Phillips urges football reforms after Super Eagles AFCON loss

by · The Eagle Online

Shina Phillips, the President of Nigeria Pitch Awards, has called for a pragmatic and intentional policy framework to drive the development of football and sports in the country following the semi-finals defeat of the Super Eagles by the host, Atlas Lions of Morocco, after a penalty shootout at the ongoing 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON).

He made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria, saying football could become a thriving business in Nigeria if properly developed and sustainably managed.

Phillips noted that the country could reduce its dependence on foreign-based players, if deliberate investments were made in grassroots and local players development.

He said: “Now, we have long lost it because a whole lot went wrong generally with football in Nigeria.

“It was not just about the team, it was administrative.

“It was a whole lot put together.

“And it took us back to a stage we should never have come back to.

“It has happened to even great nations.

“Even Brazil as a nation, you saw their woeful performance at a World Cup that they hosted.

“But it is always an unusual and unexplainable neglect.

“It happened to the German team.

“You just see that a great football nation is suddenly nowhere to be found, but somehow, there comes a manager or a coach who understands where they are coming from.”

According to the Nigeria Pitch Awards boss, rebuilding begins with a clear understanding of culture, tradition, and identity.

Phillips said: “You must understand your culture, your tradition.

“The things that have led you to becoming great at some point.

“You may just have to go back to your drawing board.

“And for us, with this team, I think that the coach has begun to understand the psychology of not just the players, but that of Nigerians.

“Football is serious business and there is a whole lot that goes into it, as it were.

“On a more serious level, you discover that punters, let me use the word, those who punt are busy punting with the hope that they will win.

“That is even at the national level.

“As much as you have those who are analysing daily; they are not doing this analysis just for the fun of it.”

According to Phillips, football success goes beyond entertainment and national pride.

“They are doing it with a mindset that this will not only bring about joy for the nation but will encourage many other young people who don’t even have direction in life, who only can be inspired by what the Super Eagles will do,” he said.

The president recalled a time when football was viewed with disdain by affluent families but would now want their children to participate because of the honour the game had brought especially in 1994, when the team won their second AFCON title.

He said that the victory then showed that football was not just mere entertainment, but indeed, a big business.

According to the Pitch Awards organiser, the shift in perception has led to increased interest in sports participation among children from wealthy homes.

Phillips added: “We now see rich parents who deliberately want their children to play football, or do one sports or the other.

“The parents now consciously, intentionally re-aligning their children who have interest in football to actually go and play football or combine it with their studies.

“This platform has brought about interest in football academies, just like what you have there in Europe.

“You see a rich family will come with their kid and say, look, we want you to start now.

“The growing academies have changed a whole lot about people’s perception of our players, that they are not just, like dropouts.”

Phillips said young Nigerians could now pursue education and football simultaneously with viable financial prospects.

He said: “Now our children can actually go to school and then play football.

“They make money just like the bankers make money, if not more than they do.”

Phillips urged government at all levels to recognise sports as a key economic sector, while emphasising the need for sports development to be treated as a national priority.

He said: “Football is a serious business and it is time also that our own government begins to understand the need to see this sport as big business that can help elevate people and the economy.

“We have lots of downtrodden children on the street that can tap into sports and make a living, because many of them are naturally gifted, but they just need a government that will have the right policy.

“The development of football and sports should be a national concern from the government and strong participation from the top to the bottom.

“Our government should have short-term, mid-term and long-term plans for sports, maybe a plan in the next 10 years or in the next 15 years.

“It should have a proper draft of what this game should be like for us as a nation. Nigeria could become a global football powerhouse with the right approach.

“We should have a programme that is carefully crafted to reposition sports in a way that the process will eventually lead us into becoming the world’s number one football nation, as it were.

“It is possible.”

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