It’s time to make changes in our football – Fuludu

[FILES] Super Eagles players (Photo by Daniel BELOUMOU OLOMO / AFP)

‘Government, Ex-players, Coaches, Fans, Media Are Culpable’ Former Super Eagles winger, Edema Fuludu, has called on the government, players, administrators, fans and sports journalists to have a change of attitude for the nation’s football to grow.

“Our football has nosedived because government, who gives subvention is turning a blind eye to the numerous anomalies associated with the running of our dear game. We cannot exhaust government culpability here,” Fuludu said in a message to The Guardian yesterday.

Fuludu, a member of both the Tunisia ’94 Super Eagles winning squad and USA ’94 World Cup team, stated that Nigeria football has gradually declined steeply in an arithmetic gradient and non discerning eyes never noticed until even the uninitiated saw it and cried out.

“The non-qualification of the Super Eagles to Qatar 2022 World Cup was the icing on the cake,” he said. “In the last eight years, a large number of fans, who abandoned whatever they are doing for our national team have become apathetic and indifferent to national team matches.

Who is culpable in the very situation Nigeria football is now? He asked.

“Let me start with fans: I can reasonably estimate that we have over a hundred million Nigerians, who like football and fifty percent of this population love the National team. Twenty percent of the fifty percent can die for the Super Eagles.

“In January 1993, I was in Enugu stadium under about 36 to 39 degrees centigrade scorching sun with the national team colours sweating profusely and terribly dehydrated as, with my teammates, against the national team of Democratic Republic of Congo. It was a World Cup qualifier to USA ‘94. The team was purely