Former Nigeria international, Emmanuel Babayaro has revealed that the problem of Africa’s footballers is not the administrators of the round leather game but the players themselves.
Emmanuel, who is the older brother of former Chelsea and Newcastle United player Celestine Babayaro, disclosed that lack of any form of co-ordination among the players is their greatest setback.
The lanky goalkeeper, who was a member of the victorious 1994 FIFA U-17 World Cup winner, while speaking on the promised scholarship and shares in oil company given to the victorious Golden Eaglets, said lack of cooperation is the main reason the players till date have not gotten what was promised them.
“First of all nothing was heard about the scholarship neither was anything heard about the shares in the oil company. Many years ago Coach Fanny Amun reached out with shares in a paint company, it’s still there.
“If my memory serves me well Chief Ernest Shonekan mentioned N100,000 largesse but said we were to be given N50,000 cash while the other N50,000 should be used to purchase shares in the oil company. So N50,000 we got but shares in the oil company never happened,” Emmanuel Babayaro said.
When asked about the effort of the players to redeem what was pledged to them, Babayaro, who was also part of Nigeria’s gold medal winning team at the 1996 Olympics, said that can only happened if there is unity among the players.
“You can only do that if there was some form of co-ordination among the players, I’m afraid that is nonexistent.
“It’s not a question of capable hand, it’s a black players thing, evident even at the senior level, they can’t seem to unite for a purpose, unnecessary envy, hate is the order of the day.
“My brother did you see Drogba scoring zero in a vote cast by ex internationals in his country? Have you noticed how many players union we have? And ex internationals Union too? Can you see what is happening to Fuludu and Ikpeba with very scarce support from their constituency of ex internationals? That is the lot of African players, envy, jealousy, hate etc. Synergy is near impossible for now.” he added.
Packaged by Lanre Olabisi
