Bad Comments Can Harm Eagles' Performance in Russia, Veteran Journalist Warns Nigerians

A veteran sports journalist, Mr. Tony Nezianya, has called on football fans in Nigeria to criticize the Super Eagles with restraints as bad comments and undue criticisms is capable of hampering the team's performance at the world cup in Russia.

He advised Nigerians especially journalists to write positive reports to ginger the teams throughout the Russia 2018 World Cup games.  

Nezianya, former Executive Board members of the Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC), told journalists on Tuesday in Awka that good sports countries have ways of supporting their teams rather than make demoralizing comments on them.

"Let any journalist writing on Super Eagles 2018 Russia campaign understand that media reports have obvious psychological impact on performance of players; it could encourage or discourage them.

"I advise journalists reporting on the Russia 2018 World Cup from anywhere to note that their publications via the internet could be read from anywhere and as such should guide against writing-off the Super Eagles and the technical crew for any noticed mistake.

"We expect journalists and their news sources to rather highlight qualities that could boost the morale of the team, because such patriotic comments are what sports loving nations are known for,” he said.

The veteran journalist who recently retired from News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, where he still holds an unrivalled record as the most travelled sports journalist had also served as the Public Relations Officer of the NOC board.

He expressed optimism in the Super Eagle’s Coach, Gernot Rohr and his team, saying the country has a squad that could be rated 75 percent of quality world cup players.

"Nigeria has over 75 percent of quality World Cup players and if they can reproduce what they were taught during trainings, the team would improve on their 2014 Brazil campaign record.

"All I am telling the players is to go with the 'I can do it spirit' in Russia because that is the drive that would make them surpass their previous records in world cup,’’ he said.