Former Super Eagles captain Austin Jay Jay Okocha has reiterated his call for proper management of the Nigerian league to make it attractive to investors.
In an interview on Monday in Lagos, Okocha said he had earlier expressed an honest opinion about the Nigerian league being a less-fancied league.
The mercurial midfielder, who started his journey to stardom in football with Rangers International FC in 1990, said his judgement on the level of Nigeria’s football development was devoid of bias.
In a recent interview with local media in Nairobi, Kenya, on September 1, he said he would rather watch the English Premier League than the Nigerian league, an opinion which generated some backlash.
The former Bolton Wanderers captain said the league managers should wake up to their responsibilities.
He highlighted solutions to various challenges stunting the growth of the league, such as lack of grassroots development, academies, feeder teams, and live coverage of the league, which must be attended to.
“My position on the NPFL stands. One thing that is for sure is that there is no shortage of talent in Nigeria; the only difference is management and putting structures in place.
“I don’t want to own a club; I would have loved to. But the question is, how will I function when I know I will struggle to win away matches, knowing that those games won’t be televised?” he asked.
Explaining further, Okocha said, “It hurts to see that the efforts we have put in those years have not been built on.
“The league should give us what we are craving for, and that is why I made the statement so that we will all wake up and do the right thing. We need to start attracting investors to our local league.”
The two-time BBC African Footballer of the Year winner advised the league managers to put all necessary structures in place and make the Nigerian league attractive, allowing people like him to get involved.
According to Okocha, local players start learning about the basics of football when they move to Europe and other countries because grassroots football is not at the level it’s supposed to be in the country.
“If you go to some of the clubs in Nigeria, their so-called feeder teams or academies are filled with old men, even older than those in the main team.
“The structure of the league is deficient and would not attract any meaningful development if the errors are not attended to,” he said.
Okocha explained that the Nigerian league had not yet provided the right opportunities for players at home to play to realise their potential, and that was why some fumbled abroad.
On the newfound love for the Saudi Arabian league by big footballers, Okocha said he wouldn’t resist the offers being made by Saudi Arabian clubs himself.
