Former Super Eagles captain Sylvanus Okpala has dismissed claims that the low quality of the Nigeria Professional Football League hampered the Eric Chelle-led home-based Eagles’ chances at the ongoing African Nations Championships in East Africa, Footynaija.com reports.
Two abysmal performances and consequent losses to Senegal and Sudan in the group stage of the tournament saw Nigeria suffer an early exit from the competition despite recording a 2-0 win over Congo in the final game of the group stage.
Such a disappointing outing drew understandable outrage from Nigerian supporters with many attributing the performance of the home-based Super Eagles to a lack of quality in the NPFL. However, Okpala, who turned out for Enugu Rangers during his playing days, made a strong case for the Nigerian League and instead pointed his fingers at Chelle’s coaching.
What Sylvanus Okpala said about Eric Chelle and the NPFL
“I have read so many people saying that we failed because the Nigerian Premier Football League’s (NPFL) is of low quality compared to other countries. But that is not true,” the 63-year-old former midfielder said, as revealed by The Guardian.
“Senegal won this championship last time. Now, are you trying to tell me that the Senegalese league is better than Nigeria’s or more recognised in Africa than the NPFL? The answer is no. It’s not about the Nigerian league. It’s about the selection of the players.
“Did we select the best to represent us in that championship? I don’t know because I don’t know the players. But let’s assume that we picked our best for the championship. They had about six weeks or more to train before CHAN. That is where you need to teach them what they need to do.
“The failure has nothing to do with anybody’s league. The English league has been one of the best leagues in Europe for a long time, even before I went to Europe in 1980. But how many times have they won the World Cup? They did not even qualify for the 1974, 1978 and 1994 World Cups. But they have one of the best leagues in the world.
“Even some of the teams, like Morocco and Algeria, are not playing with their best league players, those who are also in their main national teams. We should look at how we trained the team and how to ensure that this type of thing does not happen again.
“If no home-based player is in that World Cup squad, then Chelle’s over three months stay with the local lads was a waste. Period.”
Interestingly, Eric Chelle has unveiled a strong 31-man provisional squad list ahead of Nigeria’s must-win qualifiers against Rwanda and South Africa and of the entire CHAN squad, only 15-year-old goalkeeper Ebenezer Harcourt managed to squeeze his way into the Super Eagles manager’s thinking.