Football Federation in buck passing over dumped hotel

By Ifeanyi Ibeh


The last may not have been heard about the Hampshire Hotel, as the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has, yet again, come out to cite reasons that led to its decision to select the hotel as the base camp of the Super Eagles at the upcoming World Cup.

Ever since the Nigerian Sports Minister, Ibrahim Bio, reversed the earlier decision of the NFF to pick the Ballito-based Hampshire Hotel in favour of the four-star Protea Hotel in Richards Bay, it has been a series of one damage control measure after the other from the NFF.

On Monday, the leadership of the NFF, led by its president Sani Lulu, were in Lagos to present to the public the official theme song of the Super Eagles to the World Cup. But the function was turned into a public relations promotion affair for the Glass House as they laid the blame on the choice of the Hampshire Hotel on former coach, Shuaibu Amodu, who last December picked the hotel as the team's World Cup base.

The NFF had made a series of statements in the local media passing the blame on everyone but itself which, after being hammered by the media for booking the Super Eagles into a sub-standard three-star hotel, finally admitted a little over a month ago that the Hampshire Hotel was not befitting for the national team.

But it appears its earlier attempts at cleaning up its image in the eyes of the public has been insufficient, at least to the NFF, as it has once again doled out another detailed explanation of how it, in the first instance, arrived at approving the Hampshire Hotel for the Super Eagles.

According to the NFF's general secretary, Bolaji Ojo-Oba, the inexpensive Hampshire Hotel was, other than meeting the requirements of Amodu, chosen based on the national team's experience at their debut World Cup appearance in the United States of America back in 1994.

"He (Amodu) went in search of this place with Peterside Idah (Super Eagles media officer), a former Nigerian international player, who is also a member of the team's technical crew and who lives in South Africa. We expected them to be capable of choosing a place good enough, at considerable price," explained Ojo-Oba.

USA ‘94 revisited

Ojo-Oba then recalled what in his opinion led to the Super Eagles' exit from the 1994 World Cup.

"I had before now given the instance of the place where our team stayed at the 1994 World Cup in the United States, which was quite big and had enough room for distractions and troublemakers. Most of the players blamed the hotel's distractions for the loss to Italy in the Round of 16," he continued, before stating that the NFF had no underhand dealings regarding the dumped hotel.

"There were no shady deals, and we challenge anyone to fully investigate the matter. All we wanted, all the head coach wanted, was a quiet place that would suit the team. At the time we were looking for a place in December 2009, no one knew Shaibu Amodu would not be the man to lead the team to the World Cup. Things only happened thereafter."

The Protea Hotel became the new base of the Super Eagles following a meeting between the contingent led by Bio, which included Super Eagles coach, Lars Lagerback, and representatives of FIFA.

But Ojo-Oba insisted the hotel had always been on the mind of the NFF.

"The Protea Hotel Waterfront was always on our cards, more so because we had booked the place as pre-World Cup training camp," he continued. "It did not drop from the sky. We had booked the place earlier, and we always made it clear to Hampshire Hotel people that we would opt out if they failed to meet our specifications by deadline day."