Egbe believes Super Eagles will perform optimally on hybrid pitches

As Nigerians continue to react to the Super Eagles recent performances in the 2022 World Cup qualifiers, a FIFA Match agent, Ebi Egbe, has said if the players are to perform optimally, they must be provided with hybrid pitches whenever they come home to represent the country. The CEO of Monimichelle, a reputable sports facilities […]

As Nigerians continue to react to the Super Eagles recent performances in the 2022 World Cup qualifiers, a FIFA Match agent, Ebi Egbe, has said if the players are to perform optimally, they must be provided with hybrid pitches whenever they come home to represent the country.

The CEO of Monimichelle, a reputable sports facilities construction company, said in Europe where most of the players are based, they play mostly on hybrid pitches which encourage fast football.

He said most Nigerians who criticise the players are ignorant of the fact that football has gone scientific and is no longer played mostly on natural grasses as it used to be.

“The honest truth is, I don’t think the coach was our problem. Until those in authority understand that football today is scientific, we will continue to struggle.

“Ask yourself this simple question, how come our foreign legions perform so well week in week out in their various club sides but struggle when they come to play for their country? The truth is that our foreign players have been trained to play speed football on hybrid pitches.

“The synthetic element mixed with natural grass makes the ball movement on hybrid pitch a lot faster than 100% natural grass pitch.

“All our foreign based players train every week and play every weekend on a fast pace hybrid pitch so the transition from a fast pace ball movement on hybrid pitch to an extremely slow pace ball movement on 100% natural grass pitch is the major reason our top players struggle when they play for Nigeria,” he said.

Egbe concluded by saying if Nigeria wants to keep relying on foreign based players, the country should invest more in world class hybrid pitches that have similar characteristics and ball movement with what the foreign based players have in their respective clubs.