Amos Adamu expresses worry over poor performance by Nigerian clubs in CAF competitions

Nigeria’s representatives’ failure to go beyond the first round at CAF-organised tournaments shows a decline in the quality of the country’s professional league, according to a top sports’ official.
Amos Adamu, a former Director-General (D-G) of the defunct National Sports Commission (NSC), said on Monday in Lagos that the league should be restructured to enhance improved performance.
He urged managers of the league and players to wake-up to their responsibilities.
In the last three years or more, the nation’s club sides have not been faring well in continental competitions despite qualifying for those competitions in flying colours.
The development has made football analysts and other stakeholders to question the quality and standard of the nation’s premier league.
Adamu said that the nation’s league had not been vibrant as it was in the past coupled with highly competitive Challenge Cup, now Federation Cup.
“Now, look at them, how do you measure how they perform? Is it when they go out for competitions? And each time they go out, after the first and second rounds, they are all out.
“So, something must be done about it. They go to international competitions like CAF competitions, you discover they are out, we need to improve on that,’’ he said.
In the last one month, most of the clubs such as Warri Wolves and Akwa United that represented the country crashed out of the 2016 CAF Champions League.
Enyimba FC of Aba remained the only club to have won the CAF Champions League in 2004 and 2005.
Issues such as late arrival to match venues, improper funding and managerial wrangling within the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) have led to several match walkovers.
Also fatigue due to long travels has always been a recurring excuse.