Nigeria Content Online

Sixteen
African teams are in Sudan competing for honours in the 2nd edition of
the African Nations Championship but sadly, Nigeria is not represented.

The tournament,
which is scheduled for February 4-25, 2011, is strictly for African
players plying their trade within the continent and it was introduced
to provide a platform for local players to exhibit their skills.

While players from
other nations have made the best of the opportunity, Nigeria’s
Home-based Super Eagles have failed in their two attempt to qualify for
the championship.

They were ousted in their last try by Niger Republic, 2-0 over two legs.

While some accuse
the players of failing to do their best in qualifiers, others say the
coaches are the ones to blame; the country’s football administrators
have not been spared as the country counts its losses from missing a
championship again.

Bad domestic football

Adegboye Onigbinde
is one of the respected coaches in Nigeria and for him, the falling
standard in the local league is the major reason for the country’s
absence from such a tournament. “This competition is for home based
players so where are they now? In years past if you hated Rangers more
than anything and you hear that someone like Christian Chukwu is
playing, you would always want to go and watch him, same with Odegbami
with Shooting Stars, and a lot of them like that. Where is this calibre
of players now?” The FIFA/CAF instructor asked.

“About two weeks
ago Chukwu and I sat to watch a match between the Super Eagles and
Niger Tornadoes and I asked him to point to any of them that is playing
like him or the great stars of yesteryears – the answer, no one.
Nowadays, our domestic football is nothing to write home about.

“I tell you if you
go out to watch a match don’t be surprised you might be sleeping off in
the middle of the match. That is a clear indication that our domestic
football is bad,” he argued.

Coaches’ ineptitude

However, for Emeka
Ezeugo a former Super Eagles player and a former assistant coach with
Heartland FC, the coaches in charge of the teams cost Nigeria a place
in the championships.

“I disagree with
those that say it is the players that should be blamed, we have good
players scattered all over this country but the problem is that we
don’t have the right kind of coaches to go round to get them. These
coaches don’t even have anything to impact on these players,” he said.

“We need to get the
right coaches, if you check the two coaches that were in charge in
those two occasions when we missed out, you will see the reasons why we
failed. Going forward if you check out the administration that brought
in those coaches, you will agree that they did not know anything about
the game. The players are meant to learn from the coaches but if they
are not impacting anything on them who do you blame?”

The two Nigerian
squads that failed to qualify for this competition were coached by Okey
Emordi and Daniel Amokachi respectively.

On his part, Kelechi Emeteole former Heartland Technical adviser says the administrators are the clog in the wheel of progress.

“This is our
business and we should be left to run it, a major problem is that
people that do not have anything to do with football are the ones
running it and when they come they are not honest, imagine a doctor
coming to run football, can I as a footballer be left to go an manage
and hospital?” Emeteole argued that when administrators are feeding fat
on players and coaches salaries the country will continue to find
itself in situations like this.

Looking forward,
Shooting Stars Team Manger Ajibade Babalade says the current super
Eagles coach, Samson Siasia has started on a right footing.

“Our problem has
been that we don’t have a stand-by home-based team, we only hurry to
assemble players for the qualifiers but with what Siasia is doing with
the local players now, I am confident we can make it next time out,”
Babalade sounded confidently.

Missing talents

Aside Nigeria,
another top team missing in Sudan is Egypt, albeit the Pharaohs opted
out of the tournament just like they did in 2009. Many say the absence
of Nigeria an Egypt is a big blow to the tournament.

But much more, it
will be a big loss to both countries’ young players as they will not
have the opportunity to impress scouts looking for new talents.

The maiden
tournament in Cote d’Ivoire, which Congo DR won has helped develop
country’s football. More than half of that victorious Congolese team
was drawn from TP Mazembe, the club that has now won back-to-back CAF
Champions League trophies. If anything, Congolese football has become
the better for their participation in the maiden championship.

The other countries
that participated in the maiden edition have also seen their players
move on to greater things. An example is Ghana’s Rahim Ayew who moved
to Zamalek after that tournament and eventually was part of the
impressive Ghanaian contingent at the World Cup in 2010.

Though Nigeria’s
Home-based Super Eagles failed to make it to Sudan, three Nigerians are
on the official CAF delegation to the championship.

FIFA referees
instructor and member of CAF’s referees committee, Linus Mba is one of
the ten officials that will supervise the 32 referees and assistant
referees put together to officiate the 32 matches.

Paul Bassey, CAF’s General Coordinator will put his organisational
skills to the test when he functions as Security Officer to the
competition, also on the delegation is assistant referee, Peter Edibe.