Stars of Ibadan and other top clubs in the Nigerian Premier League are playing to embarrassingly empty stadia, pepper soup joints and beer parlours across the land draw massive crowds around wide screen television sets installed primarily for Nigerians to gather and watch Chelsea, Manchester United, Arsenal, et al. Families have been divided along European club lines. A husband and wife were reported once to have come to fisticuffs over which club they should watch on television.
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