Erico links woeful campaign to inept managers

BARELY one week after the Secretary General of the Nigeria Premier League (NPL), Tunji Babalola, blamed the ouster of Enyimba of Aba from the CAF Champions League and Sunshine Stars of Akure's home defeat in the Confederation Cup on match rustiness occasioned by inconsistency in the NPL, former assistant coach of the Super Eagles, Joe Erico, has begged to differ.For the ex-international, the poor showing by Nigerian club sides in the Champions League and the Confederation Cup was due to the ineptitude of sports administrators in the country, a developmenthe said was robbing the Nigerian League of glamour and excellence.Erico told The Guardian in an interview that the entire sports administration is laden with imperfections, which in turn makes it impossible for any meaningful milestone to be attained.'For now, our sports system is dirty and rusty, so a lot of scrubbing has to be done to purge us of these dirt. Sports administration in this country is not functioning the way it should and that is the reason we are paying the heavy prize,' Erico stated.The recent declaration of the Nigerian domestic league as the strongest on the continent and 24th in the worldin 2012 did not in any way amuse the defunct Green Eagles' former goalkeeper.That classification was done by the International Federation of Football History and Statistics (IFHHS), which assessed the performances of Nigerian clubs from January 1 to July 10, 2012.To arrive at its conclusion, IFHHSadded points won in all continental competitions by the five best placed clubs in the NPL. Last month, two Nigerian clubs, Enyimba and Sunshine Stars, were named in the 2012 top 10 club rankings for Africa. Their performances were also assessed from January 1 to July 10, 2012.Commenting on the rating, he said: 'The rating is their problem because we know the problems of our league. I see that 'honour' or top rating as a photo trick, which does us no good.
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