The 2026 football calendar is closing as one of the worst for Nigerian men’s youth football in recent history. The U15 boys who went to the inaugural FIFA U15 World Cup and Festival in Baku, Azerbaijan failed to beat neighbours Benin Republic and were eliminated in the Tier C Round of 16. The Golden Eaglets U17 failed to even qualify for the U17 AFCON. Same with the Flying Eagles coached by Abdul Maikaba who lost 4-1 to the Young Stallions of Burkina Faso at the Stade Charles Konan Banny in Yamoussoukro.

And now all eyes are on the U23 Olympic team who face DR Congo next month with an Olympic ticket to Los Angeles 2028 on the line. This is not bad luck. It is policy failure.

The core of the problem is we have no structured approach to the appointment of youth coaches. In Morocco, in Senegal, in Japan, the U15 coach is appointed to play the same system that the U17, U20, U23 and senior national teams play. In Nigeria, every youth coach is hired as an independent contractor with his own philosophy, his own list, and his own survival plan.

Today the NFF appoints coaches based on availability, not suitability. When a youth tournament is two months away, we hurriedly announce a coach, give him three weeks to screen 100 players at the FIFA Goal Project in Abuja, and expect him to win Africa. That is not preparation, that is gambling.

There is no coaching succession plan. A proper federation should have a Head of Youth Development who oversees U15, U17, U20 and U23. Instead we have a technical committee that changes every board election and appoints friends. One coach is sacked after one bad tournament, another is brought back after four years out of the game. There is no continuity of ideas.

Because there is no job security, youth coaches do not develop players, they chase results to keep their jobs. They will not take a technically gifted 14-year-old from an academy and groom him. They will rather choose a physical player who eventually gets found out when the competition begins.

This leads to the second problem – the disconnect between our booming youth club and academy ecosystem and the national team. Nigeria today has perhaps the best U16 private academy structure in Africa. Beyond Limits, Sporting Lagos Youth, Remo Stars Academy, Mavlon, Mailantarki, 36 Lions – these clubs are producing players who are being signed directly by Midtjylland, KRC Genk, and Hoffenheim.

But when it is time for Golden Eaglets, those academy products are ignored. Why? Because the national team selection is still based on open screening in Abuja where 300 boys arrive with no data, no tracking, no scouting report. The best academy in Ikenne is playing a tactical system for 12 months, but his best boy has to come and fight for 30 minutes in a chaotic trial game to impress a coach who has never visited his academy.

In Senegal, Generation Foot and Diambars ARE the U17 national team. In Morocco, the Mohammed VI Academy IS the U20. In Nigeria, the NFF sees private academies as rivals, not feeders. There is no formal partnership, no loan of data, no shared calendar.

So we have a strange situation: Our U17 clubs win tournaments in Europe. Beyond Limits won the Viareggio Cup in Italy, beating European giants. Remo Stars U19 reached the final of the Premier League Next Gen Cup. But the U17 National Team that is supposed to be an All-Star of those clubs cannot beat Niger Republic.

The reason is we do not marry success. The NFF does not ask: How does Beyond Limits develop a ball-playing midfielder? What diet, what gym work, what video analysis do they do? We just take their player, remove him from that environment for 2 months, put him in a hotel in Abuja with no nutritionist, and play kick-and-follow football.

The third and most destructive layer is political selection. Youth football has become the most politicized. Every board member, every state FA chairman, every big man wants to have two players in the U17 camp.

The coach knows that if he drops the son of a sponsor or the player of a powerful agent, he will be sacked tomorrow. So he carries politically protected players who cannot run, and sacrifices technically superior boys. The team becomes a collection of interests, not a team.

Agents have taken over youth teams. An U17 World Cup appearance increases a player’s value massively. So agents pressure coaches to field their players even when they are injured or tactically indisciplined. The coach becomes a puppet, because the agent is the one paying for his flight, his accommodation, sometimes even his allowance when NFF has not paid.

This political selection kills development. The boy who knows he is in the team because of his godfather does not train hard. The boy who was dropped despite being better leaves the country and goes to Benin or Ghana to change nationality. That is why we are losing talents to England and France.

It also kills tactical identity. How do you build a high-pressing team when your striker is imposed on you and cannot press? How do you build from the back when your centre-back is in camp because his state FA chairman brought him? You abandon your philosophy and just play long balls.

Look at the U15 team that failed recently at the global event. Those boys were selected in 3 weeks. Compare to Spain U15 who have been together since U13, with same coach, same sports science. We cannot expect miracles when we prepare for a global tournament like we are preparing for a community shield.

The U23 team facing Congo DR next month will face the same pressure. Congo has kept the same U20 group that beat Cameroon last year. They have played several friendly games together. Our U23 will be assembled in 10 days, with players from different clubs, with a coach who was appointed last month.

The solution is not rocket science. First, NFF must publish a National Playing Philosophy and a 5-year Technical Plan. Second, appoint a Technical Director on a 5-year contract who hires all youth coaches, not the board. Third, create an Elite Youth Scouting Department that embeds scouts in the NPFL U19 Youth League, NLO1 and top academies with GPS data and video.

Finally, mandate that a large percentage of any youth national team must come from accredited Elite Academies with verifiable birth records and development data. End the open screening jamboree. Insulate youth coaches from politics – give them contracts tied to player progression to Europe and the senior national team, not just trophies.

Until we do that, we will continue this cycle. No country qualifies for the Olympics with politics.