Sport is one area that promote friendliness, unity, peace and fair play. In football, the Federation of International Football Association (FIFA) has FAIR PLAY as its major slogan.
Before every international game, the fair play anthem is expected to be rendered to remind fans and players that the world football body expects all followers of the game to embrace fairness in the interest of the sport. Followers of the game all over the world detest football hooliganism because it could lead to death or permanent disability.
FIFA is very serious about fair play in all its operations. In Nigeria, domestic football in the 90s was well-embraced. Fans love the players and they go all the way for the national league and Challenge Cup (FA Cup) matches.
The Italian and Brazilian Leagues were on television that time, but people still prefer to see the domestic games. Now, people tend to appreciate sitting in the comfort of their homes to enjoy watching league games from other parts of the world, especially the English Premier League, German Bundesliga and the Spanish La Liga.
Only recently, hooliganism reared its head at three centres of the Nigerian Premier Football League – Kano, Katsina and Sagamu. Various inci- dents were recorded.
The fans of Pillars were unhappy over the 1-0 defeat suffered against Akwa United at home by their team and they pounced on some officials and players of the team.
Goalkeepers’ trainer and two players were injured. In Katsina, Enyimba lost 2-1 to Katsina United, but their bus was attacked and vandalised while some players and officials were injured in the process. Enyimba’s keeper, Fatau Dauda, triggered the action when he attacked a ball boy who was allegedly wasting time. In Sagamu, Wikki Tourist’s players were attacked at half time, the coach was also stoned. Journalists were also attacked in Kano and Sagamu. It is bad.
We thought that the League Management Company (LMC) would not react early to the disturbances, but they did barely 48 hours after.
Pillars were fined N7.25 million in total, while they were to play without their fans at the same Sani Abacha Stadium.
We make bold to say this penalty was not enough for putting the game and the entire league in disrepute. Point deduction is one key punishment the LMC should embrace to deal with matters like this, because the fans causing the fracas would also feel the pains when their team goes down on the table. The money is also not big enough to teach the management a lesson.
The N50,000 fine on Enyimba keeper was ridiculously small. Dauda behaved badly and should have been fined heavily so that other players won’t do such. He was also banned for just a match which again was too lenient and not enough to serve as deterrent to others. We are aware the decisions taken were in the books, but time is ripe to review such laws because we don’t want disturbances at our stadia.
It is also crucial to look into those who take decisions on such issues. Our investigations revealed that the decision makers are the people in the organising and disciplinary committee and most of them are club owners with the tendency to help their colleagues whose team has committed infraction.
We hereby call on the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) and the LMC to be very strict and against hooliganism. If a club knows that its team could lose between five and eight points due to a breach at the match venue, the club will provide enough policemen and educate its fans better.
Pillars should have been taken to another venue but that was not done and so they are likely to commit that same offence again.
We should be encouraged to take our children to the stadia, but the events in Kano, Katsina and Sagamu are frightening. Nothing good comes easy.
In Europe and other parts of the world, there are independent people who take decision anytime there is a breach. In such cases, it is usually a group of fans versus the other because at the stadia, there are CCTV cameras that will expose any offender. We can achieve that here too.
There are also adequate numbers of security operatives at the venues facing the fans and not watching the action on the pitch.
The people who perpetrate trouble in the NPFL have continued to do so because they will always get away due to poor personnel and facilities in the country to fish them out.
The domestic league has come of age and we call on the organising body to also work more on the safety at the stadia rather than just the branding and re-branding of the league. Time to act is now.
