Taking Gianni Infantino’s charge very seriously

The FIFA Executive Football Summit held in Nigeria between February 20th and 22nd in Lagos which had in attendance the FIFA President Gianni Infantino, CAF President Ahmad Ahmad, FIFA Secretary General Fatma Samoura among others may have come and gone.

 Again the maiden NFF award may have come and gone but the lessons to be learnt from both events cannot be overemphasized.

Some have quarreled with some of the awards and in particular the legend 11 which had late Rashidi Yekini, Muda Lawal and many dead and living legends conspicuously missing.  Others have also frowned at the idea of combining both men and women in the same legend 11, describing it as a misnomer better still a caricature of a serious matter.

The reason given by those throwing pebbles at the Glass House over what they dubbed serious blunder is that though the men and women play the same round leather game they are usually categorised differently but trust Nigeria to do things differently even if it does not have a place in the acceptable way of doing things.

With all the agreements and disagreements, the unanimous agreement however is that, it was a good thing to have flagged off the award and that it is hoped that continuous improvement will be recorded with every edition in quest of perfection or near perfection since a school of thought still believe in this age and time that nothing can be perfect. 

So let’s just leave the argument at that and say congratulations to all those who were recognised and urge those who were omitted to please exercise patience in the hope that improvements are on the way and that indeed a time will come when a Hall of Fame will come on stream to put on record all those who have done the nation proud on the pitch, on the tracks, in the pool, in the ring and indeed other sports arenas.

However it is important to underscore one observation made by Infantino in the course of the programs. His submission appeared to have been consumed in the euphoria of the moment with no one particularly interested in having any negatives.

Of course that is understandable but basic truth cannot hide even if covered with a silver pot.  I recall meeting Infantino in Rwanda at the 2016 edition of the Championship of African Nations (CHAN). Then he was more or less campaigning in his bid to head the World soccer ruling body after the unceremonious exit of Sepp Blatter only bridged by 141 days of Issa  Hayatou’s reign on acting capacity.

He outlined what he intends to do including the possibility of increasing the number of countries participating in the World cup to 48.

The new format being proposed for the 2026 edition of the world cup will see Africa for instance getting 9 slots up from current 5.  Asia - 8 (up from 4 or 5) Europe - 16 (up from 13) North, Central America and Caribbean - 6 (up from 3 or 4) Oceania - 1 (from 0 or 1) South America - 6 (up from 4 or 5).

In the course of the campaign he emphasised that players who are the main actors of the game must always remain the face of the game and the center of attraction whenever and wherever football events are taking place.  This again he repeated while in Nigeria that 'footballers must be the face of the game'

The submission is not unconnected with our usual culture of introducing and saluting so many political figures in sports events to the point that an on-looker may begin to wonder whether the event is a sports event or a political or social gathering.

Sometimes three to four pages are used to recognise and eulogise political big wigs some of who mistake the arena for another party convention.

This sort of arrangement does not go down well with Infantino and FIFA’s idea of ensuring that the players are the major focus in their own business.

Popular awards like FIFA Best player award, Puskas award,

Ballon d’Or among others, often take very short time to conclude as embellishments are completely cut off.

The reason is not farfetched, strictly sports event is not an arena for too much talk.  Most times it is recognition of achievement made by a sportsman or group of sportsmen at the case may be.  It is usually based on verifiable statistics, so announcement of a winner or winners does not take hours but indeed minutes.

That is not to say recognitions should not be made at such events but such recognitions should never be allowed to take the shine off the event and the footballers who are the reason for gathering in the first place.

In fact in some of the awards mentioned above, those recognised outside the nominated are mostly past players, past winners, and perhaps those who missed winning by whiskers.

The new approach these days is to go straight to the points after one or two recognitions and cutting off others by adding “All Protocols Observed”  

We can’t afford to be different, we must key into world standard and this should be put into consideration in planning the next edition.