Japan 2020: Team Nigeria’s Shambolic display a lesson to learn or a sign of terrible things to come

Team Nigeria’s Shambolic Display in Japan: A Learning Experience or Bad Portent

When the Nigerian team walked out in mismatched sportswear during the opening ceremony of the 2020 Olympics, many were not surprised and some even predicted such. After all, something similar happened in Rio 2016. The ensuing drama that followed took a lot of people by surprise. First, there was the ongoing drama amongst administrators of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) over the Puma sponsorship deal. In 2019, the AFN signed a $2.7 million contract with the German sports brand to produce kits for each athlete. This should have ensured all of the athletes would have more than one pair, but there were some members of the committee who rejected the deal, citing fraud.

In addition to the uniform issue, there was also the disappointment of 10 athletes being disqualified from the games. Their disqualification was due to the athletes’ failure to meet the minimum testing requirements of the Athletics Integrity Unit. The lack of testing is cited as another piece of the incompetence of the administrators and not a mark against the athletes. Despite the protest of those 10 athletes and the acceptance of blame by the Vice President of Nigeria’s athletics body, Fidelis Gadzama, five years of preparation went down the drain.

While most of the sports betting sites in Africa didn’t give much of a chance to Nigeria’s medal hopes, the team managed to leave the Olympic Games with two medals to its name. A Bronze for women’s long jump thanks to Ese Brume, and a Silver earned by freestyle wrestler Blessing Oborududu who fell just short of gold in her final match. Nigeria has not taken home a gold since the 2000 Summer Games in Sydney and it appears they lack the necessary leaders and structure to change that. Unless things start to take a turn in the positive direction, the failures in Tokyo might just be a taste of things to come. All hope is not lost as Nigeria boasts a population of around 200 million people and is one of the biggest economies on the continent of Africa. There are certainly opportunities to have better showings in International sports. Here are some possible solutions on how things can be improved.

Lack of Preparation & Negligence

Before the drama of the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo this summer, the Nigerian team had already developed the wrong type of reputation from the previous games in Rio in 2016. The Olympics men’s football team, who secured the country’s only medal (bronze) at Rio, were left stranded in the United States where the team was camped in preparation for the Olympics. It took the intervention of former Chelsea midfielder, Mikel Obi and an anonymous benefactor to secure a flight to Rio, a few hours before their opening match against Japan.

Mikel Obi initially denied donating a large sum of money to help in the team’s preparation and welfare, but later admitted whilst pointing out the failures of the sports administrators in Nigeria. Some athletes who represented Nigeria in Rio had to source funds publicly to travel to Brazil, while others were left stranded. When asked why the country’s athletes were in such a dilemma and difficulty, Nigeria’s Minister of Sports at the time offered the rhetoric that no one forced the athletes to represent the country.

Who can forget the opening ceremony drama back in Rio 2016, as the official outfits for team Nigeria failed to arrive in Brazil on schedule. The country’s athletes were left walking around the Olympics stadium in mismatched tracksuits. Another typical example of poor preparation on the part of the administrators. While other countries begin preparations for the next Olympic Games after the previous one, Nigeria is notorious for the fire-brigade approach of waiting till the last minute before preparing for the competition. The country’s trials took place too close to the tournament, which leaves some of the athletes way too fatigued and unprepared to have any hope of an impact.

The majority of the athletes who put on the green-white-green of Nigeria at the Olympics are either based outside of the country or are privately funded. Unless the proper infrastructure is put in place in Nigeria itself, the country has no chance of improving its performance at future Olympic competitions. This is all incredibly disheartening when considering how blessed Nigeria is with an abundance of talented and driven people. All one needs to do is look to the talents of Bam Adebayo, Chindu Utah, and Akinradewo Foluke who won medals representing other countries in Tokyo.

Politics & Sports Don’t Mix Well

There’s always an element of politics involved in sports, after all, one needs a certain number of votes to be voted FIFA President or President of the International Olympics Committee (IOC). Politics seem to be taking over the Nigerian sports scene at this point. It seems one must be politically connected before receiving an appointment or a job in any of the sports federations in Nigeria.

