Ezeji warns Rivers United against complacency, blames football woes on NFF

Super Eagles fringe player Victor Ezeji has identified poor preparation and a fire brigade approach to how teams are assembled for national assignments as key factors that have caused Nigeria to underperform, majorly for continental tournaments.

Speaking to footballlive.com Ezeji put the blame of teams that failed to qualify for major tournaments or performed poorly at them, squarely on the Nigerian FA.

He argues that the other national teams suffer neglect because the NFF invests a large part of its resources and time on the Super Eagles; abandoning the youth teams and teams predominantly home-based players.

“The major problem we will always have in this country is preparing national teams ahead of competitions or qualifiers for those competitions. The only team that the NFF really cares about is the Super Eagles,” the former Nigeria international told FL.

“The Super Eagles always have time to prepare, but the other teams including age-grade, CHAN team and the rest of them, they are given shambolic preparations and we expect the players to perform magic.”

“Football is not magic; in football you get what you put in, but the situation has been very different here. Just like what happened with the U23 team, they didn’t prepare adequately. Honestly, nobody expected anything different from what they got.”

Ezeji then charged the NFF to adopt new strategies to help the Coaches and their teams.

“I see a situation where teams prepare very well, if we prepare very well then we can expect the team’s to do well.

“One year is a long time to prepare, and sometimes it might not a long time to prepare. The truth is that we won’t start preparation until a few weeks to the CHAN qualifiers; maybe the first leg then they start inviting players to come and they expect the players to do magic. It doesn’t work that way. I expect them to start preparation now.

“If they start now, by the time the competition comes around, the Coaches will fine-tune their teams; They’ve known who is playing for them or who is not playing. Even if it has to be on weekly basis, the camp opens and when they’re done, at the weekend the Players return to their teams to play their league matches and come back to camp, we will get it right,” Ezeji offered.

“But situations where we (the NFF) waits until it is one or two weeks before a crucial matches, then the fire brigade approach kicks in, it has never paid off anytime. When the teams then fail, people start saying the CHAN team did not qualify, but nobody talks about how much preparation they got before such games.

“That has been the bane with the CHAN team and the youth teams all through. Proper planning and preparation prevents poor performance; if you prepare very well, you will do well, and if you don’t prepare will you get knocked out.”

Ezeji, a Rivers United legend believe the team stands a chance of reaching the semi-finals of the CAF Confederation Cup only if they ruthless in attack.

Ezeji warned that Rivers United must not allow complacency over their Quarter-final opponent’s pedigree affect their mentality towards the tie.

The Nigerian champions finished second in group B, behind ASEC Mimosas and were drawn against group D winners, Young Africans.

On April 23, the Godswill Akpabio Stadium will host the first-leg, and seven days later the teams settle their scores at the National Stadium in Dar es Salaam.

Speaking on the chances of his former Club, Ezeji, who was also invited by CAF for the draw ceremony, told FL that Rivers United can reach the last four of the Confederation Cup, but they must not underrate the Tanzanian side.

“Well, for me, I don’t think any draw is favourable, for any team to get to that stage; the quarter-finals and on top of their group as well, it’s not going to be that easy for Rivers United. They have to double their efforts, If not, they’ll be knocked out,” the former Sharks FC player said.

“But I’ve seen them play, and I know they can go through this stage. But, if we go there to relax; that it was a favourable draw for them, then that will be to their own peril. I believe if they work hard, appreciate how close they are to reaching the semi-finals, they should get the job done.

“The normal mentality of players is that, most believe that they can win any game. That could make them not put more effort. But I believe in this case, that Rivers United, know what’s ahead of them.”

“Of course, we’ll keep talking to the players so they can understand that, look for these guys to top their group, they’re a very good side. So, you have to work very hard to make sure that you beat them convincingly at home (in Nigeria).

“It’s only where you win properly here, and then you know, you can go there and probably fight to keep your results, or worst-case scenario, you lose with a lesser goal margin, then you get to the next stage.

 “This is no longer the group stage. It’s the knockout phase, so you have to win well if you want to get to the next round.”