How not to win the next Nations Cup

How not to win the next Nations Cup

By Clem Oluwole 

The Chairman of the Nigeria Football Association (NFA), Mr. Sunday Dankaro was reported by one of the Lagos-based dailies to have decried the use of foul words by spectators at matches.

He was making reference to what happened at the National Stadium during the recent match between the Queens Park Rangers (QPR) and the NFA Selected. Mr. Dankaro was called all sorts of names and the hurriedly assembled NFA Babes, seen as the 1980 Nations Cup aspirants, were booed and jeered for fumbling about the place.

He then urged all well meaning Nigerians to educate these unruly spectators as we are hosting the Africa Cup of Nations next year. Haba, Chairman. You have been in Lagos for years and you don’t know Lagos fans for cheering a better side?

The NFA helmsman was full of gratitude to the Selected Babes who were handpicked at so short a notice (what about those in camp?), saying ‘Nigeria is proud of you (count me out) and it further attests to the fact that Nigeria has a lot of materials’ (Hmmm).

Up Chair! Indeed we have a lot of materials but the fact is that we are not organized, otherwise, how could the second team of a Second Division QPR who had just played two previous rugged matches, scatter the NFA Selected side by two clear goals?

Mr. Dankaro then assured the nation of success at the next Nations Cup tournament, saying ‘Nigeria’s case will not be different; we must win and going by the records, the host countries have always won the game. Therefore, it is our turn to win’.

Foul!

With due respect to our nation’s soccer boss, this is untrue. Perhaps Mr. Dankaro was misquoted. If he was not, then here are the accurate records:

In 1957 when the tournament was first held, Sudan played host but Egypt ran away with a 4 – 0 victory over Sudan to win the cup.

In 1959, Egypt hosted it and won – Egypt 2, Ethiopia 1.

In 1962, Ethiopia played host and won – Ethiopia 4, Egypt 2.

In 1964, Ghana played host for the first time and won the cup – Ghana 3, Sudan 0.

In 1966, Tunisia staged the tournament but Ghana successfully defended the cup – Ghana 3, Tunisia 2.

In 1968, Ethiopia, perhaps in an attempt to win again, hosted the competition but they never got to the final. Zaire beat Ghana 1 – 0 to clinch the cup.

Sudan’s effort paid off in 1970 when they hosted the tournament again and took a 1964 revenge over Ghana by beating them 1 – 0.

In 1972, Cameroon saw the cup taken away by Congo Brazzaville who beat Mali 3 – 2.

Egypt in a bid to capture the cup hosted the tournament in 1974 but fell by the wayside and it was Zaire who beat Zambia 2 – 0 to win the cup.

Ethiopia made a third attempt in 1976 but Morocco and Guinea got through to the final. The Moroccans drew 2 – 2 with Guinea but captured the cup on points.

In 1978, Ghana staged the tournament and won the cup for keeps, having won it twice before.

So, from the above records, a total of 11 finals had been held and only five countries had hosted the tournament and won the cup.

Personally, I am not impressed by the pace at which the NFA is preparing our team for the tournament.

Mr. Dankaro was also credited as saying that we should keep our secret close to the chest! Oh, super. But there can be no secret about nothing. I think we should stop hiding behind our fingers. We are getting prepared for the tournament at a very disappointing pace. I expect that by now those featuring in the Eagles proper should have been picked and taken into hiding and then be exposed to tough matches within the continent and in Latin American countries like Brazil. Right now the Eagles camp is in disarray because of the National League… a case of putting too many iron rods in the fire. Let us stop fooling ourselves with secret strategies. It is like boasting of automatic arms with little or no ammunition.

My fears are that once we begin to talk about secrecy especially in our soccer, the open secret is that we have nothing to offer anymore. What we seem to be preparing for is how not to win the cup, staging the tournament notwithstanding.

Talking about the Nations Cup reminds me of the press statement credited to Mr. Dankaro’s second in command, Chief S. O. Akinwumi, this week. The chief said some members of the association are making sinister efforts to thwart the efforts being made by some honest people. He particularly frowned at what he described as ‘intransigence’ on the part of an official of the association.

The chief spoke at length on schemes from within the association to frustrate those at the helm of affairs. I suppose these are Mr. Dankaro and Chief Akinwumi himself.

Well chief, my simple solution to this problem (but be courageous enough to name the intransigent official now) is that those loyal and honest members of the association should detach themselves from the ‘black goat or goats’ in the association before it gets dark. You see, chief, it is difficult to pick out a black goat when darkness falls.

On a more serious note chief, this ‘internal plot’ against the NFA will not be accepted as an excuse for failing to make it next year. The NFA should put its house in order fast. To do otherwise is to court disaster.



Full marks for Tom



The Team Manager (TM) of the English Second Division Queens Park Rangers who just undertook a three-match tour of Nigeria, Mr. Tommy Docharty, left our soil with one impression in his mind: We are too over-confident.

Full marks for you, Tom!

The TM noted that once we are leading in a match, we see victory as a foregone conclusion and then resort to individual showmanship.

This weakness has cost us a lot of victories, both at home and abroad.

Let me start from the top. In our second outing in the 1978 Nations Cup against Ghana’s Black Stars, the Green Eagles took a surprising 1 – 0 lead and held on to that unsafe margin until halftime.

On resumption, the Eagles were still in command. The Ghanaian spectators sat motionless. Some were sweating, while some were weeping in advance because defeat was imminent.

Then came the 31st minute of the second half, Black Stars’ substitute Willy Klutze got the much anticipated equalizer that took the Nigerians by total surprise. The Ghanaians took over and for the rest of the game, it was the fervent prayers of those of us who had no nerve to stand the jeering and cat-calls by Ghanaian fans, that saved the Eagles from conceding a last minute goal.

Still on the 1978 Nations Cup. In the battle for the semifinals, the Eagles went to engage the Ugandan Cranes who headed Group B in Kumasi. Nobody cared much about Group B participants, what more of Uganda. None of the Eagles handlers went to spy on Group B teams and when we faced Uganda, we saw the match as already won. But if I need to tell you what eventually happened, the Cranes out-flew the Eagles by 2 – 1.

Back home, there are countless occasions where big time clubs have lost to lesser ones.

The latest is the Rangers’ 2 – 0 defeat by the Abakaliki White Angels in the current Anambra State FA Cup race. Rangers were reported to have contested the second goal and then created an atmosphere most unsuitable for continuation of the match to save their prestige.

I really do not know whether Nigerian footballers are descendants of Goliath. Remember the clash between David and Goliath as documented in the Bible? Goliath, a giant, was challenged by David, a smallish teenager. When Goliath saw his challenger, a loud roar of laughter came out of his throat. He boasted that he would hack down David and give his flesh to the eagles. But the reverse was the case. David overcame Goliath and chopped off his boastful head.

The same goes for our preparation for the next Nations Cup tournament. Less than eight months to the competition and the Eagles’ camp is still in shambles. We are so over-confident that by staging the tournament we will automatically win the cup. Na lie…refer to the past winners of the cup.

I agree we have plenty of human resources to win the cup. But remember the story of an early bird. We need to build confidence into our boys by exposing them to tough opposition. Ghana, as poor as they were, managed to execute a 12-month preparatory programme for the Black Stars which included a playing tour of overseas in their pursuit of the cup last year.

Football is so unpredictable. We must not be too confident when we do not know what other qualifying nations have up their sleeves.

(Culled from Saturday Commentary, first published on June 16, 1979).