Amodu?

I was watching the ATP World Tour finals the other day and guess who was in the stadium? Irish captain, Robbie Keane. It reminded me of the saying that "life goes on". It was barely a week ago that he shed bitter tears after Thierry Henry "handed" France the ticket to South Africa at the expense of the more deserving Irish team.

The difference between Maradona's "hand of God" and Henry's is that England were already at the World Cup. For some of these Irish players, they may never get a chance to play at the biggest stage of their soccer career. Yes, we see bad calls by officials' week in week out, but when it comes to the World Cup, it takes four whole years to make amends unlike say, the premiership where you have 38 matches and the Champions League is a yearly affair.

But like the players said, it's time to move on, particularly as FIFA had said the match would not be replayed. I wonder why the world football governing body took this stand, especially since it ordered the replay of the match between Uzbekistan and Bahrain in 2005.

With FIFA president Sepp Blatter calling an emergency meeting on the Henry incident, maybe it is time to look into the video technology or the use of extra officials as is already being tested in the Europa league.

No time for sentiments

Enough of Henry's moment of madness.

Let's talk about what should concern Nigerians more. Yes, our flag is proudly flying in South Africa and the Nigeria Football Federation has confirmed that Amodu will lead the Eagles to the Nations Cup and the World Cup.

Seriously, we need to avoid confusion at this time. The Nigerian football Federation must take decisions devoid of sentiments. The big question remains, should Shuaibu Amodu stay or should he go?

The truth is I am not a fan of Amodu and I have never hidden it, although I must say I am grateful to any and everybody who was in Kenya with the team, Amodu included. All of a sudden, those of us who thought Amodu wasn't good enough for the job now think he is the messiah. You keep hearing comments like "he qualified the team for the World Cup, therefore, he should be allowed to take the team to South Africa", "he should be allowed to reap where he has sowed and it will be injustice to let him go."

However,there are still people who, despite the fact that he's qualified us for two World Cups now still believe that he is not good enough for the job.

For me, it has become a real difficult "matter" mostly because I am blinded by sentiments. First things first, what was the mandate given to him in the first place? Was it to qualify or qualify and take Nigeria to the world cup? The honest truth is that, I don't think that he is the best man for the job. I personally don't think he has a firm control of the team. He seems confused a lot of times. I think we need someone who is tactically sounder.

Yes he didn't lose any match during the qualifiers but we only barely made it with a star-studded team when compared with the other teams in our group. It really depends on what our target at the World Cup is. Is it just for participation sake or do we plan to get to the semi-final like Idah Peterside predicted?

Better still, why don't we bring in a world class coach to work with Amodu? My first choice of the long list of coaches rumoured to be on the NFF's radar is Gus Hiddink. I believe he has proven himself. Even though Russia didn't qualify, under him the Russian national team has become a force to reckon with in European football. Even at club level, we saw how well he did with Chelsea very recently. Also, since we have the same playing style as the Dutch, using the wings, it may be easier for a Dutchman to come in. For someone who sent Edgar Davids home from Euro 96 for arguing with him, he is definitely firm.

Not Amodu alone

We can't heap all the blame on the coach and players when we lack competent administrators. We are all crying for Hiddink, Trappatoni, and all these "big" names, the question is, who will pay? Or are they going to be owed like past coaches? Would these so called big names be willing to live in Nigeria? Or will they have a Berti Vogts-like contract? What about Westerhof? The man has proven he really loves this country and I believe he has the best interests of this nation at heart and he understands Nigerian football and the politics surrounding it.

We need administrators that understand the need for early preparation and get rid of politics when it comes to team selection.

I also don't think that we have exceptional players and I think that some of the players in the Super Eagles should be dropped, remember, no sentiments. The likes of Stanley Okoro and Sani Emmanuel should be added to the team after their brilliant performance at the recently concluded U-17 World Cup. After all if they are overaged as is being claimed in some quarters, then they should be ready to take on the big stage.

It's either we take the bull by the horn now if we are to be successful in South Africa or start preparing for 2014 and just "show face" in 2010.