Secondary School Teams Of 70s Will Beat Today’s Eagles – Allen Onyema

• Allen Onyema, CEO of Air Peace, has slammed the Super Eagles’ performance under Jose Peseiro, claiming that secondary school teams of his generation would beat them.
• Onyema said that the 1970s and 1980s secondary school teams were much tougher than the current Super Eagles team
• He lamented the dearth of sporting facilities in present-day schools, adding that parents are only interested in education

Allen Onyema, the CEO of Air Peace, has slammed the Super Eagles’ performance under Jose Peseiro, claiming that secondary school teams of his generation would beat them.

Under Peseiro’s management, the Super Eagles have only won four of their nine matches, losing the other five, scoring 18 goals and conceding 15.

In an interview with PUNCH, Onyema assessed the men’s national football team, claiming that they lack the tenacity of secondary school teams from the 1970s and 1980s.

Those days used to be very tough. In fact, secondary school games in those days used to be tough. I remember when I played for Government College, Ughelli, they even killed one of our school boys in Agbarho (Delta State). It used to be tough in those days,” Onyema said.

Let me tell you, secondary school teams in the 70s will beat our national team of today. The present national team will be nowhere near the secondary school teams of yesteryear. I’m not talking about clubs, those days, secondary school teams were unlike these days.

The 59-year-old lamented the dearth of sporting facilities in present-day schools, adding that parents are only interested in education.

Today, secondary schools are now in two-storey buildings, no compound, no playground. Everybody is protective of their child, nobody allows the child to go out again to experience the street life, Onyema added.

He advocated for the use of football as a means to create employment opportunities and urged the government to prioritise sports.

We should use football to create jobs. I call on this government to look into sports, if they can invest in it and make the place safe for people to go and recreate on weekends, we will bring back that followership. It will still happen again, he said.