A famous Nigerian politician once advised the country’s leaders to separate sports and politics. Just as can be seen with the most successful countries and federations like the US, Great Britain, France, and Germany whose plethora of medals in the just concluded tournament is evidence of the absence of political influence. They cited the performances of the country or local sports teams in major competitions as down to the interest of the leaders in sports. That advice has fallen on deaf ears. The Puma kit drama at the Olympics is a result of internal politics in both the sports ministry and the AFN, and the athletes came off worse from the needless bureaucratic infighting. A faction of the AFN accused the administrators who agreed to the Puma deal of fraud. Despite those officials being cleared of any wrongdoings, high-ranking members of the Nigerian sports ministry still opted against using the hundreds of kits provided by Puma. Instead, they opted to spend state funds to secure kits for the athletes, which in turn led to the lack of sufficient apparel for those athletes.

The Puma deal also had incentives for athletes, as the German sports brand pledged to offer cash rewards of $15,000, $5,000, and $3,000 for Gold, Silver, and Bronze finishes respectively. However, after the debacle of failing to see their branded kits on the Nigeria Olympic team, Puma was forced to cancel the deal, leaving athletes high-and-dry and without a chance of earning such cash rewards.

Another habit of the administrators in the country is promising to offer cash and lucrative rewards to athletes should they achieve a certain goal rather than providing an environment where those athletes can successfully prepare for the games. Because let’s face it, if you offer me $100,000 to cut down a tree and you ensure I’ve no option of sharpening my ax, I’m never going to successfully cut down the tree. Cash rewards are good, but until the Nigerian administrators and government start to provide its athletes with the necessary tools to compete, not only will shambolic outings like Tokyo continue, a host of these athletes are bound to search for better opportunities with other countries.

A Glimmer of Hope

The Nigerian Men’s Basketball team might have exited the Olympics in Tokyo with three losses to Australia, Germany, and Italy with a bottom finish. However, they offered hope of what the country can achieve with effective planning. The Nigerian Men’s Basketball team is sponsored and funded by private individuals. Eight of the team’s players ply their trade in the NBA and the team has a partnership with the Golden State Warriors. The D’Tigers, as they are known, ignited excitement in Nigeria after their shocking victory over the United States and Argentina in their pre-tournament games. The team, led by Golden State Warriors assistant coach Mike Brown, failed to make it to the quarterfinals but showed a glimpse of the great things that can be achieved should this level of preparation be maintained.

Their female counterparts qualified for their second Olympic Games in Tokyo, and despite losing all three group-stage games, the future of the team looks bright. Players like Erica Ogunmike, Elizabeth Balogun, and Kunaiyi Akpannah are all under the age of 24. The possible future additions of Arike Ogunbowale and Chiney Ogunmike should have the makings of a team that can do well in 2024 in Paris.

Conclusion

It wasn’t all doom and gloom for team Nigeria. Enoch Adegoke, 21 years old sprinter, qualified for the finals of the men’s 100m. A hamstring injury meant he couldn’t finish the race, but the potential is there. Nigeria can also look to the likes of Usheoritse Itsekiri, who just narrowly missed a chance to qualify for the 100m due to injury, and Divine Oduduru, who also barely missed the men’s 200m final, as the bright future for Nigeria’s hopes in Paris.

Tobi Amusan exceeded expectations by qualifying for the women’s 100m hurdles final and finishing in fourth place. Amusan’s outstanding display in Tokyo provided a bright spot for the women’s track team whose star athlete, Blessing Okagbare, was disqualified after she tested positive for Human Growth Hormone.

There’s a popular saying in Nigeria “Naija no dey carry last” meaning Nigerians don’t finish last, maybe it’s time for the country’s leaders and administrators to start targeting the first-place finish rather than hoping they don’t finish off as the worst of the worst.

Lindsey Lubkey

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Bruce Dowbiggin

CHL Vs NCAA: Finally Some Sanity For Hockey Families

Published on November 18, 2024

Bruce Dowbiggin

In forty-years-plus of covering sports you develop hobby horses. Issues that re-appear continuously over time. In our case, one of those issues has been pro hockey’s development model and the NCAA’s draconian rules for its participants. Which was better, and why couldn’t the sides reach a more reasonable model?

In the case of hockey the NCAA’s ban on any player who played a single game in the Canadian Hockey League created a harsh dilemma for hockey prodigies in Canada and the U.S. Throw your lot in with the CHL, hoping to be drafted by the NHL, or play in a secondary league like the USHL till you were eligible for the NCAA. Prospects in the CHL’s three leagues — the OHL, QMJHL and WHL —were classified as professional by the NCAA because they get $600 a month for living expenses, losing Division I eligibility after 48 hours of training camp. The stipend isn’t considered income for personal tax purposes.”

