By Chukwuemeka Opara
The 33rd edition of the African Cup of Nations (AFCON), kicked off on Jan.9, 2022 in five Cameroonian cities of Younde, Douala, Limbe, Baffousam and Garoua.
This edition of the biennial competition was scheduled to hold in 2021, but was shifted to 2022 due to the effect of the deadly COVID 19 pandemic.
The Super Eagles of Nigeria, three-time winners of the competition -1980, 1994 and 2013 are going into the competition for the first time in recallable history, as non-favourites.
A plethora of reasons can be adduced to this lack of belief and trust in the team by its fans across the country and beyond. The fans believed that the Eagles under its former Technical Adviser, the Franco-German Gernot Rohr were shambolic in its first round qualifiers of the Qatar 2022 World Cup.
In spite topping its group to qualify for the final round of the qualifiers, the team received the bashing of the fans especially after its last match against Cape Verde in Lagos, which ended in a tension-soaked 1-1 draw.
Immediately after the match, voices rang in unison that Rohr should be sacked.
In early December 2021, the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF), led by Amaju Pinnick, bulged. The Federation sacked Rohr and despite the ensuing hullabaloo, appointed Augustine Eguavoen, former team’s defender, skipper and bronze winning coach of the team at the 2006 edition of AFCON, as the team’s Interim Manager.
The team is currently in Cameroon for the tourney, but the fans are not confident enough that the team will excel.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) sought the opinion of soccer stakeholders in Ebonyi on the chances of the team, which won the cup in 2013 with this same rating of non-favourites.
Felix Odionye, Team Manager of the newly formed Salt City Football Club of Ebonyi, said that the Eagles are not favoured to win the competition. The seasoned football administrator said that the team was ill-prepared to `challenge for honours’ at the competition.
“The team should had played several friendly matches to fine tune strategies for the competition. With days to the competition, some players were still expected to join the team in Cameroon from their different bases.
“Most of the players are new to the team and playing their first AFCON. They were therefore expected to train with the older players for long to blend properly. “The reverse was however the case. The injury to several regulars such as the talismanic Victor Osinhen, Leon Balogun, Shehu Abdulahi, among others also compounded the team’s woes.
The coaches were still searching for the tactics to adopt days to the competition. The players might be showing enthusiasm but there is more to enthusiasm in a high profile competition such as AFCON.
Odionye urged football fans in the country, to, however be considerate in their expectations from the Eagles.
He called for support for the team, but advised the fans to accept whatever results it presents at the competition.
“We are not entirely ruling out surprises from the team at the competition, but with the realities on ground, we all should brace for the worst.
“The coaches should use the competition to assess the players and get the team ready for the World Cup play-offs and subsequent matches.
“It is a pity that we have found ourselves in a situation of starting afresh and this is because we don’t learn from past mistakes.
Jonah Mgbebu, defunct Ebonyi Angels FC of Abakaliki Captain, said that the NFF should be held responsible if the Eagles fail to soar in Cameroon. The grassroots soccer promoter said that it was suicidal to sack Gernot Rohr, about a month to AFCON, as such accounted for the resentment and the team’s unpreparedness for the competition.
“You do not expect the best from a team which coach of six years was suddenly sacked with a month to a major competition. The sack took toll on the team and Eguavoen should not be made the scapegoat in the case of failure in Cameroon.
“It is unfortunate that local coaches have always been used as last gap measures whenever the NFF gambles by sacking foreign coaches. The late Shuaibu Amodu among others faced this debacle in the past and Eguavoen should be saved from such,” he said.
Mgbebu lamented that the nation’s soccer authorities were poor learners of history as they keep repeating same fundamental mistakes all over.
“We seem to have forgotten in a hurry the Japan/Korea 2002 World Cup debacle, when Coach Amodu was sacked after that year’s AFCON and with months to the World Cup. The Eagles won bronze in the AFCON in Mali and a spat between the Skipper Sunday Oliseh and then Sports Minister Mark Aku, worsened issues.
Several stars of the team were dropped and Adegboye Onigbinde was appointed with a consortium of coaches to lead the team to the World Cup.
The rest is history as the country presented a disjointed team to record one of its worst World Cup performances. The situation even made the Skipper Austin Okocha to quit international football in frustration,” he said.
Mgbebu further regretted that the NFF made the matters worse by appointing a foreign coach to take over from Eguavoen immediately after the AFCON.
“The situation will certainly demoralise Eguavoen, but it is clear that his exploits would end with the AFCON. The more intriguing aspect is that the same set of players who failed to deliver under Rohr are the same selected for the AFCON by Eguavoen.
“ They are still going to be the same set to work with the new technical advsier, Peseiro no matter the result in Cameroon. One then wonders the rationale behind the sack of Rohr,” he said.
Chief Willy Achonam, a business man and soccer lover said that poor preparations might be the Eagles bane at the competition.
The timber merchant said the sort of preparation the team had before the competition had never been witnessed in recallable history.
“It is on record that the team’s only preparatory match was against a locally based side in Garoua, Cameroon as players were still being expected from their bases in Europe.
“The earlier the nation’s soccer authorities adopt the Clemens Westerhof’s style of building a standard home-based team, the better for its football.
“The problem of late arrival to camp could had been solved with a standby home-based team.
“We could not had been crying about unavailability of players with days to the competition if locally based players formed the core of our team like countries such as Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia among others.
It is time the authorities retrace their steps,” he said.
Achonam said that though the Eagles were not tipped as title contenders, their performance at the competition should be used as a yardstick for improvement in the future and permanently eliminate the fire brigade approach militating against the nation’s football.
“Soccer fans in the country might accept any result from the AFCON, but they would definitely resent the country not qualifying for the World Cup.
“ That was the reason for Rohr’s sack and soccer fans are already agitated that the cycle of a fresh start would continue after the AFCON.
“Eguavoen, according to the NFF, will step down and the new technical adviser will take over,” he said.
Mrs Rachael Ibe, a physical education teacher, urged Nigerians to give the Super Eagles the chance even if they are not tipped as favourites.
She said that the opportunity affords the youngsters the opportunity of excelling as they would be hungry to prove critics wrong.
“Players such as Vincent Enyeama, Femi Opabunmi among others excelled at the Japan/Korea 2002 World Cup when the established stars were not fielded.
“ The AFCON, therefore, affords players such as Kelechi Nwakali, Sadiq Umar, Frank Onyeka and even Tyronne Ebuehi, the opportunity of establishing themselves in the continent and global soccer scene. We have to give them the chance.
“We have to give them the chance to excel, as the Super Eagles set which won the 2013 AFCON was unheralded with rookies such as Emmanuel Emenike, Godfrey Obaobaona, Ejike Uzoenyi among others, braved all odds under late Stephen Keshi to win the cup.
“What we need currently, is prayers because there is nothing God cannot do. We have to call upon God to help the team excel to assuage the feelings of football fans,” he said.
Chukwuemeka Opara writes for the News Agency of Nigeria
