Enakhena: Nothing wrong with Nigerian league

Enakhena: Nothing wrong with Nigerian league

By EMMA JEMEGAH 

Sports journalist and a renowned club manager, Godwin Enakhena has fired at critics of the Nigerian league, urging them to purge themselves from European mentality.

Reacting to comments on a WhatsApp group wholly dedicated to the Nigerian league, Enakhena, who's also the manager of Sporting Lagos argued that there's nothing happening in Europe that is not being replicated in Nigeria.

On the recent sacking of Stanley Eguma by Enyimba International, Enakhena referred the critics to how many coaches have been sacked in Europe from different clubs, stating that it shouldn't be a topical issue.

"There’s nothing in our league for you to expose. What’s this big issue of whether a club chairman, coach or player are sacked, asked to stepped aside or suspended as long is due compensation is done?

"All I see and read everytime is how people come up and write with so much authority and confidence over matters they have no knowledge about. Why not ask, so that you’ll be educated?

"Sometimes one is forced to look away so that it would not turn into unnecessary back and forth over a simple matter.

"Eguma was sacked, simple! People get sacked everyday. What’s important is for him to trigger the clause in his contract that gives him the compensation he deserves. Jose Mourinho has been sacked uncountable times and he’s making money from compensation.

"In the 2024/25 campaign in England, three managers were axed in August and eight by the end of October.

There were 45 in total relieved of their duties across the season, with 11 gone so far in the current campaign.

"One Premier League side, Nottingham Forest, best encapsulated the managerial chaos as they churned through two separate permanent managers in the space of 39 days and are now on their third man in the dugout this term," he said.

Speaking teams scooping players on loan and presenting them as their bonafide players, he asked rhetorically, "How many players did Forest sign a few seasons ago, that they had to let go a few weeks later? Don’t we have season loan deals in Europe? Don’t we have midseason loan deals in Europe? Don’t clubs sign players for one season and all will leave at the end of even midway?

"He admitted that the Nigerian league has not gotten to where it ought to be, he credits the NPFL of trying it's best.

"There’s no denying the fact that our domestic leagues are not where they’re supposed to be for reasons known to a lot of people, but what you can't deny is that we’re not where we used to be," he submitted.