Over the decades we’ve spoken with many parents and players trying to parse this equation. It was a heartbreaking scene when they gambled on a CHL career that gave them no life skills or education. Or the promised NCAA golden goose never appeared after playing in a lower league for prime development years.

There were tradeoffs. NCAA teams played fewer games, CHL teams played a pro-like schedule. The NCAA awarded scholarships (which could be withdrawn) while the CHL created scholarships for after a career in the league (rules that players getting NHL contracts lost those scholarships has been withdrawn). There were more contrasts.

As we wrote here in 2021, it might have stayed this way but for a tsunami created by the antitrust issue of Name Image Likeness for NCAA players who were not paid for the use of their NIL. When the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on the issue in 2015 it warned the NCAA that its shamateurism scheme had to change. That created revolution in the NCAA. Athletes now receive healthy compensation for their image in video and digital products. They can also take million-dollar compensation from sponsors and boosters.

Portals allow them to skip from team to team to find millions in compensation. One of the many changes in the new NCAA was its prohibition against CHL players. To forestall future lawsuits costing millions, it recently made hockey players eligible for the same revenues as football and basketball players. Now the NCAA has voted to open up college hockey eligibility to CHL players effective Aug. 1, 2025, paving the way for major junior players to participate in the 2025-26 men’s college hockey season.

Which, we wrote in 2022, would leave hockey’s development model vulnerable. “As one insider told us, “The CHL model should be disrupted. Archaic and abusive.” NIL won’t kill the CHL but it could strip away a significant portion of its older stars who choose guaranteed money over long bus rides and billeting with other players. It’s early days, of course, but be prepared for an NHL No. 1 draft pick being a millionaire before his name is even called in the draft.”

As we wrote in May of 2022 “A Connor McDavid could sign an NIL styled contract at 16 years old, play in the NCAA and— rich already— still be drafted No. 1 overall. Yes, college hockey has a lower profile and fewer opportunities for endorsements. Some will want the CHL’s experience. But a McDavid-type player would be a prize catch for an equipment company or a video game manufacturer. Or even as an influencer. All things currently not allowed in the CHL.”

Effectively the CHL will get all or most of the top prospects at ages 16-19. After that age prospects drafted or undrafted can migrate to the NCAA model. Whether they can sign NHL contracts upon drafting and still play in the NCAA is unclear at this moment. (“On the positive side, we will get all the top young players coming to the CHL because we’re the best development option at that age,” one WHL general manager told The Athleltic’s Scott Wheeler.

One OHL GM told the Athletic “As the trend increases with American players looking for guarantees to sign, does a CHL player turn down an opportunity to sign at the end of their 19-year-old year with the hopes that a year at 20 in NCAA as a free agent gives them a better route to the NHL?”

The permutations are endless at the moment. But, at least, players and their families have a choice between hockey and education that was forbidden in the past. Plus, they can make money via NIL to allow them to stay for an extra year of development or education. The CHL will take a hit, but most young Canadian players will still see it as the logical launching pad to the NHL.

Now, for once, families can come first on the cold, nasty climb to the top hockey’s greasy pole.

Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the editor of Not The Public Broadcaster A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada’s top television sports broadcaster, he’s a regular contributor to Sirius XM Canada Talks Ch. 167. His new book Deal With It: The Trades That Stunned The NHL And Changed hockey is now available on Amazon. Inexact Science: The Six Most Compelling Draft Years In NHL History, his previous book with his son Evan, was voted the seventh-best professional hockey book of all time by bookauthority.org . His 2004 book Money Players was voted sixth best on the same list, and is available via brucedowbigginbooks.ca.

Bruce Dowbiggin

Hat Trick: Nick Bosa’s Photo Bomb Re-Ignites The Colin Kaepernick Fury

Published on November 4, 2024

Bruce Dowbiggin

For many this U.S. election can’t be over soon enough. The epidemic of the stupids still rages. (Anyone expecting resolution on Tuesday night better be in for a wait.)

Example: On last week’s Sunday Night football, San Francisco star Nick Bosa photo-bombed a postgame interview wearing a MAGA hat. (For some reason it was not the telltale red). He then quickly departed leaving his teammates and NBC reporter Melissa Stark to continue the usual bromides about team and character.

