CAF ANC2023: FIREWORKS BEGIN IN COTE D’IVOIRE

 

Today, the  13^th of January 2024, twenty-four African national teams are converged in Cote D’Ivoire for the commencement of the African Nations Football Cup tournament. It’s a culmination of over a year of rigorous planning and organization to highlight the best of African Football players to the global audience.

Two years ago, five nations (Morocco, Ghana, Algeria, Senegal, and Cameroon, represented Africa in the FIFA World Cup Competition in Qatar. Morocco surprised the world by becoming the first African nation to qualify for the semi-final stage, since the beginning of the FIFA World Cup. Over the years, the number of participating teams has increased, and so has the prize money for the participating teams and winners. The Confederation for African Football (CAF), has also signed bigger broadcast rights to further enhance the development of African football and as the competition kicks off today, planning and organization, will move from the board rooms to the football fields at the six-stadia accredited for this competition.

 

THE OPENING MATCH: COTE D’IVOIRE VS GUINEA BISSAU

This evening, Group A partners, and hosts, Cote D’Ivoire would lock horns with Guinea Bissau, at the Alassane Quattara Stadium, Abidjan, to start off the 34^th African Nations Cup Competition. Nigeria and Equatorial Guinea are the other teams in group A and they’d play the second match of the competition tomorrow afternoon. On paper, this group has strong teams with each having a fair chance of qualification. Cote D’Ivoire, looks like a team in transition, but could also ride on an overwhelming home support to progress to the next stage. They have won the competition in the past(1992, 2015) and once boasted of players such as Didier Drogba, Kolo Toure, Yaya Toure, Emmanuel Eboue, Salomon Kalou, et al. Presently, the team is short of such a caliber of stars. Their opponents, Guinea Bissau can be rightly categorized as one of Africa’s rising football nations enjoying the liberalization of international transfers through the Bosman Ruling. They have most of their players in the Portuguese league and have sprung some surprises in the recent past. It’s not their first participation at the African Nations Cup Competition.

The current dynamics of football make it difficult to predict a lesser opportunity for qualification for Guinea Bissau or any other team. A considerable amount of players participating in the competition ply their trade in the European leagues and the margins of their exposure and experience are very little. The beauty of this competition is its capability to showcase several hidden African football talents and inspire others in various local leagues across Africa. Football has become a veritable profession that has rescued several poor families in Africa from hunger, poverty, and the ineptitude of diverse African governments whose focus on building a workable social structure to support the people, has been underwhelming.

Beyond the razmatazzz of the sounds of vuvuzelas, the screaming of football fans, the dancing of supporters, and other excitements the football brings, the time has come for African football leagues to begin to make deliberate efforts towards attracting players from other continents and/or even their own kith and kin leaving Europe to develop their local leagues. The beauty of the African geographical landscape, its fauna, and flora must be used to attract others to build stronger football leagues in different African states. It is difficult but possible!

 

ANC2023: SUPER EAGLES OF NIGERIA, FAVORITES OR BYSTANDERS?

The African Nations Cup starts off in Cote d’Ivoire within a fortnight and the Super Eagles of Nigeria are participating. About thirty years ago, they ranked the 5^th best nation in the world and attracted so much global attention through the scintillating performance of the team at the 1994 FIFA World Cup in the USA. This was the apogee of Nigeria’s football history. The Super Eagles won the 1994 ANC in Tunisia and players such as Daniel Amokachi, Sunday Oliseh, Taribo West, Victor Ikpeba,  got huge transfers to some of the best clubs in Europe.

Fast forward to 1996, the Nigerian football team won the gold medal in the Olympics, beating the star-studded teams of Brazil and Argentina, on their way to achieving this feat. Kanu Nwankwo won the CAF African Best Player Award, in 1996 & 1999, and Victor Ikpeba followed in 1997.  These events occurred just within six years after Professional Football was legalized in Nigeria. Most of the players had just left the local league. Thompson Oliha, playing for African Sports D’Abidjan(Cote D’Ivoire), same with Finidi George, Ajax Amsterdam, Ben Iroha, Vitesse Arnhem were recurring features on Coach Clemence Westerhof’s team list in the 1994 team and under Coach Bonfere Jo, Joseph Dosu, ‘owned’ the goalkeeping shirt and never crumbled to the onslaught of Bebeto, Romario, Diego Simeone, Gabriel Batistuta, and others.

 

THE SUPER EAGLE: ANY HOPE FOR OPTIMISM?

Amidst a conglomeration of minnows, the Super Eagles qualified for the ANC in Cote d’Ivoire, but not without several heartaches and drama! They lost at home to minnows and have not won any friendly match for three years. On paper and in current form, Nigeria boasts of possibly the best array of established African players, paying for good clubs across the World. From Victor Osimhen(Napoli FC, Italy), Ademola Lukeman(Atlanta), Maduka Okoye(Udinese), Ola Aina(Nottingham Forest, England), Victor Boniface(Bayer Leverkusen, Germany) Alex Iwobi(Fulham, England), Adebayo Adeleye(Hapoel Jerusalem, Israel ). Herein, the paradox begins! Coached by Jose Peseiro, a Portuguese, whose success ratio in his coaching career rates below 35%, the Super Eagles, has turned to a team without flair, style, guile, or tactical sagacity to overwhelm even the most unprepared opposition. He’s lost more matches than any other coach of the Super Eagles and even with the unique talents of the team, watching the Super Eagles has become a nightmare!  His disgust for players in the Nigerian league is palpable and has never manifested any attribute to consider him a good coach!

SUPER EAGLES SUFFERING THE BURDEN OF INEPTITUDE

Football is filled with so much drama and unpredictability! Sometimes, even the so-called minnows overwhelm giants and we hope the Super Eagles can replicate the feat of Denmark, in the 1992 European Nations Championship! Captain Ahmed Musa and Kenneth Omeruo, remain the only survivors of coach Stephen Keshi’s team that won Nigeria’s last ANC trophy in 2013 and expect that at the twilight of their careers, they’d be able to motivate the current players’ to a good result. Victor Osimhen just won the African Best Footballer award, Victor Boniface, has successively won the Bundesliga Best Player of the Month award for four months starting from August. These successes offer good reasons for Nigerians to be optimistic about Nigeria’s chances but the trajectory of the team under Jose Peseiro leaves much to be desired. Whilst questions continue about the competence of the coach, it is further worsened by the actions of the Nigerian Football Federation, who continue to owe Peseiro backlogs of salaries, and attributing his performance to this anomaly would be in order! The pessimism surrounding the Super Eagles’ participation in ANC2023 and Peseiro’s below-par reign will continue to instigate debates, unless they prove the pessimists wrong and give Nigerians a reason to smile and celebrate, after the ANC. Only such success would guarantee him a place in the annals of Nigerian football history.