THE  NEWS OF THE CLUB

  

2007/2008  season

Buffalo FC has not yet resumed the activities of its younger teams because of logistical problems and because we have reviewed our position with  FC Abuja. We have also other projects in mind. In fact, the season 2007/008 was a year of transition...

So, we kindly ask the young players who want to join our academy to be patient because the structure is not yet settled.
We will give here more information about the situation later ...

But Buffalo is still much alive through his fromer players:
- 5 of them who are now key players in Kano Pillars in Premiere league helped this club to get the Premiere league trophy for the 1st time of the history.  4 others members are doing well in other big clubs in Premiere league too.
- 10 Buffalo boys got the promotion ticket with FC Abuja in National Div. 1.
It is showing clearly  the quality of screening and training in Buffalo.

So BUFFALO is well known in Nigeria for having brought up many young players..

- Individually also, some of our best talents have already gone far into success. 2 of them were part of the U17 national team in 2005. They went to Gambia for the cadet African Cup of Nations in 2005 then  to Canada in 2007 for the Junior world cup.
This is a really great experience
for young people coming deeply from the slums of kano!

In their new bigger club, they are getting  better income for them and their families. So once again, Buffalo is acting as a social jumping board for his members.
And, the money collected from their clearance helped their former team mates to progess and try to follow the same way...

FC ABUJA

- The professional league has just ended and FC Abuja did very well this year with a better technical crew and with more committed boys. They finished in 2nd position on the tables. it means that FC Abuja has been promoted in PREMIERE LEAGUE.

Congratulations to all of them! The level of their game was far better this year. Therefore, the finishing is still poor and the way the club is managed is still far from being professional. This very area is where the club needs to improve a lot

For more details of the results, please click here to go to the page   FC Abuja

- They reached the final of the state cup again this year but unfortunately they failed to retain the trophy in 2008. But, it is good to remind you that in 2006 and  2007, the club won the FCT FA cup. 2 years in the row. Great!!!...

- 2 of FC ABUJA players went to Togo last May to win the U17 CAN with the Golden Eaglets. Then, they also just recently won the Cadet World Cup  in South Korea. Chrisantus was the highest goal scorer and the 2nd best player of the tournament: Congratulations!!! He's now continuing his young carreer in Germany...


A new situation for BUFFALO since 2006...

In 2006, a big change came into the history of Buffalo FC: Running a senior team at this level was becoming more and more difficult for us, finnacially speaking.
The E.F.C.C (the Economical and Financial Crimes Commission) decided to take over the position of Buffalo in Pro league. So many of our former players will continue inside this new team FC ABUJA in the new capital.
Buffalo will be more in charge of the training of very young players...

This new structure will allow our members to continue playing in PRO level in better conditions, in a club with a bigger budget and big ambitions. In this way, our players can seriously target now a promotion in PREMIERE league, a challenge that was too much for a small club like Buffalo...

The second important thing is that this new situation will give us more time and more means in the future to focus on the grassroots development only and develop more social activities at the same time....

- In fact, we have the project to create gradually some football classes in a school in Abuja and then, a real academy with the help of foreign partners.  The boys will be able to forward their studies and develop their football skills at the same time...

The Amateur leagues are not much interesting and so much frustrating because of the poor organization, the bad state of the pitches and the level of cheating (worst than in Pro, it is the reson we left this level)). So, it is not the place to prepare youth in Nigeria. It is far better to stay at local level, inside a soccer academy, organize friendly matches and register the team only at different small tournaments or cups for grassroots...

 

THE LEVEL OF THE LEAGUE IN NIGERIA

With the introduction of a new big sponsor for the Premiere league and the satellite TV coverage of some matches, football in Nigeria has improved a bit but there is still a long way to go. A lot of things are still poisoning local football!

The problem number 1 is the bad officiating, often biased, and the open cheating with a home advantage (for example penalties systematically dashed to the host team or clear goals of the visitors disallowed or the flag often wrongly raised to stop all the actions of away team, among others).
The NFA/NFL people are supposed to
ban severely some unclear referees, the club officials involved in attempts of match fixing and avoid giving
board rooms points to some clubs

There is also an urgent need to appoint more competent referees, who received a proper training about the rules of the game. The worst thing concerns the offside position: In Nigeria, they often judge it when  the player receives the ball and not at the very moment the ball is given to him as anywhere else... And this changes everything!
So, the match commissioners have to be more professional and able to assess the performances of the referees properly.

But we do not have to put all the blames on the referees. If the security in the stadia was better, the referees could do a better job. Sometimes, they risk their life in the arena! Some fans cannot accept that their darling team loses at home and try to influence the referee or even beat him seriously at the end of the match! The hooliganism is a real disease here..

Then, the poor state of some pitches have also been killing the game here.
This ugly image has been keeping the private sector away and leaving football too much dependant of
government money only...

What a pity! The human potential in this country is so high ... It is a big waste of young African talents who find so difficult to really express themselves on the field...

Many clubs call themselves professional but there are still run as amateur.
A lot of  administrators are incompetent, don't have a long term vision, have no big ambitions, have selfish interests and only search for ways to chop more money from government. So, there is a huge waste of resources.
Money is never released on time by government and officials often use the fire brigade approach. They often have to look for money at the last moment before going for 1 match for example or face coming important expenses.
They can spend much money to try and influence the results for example and neglect the welfare of their players and coaches who suffer a lot with salaries and other bonuses not paid for months sometimes. Proper contracts are rarely signed and the clubs don't often fulfill their promises towards their members.
 A lot of coaches only focus on the lucrative deals with some players they like and who accept to share their money with them. So they do not select always the best ones.
No any club have real feeder teams and a clear program towards youth, compromising their future...

(This page  was updated last on 03/07/08)
 


Our young captain Obi receiving the trophy "TOTAL 50th anniversary"
from the hands of the MD in front of  the Oba of Lagos in June 2006


                                                                                                               F.Noy
Our coach  and 2 players in U17 national team in 2005


3 members of Buffalo welcomed by Senator Legendre in  France in 2004


Buffalo, champion all amateur leagues of Nigeria in 2003


Buffalo, Best club in Kano State in 2002
 

In conclusion, all these things mentioned are not written here just to deliberately criticize football in Nigeria but to expose the reality and hope that a big change for the progress of this game will come to a great country that really deserves it...

 

The group TOTAL  NIGERIA (both downstream ant upstream together) have been bringing a precious support to help the club to grow.
The DOWNSTREAM branch renewed his assistance in 2005 and 2006. We hope they will renew their assistance whenever we resume our full activities.

Our young players had the honor to be invited in Lagos in June 2006 for the 50th anniversary of the company in Nigeria. It was really a great moment!!!

The seeds planted in Kano with Buffalo has now become a big tree and this achievement would not have been possible without the support of this company. We thank once more their management for their great efforts.

To know our future projects, please click here and go to   the projects

 

 

 

 

 

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