The cliché of when you fail to plan you invariably plan to fail rings so true about the outcome of the meeting held between Super Eagles players and chieftains of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) on the way out of the woods in the country’s quest for the sole qualification ticket for Group C, in the ongoing 2026 World Cup qualifiers. Over 209 countries under the FIFA umbrella have partaken in the qualifiers so far, with the big boys distinguishing themselves in the matches based on different models they adopted. These give them the solutions to the myriads of obstacles as they navigate the thorny path to World Cup qualification. These models have been tested and trusted over time by the different countries adopting them. When these models are to be adopted, suggestions meant to upgrade them are considered and adopted irrespective of the pedigree in the game of those proposing the changes. No one’s suggestion is waved aside as we have here in Nigeria where some people claim monopoly of all knowledge and wisdom, simply because they have the ears of those in the government. And so when the news broke last week Wednesday that Super Eagles players were credited with $1,000 each, the need to interrogative the veracity of the story and what the money was meant for became imminent. Why do we take delight in putting the cart before the horse? This meeting ought to have been held before the 2026 World Cup qualifiers began. It would have cost us nothing to get the models adopted by the top15 nations who have attended the Mundial in recent times to evaluate how they have gotten the players to prosecute their World Cup qualifiers devoid of crisis before, during and after competition as we have had, culminating in the threat by Super Eagles not to play the second round game against France in 2014, except they were paid their outstanding entitlements. The government averted the show of shame by sending $3.8 million to settle the debts. No prize for guessing right that France beat Nigeria 2-0 in that tie. Nemesis. According to Sportinglife’s source on Tuesday: ”In fact, the daily allowances for the Rwandan match hasn’t been paid. Note that it’s the NSC that is to pay. They have not yet released the daily allowances meant for the Rwanda match. Read Also: African Weightlifting Senior Championship: Team Nigeria leads Medal Table with gold rush in Mauritius ”I thought over time that you are aware of this matter as per how the NFF funds its teams. Well, the NFF normally sends national teams’ budgets to the Federal Government through the Ministry/NSC for approval. If the money is released, then players and officials of various teams are paid. If not, they are owed. ”However, based on the availability of funds from the NFF sponsors, the federation uses such funds to settle the players and/or officials, pending when the government releases its funds. At times, it takes months/years for it to be released. When such funds are not available, teams are owed. ”Unfortunately, this is always the situation. I am not holding brief for the NFF though. I’m just giving you information as to what obtains,” the source said. What stood out like a sore thumb was the fact that the NSC took charge directly in the payment, raising the poser whether it was part of their responsibilities beyond serving as the channel for sending out what had been approved for the NFF by the Federal Government to them. If there was the need to interrogate how the money was spent, who would the NSC men hold responsible if they made the payment? Of course, the responses from probing questions thrown at those who should at the Dankaro House in Abuja indicated that when the cash was delayed, they had to use monies outsourced through their marketing initiatives to settle the bills. The imminent question to ask would be what of the money disbursed by the NSC when they get it, what would it be used for? This arrangement is untidy. But I trust the NSC chiefs to immediately address this accounting flaw. However, this is part of the bureaucratic bottlenecks in governance in the country. Could it be that one of the parties involved in the chain of approvals didn’t do his job by delaying the process from his side? We need to know since it is one of the reasons the federation is always going cap in hand for cash. Back to the Super Eagles and the $1,000 paid into their different accounts, which is a decision worthy of applause. It would be easier to track the liars when needless disputes arise. This writer was told that the players and the NFF at one of their meetings agreed that players would each be paid $1,000 along with the daily allowances for the period of their stay in the camp preparatory to the game. The players went further to accept from the NFF the payment of World Cup qualification bonuses when the country eventually gets Group C’s sole qualification ticket for the 2026 World Cup to be co-hosted by the United States, Mexico and Canada. Need I say this arrangement is a no-brainer if we fail to qualify for the 2026 World Cup? This meeting succeeded in reducing the money spent on prosecuting the qualification ticket. Is this what other nations pay? Does this agreement guarantee the country the qualification ticket not just Group C’s, going forward? We need an all-embracing template that ensures every facet in the chain for progress recognises team bonding, unity among the players, and a healthy synergy between everyone in the squad and the management of the NFF. After all, they are no kids. Truth be told, Nigeria has the youngest set of players for the 2030 World Cup. And the time to start assembling those players is now. 2030 is just five years away with the oldest players being 22 years old now. To achieve some of these targets, we need to identify what we want to achieve and build on it. Most countries’ football growth stems from grassroots communities such that when new talents are discovered, it is easy to know where it all started because each community will celebrate its own. Simply put, sports, not just soccer, grows its stem from the catchment areas from ages four to six, where the kids can be taught the rudiments of the game. Since such schemes pervade all the communities, blue-chip firms can identify with sports of their choice – most times soccer because of its immense followership. What the communities provide are platforms to discover, nurture and expose their young ones to games that they like. Countries measure their growth in soccer by the number of domestic league players in their national teams. The ripple effect of this is that the domestic league matches are watched by a crowd of soccer lovers weekly, invariably increasing the revenue of the domestic clubs. Our league games won’t attract foreigners like we had in the past if we play before an almost empty stadium and can’t offer good money to lure them here. It isn’t enough for the government to fund clubs. The governors should ensure that credible people manage the teams. They should be given targets and timelines to deliver on mandates given, otherwise, they are asked to go. One of the targets governors should give to those who administer clubs is to ensure they are listed by the Stock Exchange. It is laughable that none of the clubs’ value is public knowledge. How, then, do they expect the blue-chip firms to do business with them?