A former international, Dr. Felix Owolabi will be 70 years on November 24th. In this exclusive interview with ADEKUNLE SALAMI, he spoke about his football career and the treading issues in football especially the qualification of Nigeria for AFCON 2025. Excerpts:
How will you evaluate the Super Eagles after the qualification for the 2025 AFCON…
We should thank God for the Eagles qualification to the 2025 Nations Cup in Morocco. The qualification is very key. Because it would have been disastrous if Nigeria did not qualify. However we need to get more legs before the AFCON finals next year. We need more purposeful defensive and attacking midfielders. There is still room for improvement. The boys have given their best to give us the needed leverage. Having said this there must also be continuity in team selection so that there will be an absolute team work and team spirit. That is what football is all about.
The Eagles have no substantive coach yet, are you worried?
No doubt a vacuum was created immediately Perseiro left. Thank God the interim man Austin Eguavoen took up the responsibility. And for that decision we have secured the ticket to Morocco 2025 Nations Cup. By the time Perseiro left it was very difficult to get a replacement immediately. By then, credible coaches were already engaged. But if the federation desire to get a new coach so may it be, all Nigerians want is results.
The Eagles are in a tight position in the 2026 World Cup race. How can we come out of it to pick a ticket?
We will need the patriotic zeal of the players and the ability of the usual spirit “We can do it, we want to do it and we must do it” mentality. The game is all about commitments and your ability to ask yourself what you want from what you are doing. It is the basic and official principle in anything you are doing. Yes the coach stands in as a guide in achieving a set goal. Total commitment is therefore all we need. It must start from the media, the people, the federation and the actors themselves. All put together and everybody playing a positive role will get us the qualification. We must all rise up in that direction. Because this cause is about Nigeria as an entity. The players must be taken of for optimal performance discipline. The World Cup is the biggest stage of Football. It has become a global phenomenon that it is a dream of any footballer to get to that stage. So I hope this crop of players will see the challenges of this qualification as something they must achieve in their own life time, so, they can stand on the sands of time. I know it is possible and I pray they realise it that way so that their focus will be more positive.
The age grade teams are not performing well like before, what can the NFF do to revive youth football
What we need to do or what we would have done was to keep records of those players in all the various tournaments. List their names as well their coaches. Do a review of how the various coaches got the players they are training programmes etc. Sit down and analyse all these. Call all the coaches of those years in question and begin to tell you all they did at their time, coalate all as a summary. In the end you will get answer.
In other countries of the world nobody throws away a world-class coach who has excelled. Rather they are kept in the custody of the nations’ Technical Department under youth grade department. A clarification of this is what happened to Spain when the country won the world Cup in 2010 in South Africa. The man who won the world Cup was in the federation’s staff list grooming players until when Federation saw him as the right person. Here we throw them away and that is why we have problems in that direction. Where is Fanny Amun Where are the other coaches who performed magic for us. A coalition of all these people put together will move us ahead. Another area where we are not getting it right is staging competitions rather than developing sport. Look at what FIFA is always telling all the Federations. Their priority is “To develop the game”. I have not seen any State Football Associations engaging coaches in their domain to help develop the game by drawing out programmes to identify train them and have a competition to do such programmes and get them to the various age groups for invitation. A fire brigade approach can only last for a while. It is not the solution to the development of the game. School Sports is key in this direction. But today what do we see? Quack academies have become most of these coaches go to get players with all manner of agents. My heart bleeds. Whereas if we get our rhythm together, we have talents in this country. The future of our football lies in the local league.
How can we make the domestic league better and more attractive?
A good management is required We need to have an honest and credible people to manage the league. Conglomerate companies should be lured to partner with the league while the body must give them the desired leverage. The league must sit down and have comprehensive calendar year so that it goes in line with others across other clime. The league must go on even when there public holidays like Christmas, Ileya and others. Do lots of raffles. Make the league environment conducive for people to come and catch fun. Adequate security must be provided for all those who come to watch football. The league management must from time to time give the stakeholders seminars to update them with the latest rules. Good officiating will bring back the crowd. I am happy that the present management is driving towards that direction. They can still do more. Let us therefore see 70 per cent of our league players forming the bulk of the national team. Any time any day, I still believe in the league players at home front. The management should also collaborate with all the clubs so that whatever is derived from sponsorship could help in upgrading the coaches level of technics and tactics for a better and free flow of the game. My reason is because football as much as it is about victory as a priority it is also about entertainment and celebration. All these are what can inspire people to come to the stadium and enjoy their weekend. It must be a fun filled atmosphere.
Owolabi will be 70 years old on November 24, tell us about the ups and downs of your journey
I retired from active football when I clocked 38 years and that was when 3SC won the first CAF Cup for Nigeria and Oyo State. The journey and my path had been characterised by the good the bad and the ugly. A lot of stories to tell. At 70, football is my life, what more can I say? Let’s leave it at that. I am grateful to God for my football journey.
What are your dreams for football in Nigeria in the next five years
The world is changing every moment. Football in Africa is growing fast. Every country today is embracing the game to the highest level. So now, it has become competitive. Nigeria needs to wake up. We are at sleep. While many countries like Morocco have woken up and flying all over the place Nigeria is still asleep relying on past achievements. How many of our stadia are worthy for and local national and international competitions? Facility is the number one foundation for our football development. Where is the mighty liberty Stadium? Where is the National Stadium in Lagos? What is happening to Abuja National Stadium as the vast facility therein are getting rotten… Our tomorrow can only be good if we can assess ourselves in totality, see reasons where and how we got it right at a time and why we are struggling now. This is my personal opinion anyway as somebody who I may say has seen it all in our football.