Predictably in this insane election season, Bosa’s drive-by political statement sent social media into an Elon Musk orbit. First were the demands that Bosa be fined by the NFL for political activity. Indeed the NFL can impose a $11,255 fine for “wearing, displaying, or otherwise conveying personal messages… which relate to political activities or causes.” (As of this writing, the NFL has yet to impose any sanctions against Bosa.)

Then there were butt-hurt Democrats. “I hope (49ers CEO) @JedYork trades Nick Bosa to Mar-A-Lago,” wrote Robert Rivas, Democratic speaker of the 29th District of the California State Assembly. “As a lifelong @49ers fan, I can say I’ve seen enough of Bosa in California.” And so on.

More telling were the Colin Kaepernick flashbacks to when he sat in 2016 during the national anthem to highlight his conversion to #BLM orthodoxy. “I better hear all the angry white people who told Colin Kaepernick to “shut up and play ball” or go “keep politics out of the NFL” outraged by this too. Like come on keep your energy or does it only count when you’re able to be racist?

“Two 49er NFL players. Two political statements. Black Lives Matter v. MAGA. Only one is allowed by the NFL.”

“Anyone remember when Nick Bosa called Kaepernick a clown for taking a political stance? Imagine being this much of a hypocrite,” another fan added.

Well now… we could make the point that photo bombing a political preference during an election is somewhat different from a high-profile convert to radical racial reparations disrespecting the national anthem in a non-election season. Here’s how we covered it in August of 2018.

For those who don’t remember the grievance, Kaepernick (who was raised by white parents) suddenly had a fit of conscience over the alleged slaughter of unarmed blacks by police. “I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color. To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder.”

Which is his right, except unarmed black men in 2016, unarmed black men in 2024, are not being killed by police in the hundreds. (Most years it’s in single digits to 20 range in a population of 41 million blacks.) While tut-tutting about the gesture made on his employer’s time, the NFL declined to sanction Kaepernick. Which sparked copy-cat kneel downs and protests around sports, accompanied by the racial divisiveness typical of the Obama years.

His protest also coincided with his decline as a starting QB in the NFL (the 49ers won just two games in 2016). By 2018 Kaepernick was out of work in the NFL (after opting out of a contract from San Fran) and a full-blown BLM martyr. Nike gave him $ 3 million a year to spearhead their Woke campaigns. Netflix did a series on the ex-QB. Newly minted president Donald Trump decried the whole situation. Then Cowboys owner Jerry Jones— who’d knelt with players in Week One of the anthem controversy— threatened to bench any players who upstaged the anthem.

The NFL then passed a rule saying any players who wanted to protest the national anthem could do so in the locker room. That limp policy lasted just a few weeks. Protests during the anthem petered out as they lost their ability to shock. For the next years Kaepernick would claim he was blackballed (he reached a settlement with the NFL in 2019) and express his desire to play.

The 2020 George Floyd riots— after he died of a drug-induced heart attack while in police custody— pushed Kaepernick’s story to the side. He’s now done as a possible QB and the financial problems of BLM have made them a lesser player in the grievance cause. But it is fair to say Kaepernick made a choice to be a symbol for all multi-million dollar oppressed athletes and the radical Left has moved on without him.

So Bosa acting like a college sophomore to express a voting preference after a game compared to Kaepernick wanting a race-based social revolution in America? Mmm. These things are not like the other. It’s like accusing Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce of political interference for appearing with his girlfriend Taylor Swift, a vocal Kamala Harris supporter.

What is inarguable is the toxic Trump effect in pro sports such as football or basketball which have over seventy percent black players. It’s not just black players. Prominent white coaches such as Golden State’s Steve Kerr and San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich go off about Donald Trump. Here’s Pop during a press conference: “He’s pathetic. He’s small. He’s a whiner… He’s a damaged man.”

As we’ve said many times, the left-leaning sports media piled on Trump as well. Former ESPN NBA insider Adrian Wojnarowski F-bombed Trump, TNT analyst and HoF player Charles Barkley said anyone voting for Trump was an “idiot” and award-winning host Bob Costas called him the “most disgraceful figure in modern presidential history” and his voters “a toxic cult”. So the messaging on Bosa vs. Kaepernick is supect at best.

We will update this column after we learn the results of the election (likely later this week). But for now let’s all be grateful that candidate Trump as political football is at an end. And the hysteria from Kamala Harris’ crowd can be re-directed to the border.