One early Sunday evening,I sat at a pavilion and watched a football team train,after the training session the team gathered together,they had few announcements and pep talks to give.

The teams captain was going to give the speech.

I was within earshot and so I heard everything the captain said.

One of the things he said captured my interest and aroused curiosity.

He had told the players not to worry that he still have the belief that all of them will make it,including him to cross,to go play their football abroad.

Immediately he said this part,the assistant captain went"jam hands for ram".....that is in Nigerian local parlance,to you it means"give him an applause or a round of applause.

And the applaud that came was thunderous....for their captain,has spoken well....he had spoken their minds,it is a shared belief,hope,and like an anchor it has motivated them to improve.

In my head I groaned and protested,I wondered why they should all be thinking of leaving these shores,why not improve on it,make our leagues better,if they all leave,if this is the mentality or mental process that goes through every tom,dick,and Harry's head,who will stay back and improve on the existing structures?

As these thoughts raced in my head,I began having an inner dialogue,I chastised myself for almost putting all the blame on the foot of these players....I knew better.

Here are some of the reasons I thought of that accounted for Nigerian players,those in the local leagues wish to leave for Europe,to go play in the English premier league,la liga, bundesliga or Seria A.....to be a chelsea, Dortmund,atleti,inter Milan player,as opposed to being players of Oceanboys of brass or Akwa United fc.

akwa united fc players.

1.It is hard for an away side or visiting team to win a game:funny as it sounds,this is the truth,the difficulty of winning away games is not because home sides plays like Jose mourinho's first spell in charge of Chelsea,when Stamford bridge was like fort Knox,an impregnable fortress.

No,it is just that the homeside,most often will use any means necessary, conventional-normal play and unconventional-threats to referee,questionable refeering decisions and more,to ensure they come out victorious.

So when you are going to play an away match,no matter how much better your team is,there is only a slim a slim chance that you will come up victorious at the end of that game.

2.Allowances are hardly paid on time:how does a player feel happy when it is time for him to receive his wage and he is being giving the run around?

The football business is a money making mill,players have been accused of having more money than sense,this however,does not include the players in the Nigerian league.....they are poor,wretched people!

Usually when one tells you he is a footballer,you will think he makes decent income for himself.....for those in the Nigerian league you will hope they continue to improve so a good scout finds them,so they get lucky to go play out of the country.

That is when they will have confidence in saying they are footballers in a clubside.

Sadly the issue of the non payment of allowances or serious delays is not just a problem of the countries professional league,the national team also gets to experience it once in a while.

3.No reasonable company wants to be an investor:this should not come as a surprise,no one will like to invest or be part of a market that the center referees ultimately decide the outcome of a game as opposed to the individual teams hard work.

Or one in which visiting teams are sometimes violently attacked,and camera men are also not spared.

I know of glo,a network provider that has been an investor for a while,the league have never shone bright to lure other big spenders.

4.The average Nigerian fan is xenocentric:they appreciate these foreign league games more than their own.

For example,let's say Chelsea is playing Manchester United today and it is a Sunday,this Sunday will be dubbed "super Sunday"by football fans around,but let that game coincide with when two teams in the local league are playing,same time,and the gate fee is almost free,you will see the players live as opposed to watching lukaku on television,they will prefer to be glued to their television set than going to the stadium to watch a live match.

It is not about not supporting their own,it is just that they are aware of how the beautiful game should be played and organized and it hurts them to see the mess or torture their professional league is.

For the players,they are usually met with half filled stadiums that does not have reasonable carrying capacity.

This does not mean that there are no good football being played in the country.

Football is the sports every Nigerian identifies with,in every nook and cranny corner you will find youths,if they are not organized in teams playing,they are having a "monkey post" game(tosyne2much made a post about this)or five aside games.

Things will change in the future.....I think,but until that change comes,every footballing youth in Nigeria desires to ply his trade in an abroad clubside!

oceanboys of brass

Thanks for reading.