The 2009 FIFA U-17 World Cup is the second FIFA tournament being hosted by Nigeria. Exactly ten years ago in 1999, it hosted the U-20 World Cup.
For Nigerians who expected that ten years on, we would have perfected the techniques of successfully hosting a FIFA tournament, have been sorely disappointed. As far as organisation of tournaments go, many believe Nigeria 2009 has been a fiasco, its only saving grace being the quality of football played by the youngsters from the 24 countries participating.
Capitulating to rain
Indication that all was not going to be well with the tournament came early on. On the opening day, Saturday October 24, torrential rains marred the match between Argentina and Honduras.
The pitch lacking proper drainage became a pool of water making movement for players difficult. For Nigerians watching the match it was truly embarrassing that their National Stadium built at the cost of $360 million in 2003, lacked the elementary requirements found in stadiums built with far smaller budgets. The soggy pitch in addition to denying the Argentineans and Hondurans opportunity to express themselves, led to a late start of Nigeria's opening game with European champions, Germany.
The embarrassment was not limited to the National Stadium in Abuja. In Calabar and Enugu games have been severally disrupted for the same reason. At the Enugu centre, the match between Burkina Faso and New Zealand on Wednesday was suspended for more than thirty minutes with score at 1-1 in the 64th minute. It was later concluded more than one hour and forty-five minutes later. In Calabar, a similar scenario played itself out only this time the rains proved too heavy for the Group D match between Costa Rica and Turkey to be concluded. With scores at 0-0 the match was shifted to Thursday.
Sordid tales
It has not just been rain pock marking the organisation of championship. There have been cases of sloppy handling of basic functions by organisers of the tournament. One sticky point has been the accreditation of officials and journalists for the event. At the Lagos centre it has been a harvest of complaints as volunteers and journalists intending to cover the tournament have been left stranded.
At the Teslim Balogun Stadium, venue of the matches for the Lagos centre of the tournament, most of the volunteers for the tournament have had a harrowing experience. After a rather tedious selection process, which started just a little over a week to the tournament, many of them were told at the last minute that they were no longer needed.
For those who scaled the hurdle, the process of getting accredited and kitted for the job proved daunting. On Wednesday, one of the ladies who finally got selected said that three days into the tournament she was yet to be formally accredited:
"All I have been given is this uniform you see me wearing. I have yet to be formally accredited even though I have been going to the accreditation office since Monday," she said. For some others, the kits provided did not fit; they were either too small or too large. On Thursday, in response to a complaint made by a volunteer that she was given outsize short, an LOC official told her to take them to a tailor for amendment.
Not a media event
One thing FIFA, the world football governing body, prides itself in is that it is a media friendly organisation.
It often goes to great lengths to court members of the media, particularly during tournaments such as this. Sadly for them,
Nigeria 2009 has been one huge disappointment as the bulk of Nigerian journalists particularly those in Lagos where the majority of sports journalists reside, have lost interest in the event due to the attitude of officials of the Lagos sub-seat of the LOC.
The complaint made by most of the journalists centres on their inability to get accredited for the tournament despite having duly completed registration on the FIFA website and being issued with accreditation numbers. The accreditation of journalists in Lagos lasted only one day from Wednesday October 21 to Thursday. By Friday members of the media who wanted to get accredited waited the whole only to be told that the office had run out of material.
At the matches played so far in Lagos, only a few of those who managed to get accredited have turned up. One of the officials, who spoke under anonymity, said that in Lagos only about 700 people, 250 of them journalists, were accredited before FIFA shut down their operations on the weekend the tournament commenced whereas the Kano centre, which had only three matches allotted to it had accredited over 1000 persons and was still doing so as at Tuesday last week. Attempts to get clarification from Mondher Chaouachi, FIFA's Media Officer for Lagos, were unsuccessful as he declined to comment saying he was under instructions not to talk about such matters.
In a phone interview, the General Manager, Media Services, Emeka Odikpo, denied claims that journalists who filled accreditation forms on the FIFA website were not accredited:
"I'm aware about the problem of journalists not being accredited but the issue is that they did not apply when they were asked to apply. That is just the main problem, this is a FIFA competition and you know they are the ones controlling accreditation and not us (LOC), if they don't put your name in their system there is no way the accreditation people would accredit you," he said.
Saving grace
Despite efforts by the organisers to taint the image of Nigeria through their shoddy handling of the tournament, Nigeria 2009 has not been a complete disaster thanks to the young footballers who have entertained fans with their magical football skills.
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