A former CAF and FIFA Instructor, Adegboye Onigbinde, has attributed the lack of professional coaches in most Nigerian football clubs to the slow pace of football development in the country.
Onigbinde who spoke on Tuesday in Abuja, noted that most professional coaches in the country were unemployed.
He said that the non-employment of professional coaches in Nigerian football clubs had forced most of them to seek for employment abroad.
“The few coaches we have produced are not employed by clubs because of the Nigerian factor, which many a times dwells on connections rather than quality and knowledge.
“This is because we are running a system of who is right and not what is right, and who you know and not what you know.
“The best professionals, accountants, doctors and engineers Nigeria has produced are not in the country today and it is happening in our football.
According to Onigbinde, Nigerian football will remain underdeveloped if clubs continue to employ the services of untrained coaches.
He wondered why clubs which register players at the beginning of every football season would not register their coaches for proper verification.
“Most of our coaches are outside the country where they will be able to express their knowledge and experience; look through our football clubs today, how many of their coaches are trained.
“Some of them we trained under the CAF Licencing Coaching Course are still roaming the streets.
“In an ideal situation, clubs register their coaches just the way they register players at the beginning of every season,” he added.
The former Super Eagles coach likened the lack of professional coaches in football to a situation where government abolished Teacher Training Colleges and replaced it with National Certificate in Education (NCE).
He said: “Anyone teacher without the necessary training cannot impact knowledge; who taught the person how to transfer knowledge? It’s the same thing in football.’’
If you want to improve the standard of education in this country, produce quality teachers, likewise football; if you want to improve the standard of football in Nigeria, employ quality and trained coaches.
