2 Main Reasons Why Nigeria is No Longer a Football Powerhouse - Okocha

Following Nigeria's poor outing at the FIFA U20 World cup and Womens world cup, former Super Eagles player Austin Jayjay Okocha has admitted that the country can no longer be considered a football powerhouse.

Austin Jay Jay Okocha

According to him, this is so because the country failed to invest in the grassroots and also neglected its own professionals.

“We are paying the price for failing to invest in the grassroots. If you fail to plan, you plan to fail. We just need to speak to ourselves and accept that we are no longer the football powerhouse that we used to be. We should put things in order.”

He also said Nigerian football had been suffering partly because the football authorities had neglected knowledgeable and experienced ex-internationals.

"If I may be a bit brutal, I think we are being neglected. As long as we don’t appreciate what we’ve got, we will keep suffering. Except we want to go out there and get foreigners. If we want our people, we should get the right people.”

Culled from PUNCH