In less than three weeks from today, the host cities in Russia will be agog as the 2018 FIFA World Cup begins in earnest. As expected, top football-playing nations that qualified for the Mundial will have the opportunity to set the Eastern European nation on fire and also the entire world with their skills, frills and thrills of the round-leather game.
Aside from the aforementioned, the soccer fiesta which is expected to last for a month, beginning from June 14 to July 15 remains the biggest and the most glamorous soccer event on earth! No wonder, the World Cup fever has gripped the soccer-crazy world in its entity.
Back home, the Super Eagles are putting finishing touches to things in their build-up to the Mundial as fans and FIFA await the final list of players from Gernot Rohr on June 4.
However, things are not looking rosy at home on the part of the travelling Nigerian supporters who will be in Russia to cheer the team. The unwarranted leadership struggle that has engulfed the Nigeria Football Supporters Club for more than two years has led to the breaking away of Vincent Okumagba camp and has subsequently given some fraudulent elements in the society to have a field day in their activities of extortion of unsuspecting fans of their hard-earned money.
Today, travelling fans to Russia are yet to come to terms as to which group they should pay their loyalty in order to fast track their traveling plans.
Last week, the Minister of Youth and Sport, Barrister Solomon Dalung, raised the alarm that some dubious persons who are out to capitalise on the supporters’ club crisis are on the prowl to extort money from unsuspecting football enthusiasts who want to travel to Russia for the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
He warned football fans and the public in general to be wary of ticket racketeers who have promised to procure World Cup tickets for football lovers and supporters in exchange for huge sums of money.
From the foregoing, for many stakeholders of football in the country, this is a wake-up call for the Nigeria Football Federation and even the Sport Ministry to help resolve this lingering crisis instead of playing to the gallery ahead of the Mundial.
It could be recalled that past efforts by Dr. Amos Adamu, Chief Segun Odegbami and even Dr. Rafiu Ladipo have not yielded any fruit, instead it has given Okumagba and his gang the leverage in forming their own group called Super Eagles Supporters Club.
Therefore, it is the stand of HARD TACKLE that any action that will tarnish the good image of the country at the Mundial in Russia should be nipped in the bud for a stitch in time, saves nine.
It is also on record that the rivalry between the two contending supporters clubs is currently being fought in courtrooms and even in Embassies of countries hosting football events, which is sad!
The last experience from fans at the CHAN competition which ended in Morocco is enough to call these contending elements to order. The Moroccan Embassy who observed the in-house fighting among the supporters clubs in Nigeria refused granting visas to travelling fans for the competition on the ground that there was doubt on the credibility of the supporters club under whom the fans applied for visa.
However, with Russia 2018 around the corner, the challenge Nigeria Supporters Club’s crisis poses, must be addressed and a permanent solution given. Enough is enough!
