The media lliberalization in NIgeria has introduced a brand of neo-colonization where Nigerians have adopted the English Premier League (EPL) teams and are unable to name a single player who plays for their local NIgerian clubside. Shocking! EPL team gear is all over Nigeria and they are proudly worn by infants, college girls , their boyfriends, their moms, and the sugar daddies. It is Arsenal there, Liverpool, Chelse, and Manchester United galore. No room for the likes of Enugu Rangers, Enyimba, Insurance, 3Sc, or the Dolphins. Nigeria is indeed an EPL colony. I went into the Ceddi Plaza in Abuja and into a store selling football gear and not one item belonged to a local Nigerian team. In one evening outing with friends at Blue Island hotel in Enugu, the one time hotbed of Enugu Rangers only to endure an entire evening of discussion centered on Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester United and Chelsea. I sought discussions on the local league but found no takers. I found out that very few knew the current league performance of the once-revered Enugu Rangers. Shocking? That was only a part of it, I purchased a local sports newspaper hoping to read about the local league only to quickly note that onl;y one page (tucked inside) focused on the local league. The rest was on EPL and other European leagues. The EPL domination is complete and total, make no mistake about it.

          The long term effect is predictable and there are signs, already. The local stadia are virtually empty. For instance, Rangers hosted local league leaders Niger Tornadoes and only a handful of people showed up to watch. Guess what? the city was abuzz with football on that day but the buzz was not about Rangers or the visiting Tornadoes. Instead, it was for the televised Arsenal v Burnley and Liverpool v Luton, two rather pedestrian English FA Cup fixtures. Then I was informed that the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) recently interrupted its popular late news to broadcast an EPL game. Unbelievable! It is indeed deep.

         Obviously, Nigerian fans of local teams are now part of a dinosaur-breed. They are now few and far between and soon they will be extinct. What then is the FA doing about this dreadful situation for local football? The facts are evident and they lie squarely on the FA's table and yet what we read about is the FA claiming effectiveness based on the achievements of the U-17 team that it barely supported on the way to the team's win of the FIFA U-17 World Cup.  As for the big picture -- the ongoing colonization -- the FA is indeed comatose.

         Sure, the current EPL hegemony is a response to economic calculations, a byproduct of liberalization. In essence, private broadcasters seeking a large audience have found nirvana in the broadcast of EPL games, creating and whetting the appetite of NIgerian fans that had long been denied live football on television. There is no question that it is the broadcast of EPL games that has attracted its worship.

         Perhaps, it is also possible that televising local Nigerian games will restore a substantial part of Nigerian football's lost glory. I watched the Nigerian game and the talents are still there and the Enugu Stadium (and perhaps others) are reasonably in good shape. Unfortunately, the refereeing and financial issues remain problematic. Thus, the quality may not exactly be EPL but it surely compares or outpaces the PSL of South Africa that is also screened frequently on Nigerian television sets.

         While the NIgerian FA may stick its head in the sand like the proverbial ostrich, FIFA clearly has worked to adapt and maintain some balance in this era of economic liberalization and global expansionism. FIFA's edict on football transfers, restricting movement of underage players and restricting transfer periods are some of the strategies that FIFA has used in attempt to negotiate and maintain a balance in the post-Bosman era. But even FIFA's edict, while slowing down European domination, does not extinguish it. But FIFA can only do but so much. The local FAs, like Nigeria's FA,must realize the threats that exist within their own environments and plan accordingly.

         If the Nigerian FA fails to plan, there will be a time when even the Nigerian players will gravitate to other nationalities and play for other countries instead of Nigeria. Make no mistake about it, that time may well be nearer than we care to admit. Who wants to play in an environment where the local support may be grossly inadequate? In fact, one of the holdbacks to such a gravitation is the reluctance and slowness in several European countries to use available foreign nationals in their national teams. Just maybe, the appointment of Fabio Capello in England may open this vista for England. If he weathers the media flak that will follow then he would cement a new route to an England revival and a death nail for Nigeria and other countries like Nigeria.

         The fight is on, the Nigerian FA just has not realized it. Its unwillingness to think BIG and deal with this deep problem will eventually upend Nigerian football.