Former Super Eagles attacking midfielder, Mutiu Adepoju, has revealed his desire to contribute his quota to the development of Nigerian football through the Lagos International Football Tournament (LIFT) initiative. Speaking exclusively to ANDREW EKEJIUBA after the launch of the project in Lagos, he shared his experiences during his active days as a footballer, the challenges before LIFT and the way forward for the Nigerian league.
What actually made you to go into the Lagos International Football Tournament project?
The motivation came from the way I have seen things being done properly especially the way football is being organised in other parts of the world and I want the same to happen to Nigerian football. I managed 3SC FC of Ibadan and I noticed that during pre-season there are no major activities among clubs in the country because they are not having much of international matches during this period which I feel that our soccer fans deserve to be having every year.
You can see that South Africa are having so many big clubs coming into their country to play football during the preseason and the same is happening in Europe too, so why not Nigeria? That is why we had to promote the LIFT project and football in this regard in the country now.
Remember that Nigeria is known to be a very big football-loving nation, so we have to try to provide an avenue to promote pre-season tournaments so that people could be able to watch good football live.
Are you saying that this your own way of giving back to the society that made you what you are internationally in football?
Yes, it is a way of giving back to my country and saying thank you to many soccer fans that stood behind me throughout my active days in football and even after my retirement. Many soccer fans are aware that I was in Spain for so many years playing football and I saw the way people enjoyed football during the pre-season. Clubs from other countries often come visiting and I feel Nigeria should follow suit.
I believe LIFT is already a success in Nigeria because it is a way of encouraging our upcoming players or youths by giving them clinics and also using that same platform to discover the talented ones among them who will have the opportunity in being in our academy at the long run.
What were the major challenges you and your team faced in packaging this project, because we believe that nothing good comes easy?
To be sincere with you, we started this project in January this year. Though I had the vision earlier when I left 3SC Football Club and I said to myself, what's next for me in this game? How can I contribute to the development of Nigerian football especially the league? To be candid, I was not happy the way the league was going and we all teamed up together in January to brainstorm and package this LIFT project.
Our initial challenge was where to start the project, and that was how we came to Lagos to discuss it with the Lagos State Government because we discovered that there are a lot of sporting facilities in the state with huge pool of corporate bodies to support the vision.
So, with the willingness and support of the good people of Lagos State, we called on the Commissioner for Youth and Sports, Hon Waheed Enitan Oshodi who carefully studied the proposal and saw that it was a laudable project. From there the proposal was taken Governor Babatunde Fashola (SAN) who finally looked at it and approved the project.
Since April we had the approval from Lagos State and today, we are working hand-in-hand with the Lagos State Football Association to actualise this vision.
It is worthy to state here that LIFT is not the project of Mutiu Adepoju only, but the project of every Nigerian that wants our football to develop. On the challenges we have been facing, it is not much because we had to make people to believe in the vision behind LIFT which was a challenge of its own since it is a unique thing that has not happened in the country before.
So people will need to ask questions and receive explanations from us. However, some people may be skeptical in coming forward to back the vision through sponsorship, but I believe that with time they will change their minds and key into the LIFT project because I foresee a great future in it.
You made mention of raising football academies within the five years of the existence of this project. Can you throw more light to this assertion?
Our intention is actually to have football academies that will help our upcoming footballers grow to stardom. However, we are not too hasty over the issue now because we want to take things stepwise by using the proceeds from the project to actualise all these dreams. Like I said earlier, I have seen things like this being done elsewhere, so we want to bring down our wealth of experience to bear in this project to the glory of Nigerian football.
As an advice, I really want people to believe in the vision behind LIFT because it will help lift our football from its present state, promote the hidden talent we have in Nigeria and attract investors to our league, within and outside the shores of the country.
From your analysis, can you say our present day youths, especially the footballers among them are lucky to have something like the LIFT to look up to?
Yes is my candid answer. I want say that they are very lucky. We also want to see these dreams we have for them to come to fruition because during our time we didn't have this opportunity. We are giving them this opportunity to encourage them to become great soccer stars in future, and my advice to these upcoming footballers is that they should make good use of this opportunity to give their soccer career a great boost.
What are the major impediments confronting the growth and development of Nigerian league?
There so many things that have gone wrong with our league and I remember that even when I was managing 3SC we have been discussing all these problems.
First, the facilities are lacking and these facilities are very important for the development of the league.
Secondly, the security at our various stadia is not enough to checkmate hoodlums during league matches. Aside the aforementioned, there is a lack of willingness on the part of the major actors of the league like the administrators, players and match officials to do the right thing.
They have a lot to contribute to the development of the league which is seriously lacking.
We also need to believe in hard work in terms of turning the league around for good. Example, the crises in the league involving club owners, sponsors and administrators are making the league to look like a hard sell to sponsors and corporate bodies which is bad.
What is your advice to our upcoming footballers who are always in a haste to sign contracts abroad with lots of mistakes and regrets in the long run?
I will like to advice them to be more careful in this regard, but if you take a closer look at the poor economic situation of the country, you cannot blame them either.
The poverty level in the country is high and everyone wants to have food on his or her table, so any opportunity by these players is often grabbed tightly by both hands. Nevertheless, if our league is thick like it is in Egypt, there will be no room for such anomalies.
Today, most Egyptian players will prefer to play at home because their league is well organised and the players are comfortable and well paid. Also, these top football-playing nations have better playing facilities and I see this as one of the reasons our players are so eager to play abroad.
However, we need to address all these problems to stem the mass exodus of our players from our league. We really need to give our players good contracts that can sustain their means of livelihood.
Finally, to our players in the league, I want to also advice them to look out for good managers or agents who can help direct their careers better. They should avoid overzealous agents who are only after what will line their pockets without thinking about how to give the player's career life.
National Mirror
Whatever it would take us to improve on our football should be done as soon as possible cos it would make a lot of sense.