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By Amaechi Agbo

As Super Eagles begin camping for Egypt 2019 AFCON today, Nembe City FC Chairman, Victor Baribote has criticised the team’s head coach, Gernot Rohr for excluding home-based players from his preliminary 2019 Africa Cup of Nations, AFCON list

The former Bayelsa State FA chairman also lampooned the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF for abandoning the playing tradition of the national team in place of foreign style.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with Best Choice Sports, Baribote added that abridged format adopted by the various leagues’ managements in the country is a sign of doom for the nations’ leagues.

“There is a trend in the federation now which is very dangerous. You cannot just abandon the talents we have in the country to waste. Because the league is not well-organised which the administrators know very well, we now have a national team purely made up of foreign-based players.

“The Nigeria team used to have playing tradition and that tradition was gotten from the league, that era has gone today. We don’t have a playing tradition any more. You cannot play the Brazilian pattern of football more than them. So if we decided to do away with our own type of African football which has to do with ruggedness and robust football and adopted the European pattern, then you have to master the system more than they do.

“We cannot grow if we neglect the leagues in the country and one of the easiest ways to kill the league is to stop picking players from the local clubs. NFF is not all about national teams. It is about football, Nigeria football federation. Therefore, being the NFF president is not all about how the national teams can play their matches but how we can sustain our playing tradition. How can we sustain the league. Nobody should blame the national leagues if there are no sponsors.

“And one thing you should know is that the lower leagues, I know very well, cannot go to some bodies or organisations for sponsorship because NFF would tell you that they had covered them in sponsorship before. If the leagues had gone for sponsorship and were unable to get any, as the parent body, what did you do so as not to allow the league collapse?

“When you merge the clubs five in a group, the usual travel across the country where the players meet and mingle with their southern or northern fellows is no longer there. Apart from the business angle, there is recreational aspect of football and we should not allow it to die. Meeting and interacting with people just as we see in the national youth service is part of the leagues. It makes people to believe that we are one. I think that intention is gone. It is in the lower league that we used to see groupings but when you talk about the national one, which is the second best in the country and for you to qualify to play in the premier league, you must excel from the national league. If you observed from the years past, those that graduated from the national league to the NPFL, they always excelled because of the competitiveness of the national league but I think that era is gone

“If it is because of lack of sponsorship, the NFF should do something, stimulate the league and make it more vibrant. If our leagues are vibrant, our football will be better for all of us,” he concluded.