Nigerian sports suffered some mixed feelings in the outgoing year 2023. Even with the change of baton at the highest level of sports administration in general, and football in particular; the country has recorded some below average performances.
At the Ministry of Sports in 2023, the country witnessed a change in leadership with Sunday Dare handing over to John Enoh, while Amaju Pinnick, former president of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), handed over to Ibrahim Musa Gusau, as the new president of the federation.
However, both changes are yet to bring about the much needed impact in administration and on the field of play. While the Ministry of Sports can be said to be in transitional mood about six months after the appointment of the minister, the Glasshouse is yet to get things right administratively with the national teams.
The Super Falcons have been without a substantive head coach since losing to England at the last FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia/New Zealand 2023.
The NFF is yet to clarify the status of Randy Waldrum, the embattled head coach, months after leading Nigeria to the World Cup.
Nigerian Super Eagles will be among the 24 countries competing for the title at the 2023 AFCON finals scheduled to hold from January 13 to February 11, 2024.
Super Eagles: Is Peseiro building up or just lack tactical prowess to rejig the team?
Since taking over the Super Eagles in May, Jose Peseiro team buildup has not been impressive considering his stats.
Going by his stats and the team’s setup, Peseiro’s reign as Super Eagles head coach can be judged to be a fairly above average result. However, losing your first two matches as a coach has a negative effect on fans’ rating.
Peseiro won Nigeria’s AFCON qualifying matches against Sierra Leone, and Sao Tome & Principe putting the Super Eagles on good footing ahead of the 2023 AFCON that was moved to January 2024 by the Confederation of African Football (CAF).
Based on this, Peseiro might not be fully responsible for the poor outing of the Super Eagles. But, as the head coach of the team, he takes responsibility for both the success and failure of the team.
It is, no doubt, that the Super Eagles have not been impressive under the current coaching crew just as it was under Franco-German before him.
This, according to sport analysts, raised a moral question on the players and not just the coaching crew of the Super Eagles.
According to analysts, the current crop of Super Eagles players lack bite and the fighting spirit to wear the green-white-green jersey of Nigeria.
Nigeria won her last AFCON under former international Stephen Keshi, with a blend of both foreign and local based players, with the local based players playing critical roles in the team’s progress.
However, the current coaching crew finds it difficult to blend home based players in the 40-man provisional squad submitted to CAF for the 2023 AFCON.
Since Keshi left his role as head coach of the Super Eagles the home based Eagles have found it relatively hard to break into the senior national team, which means that the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) must consciously build a development programme that will naturally integrate home based players into the national team.
Ifeanyi Udeze, Julius Agahowa and Mutiu Adepoju, all former Super Eagles players in their half-time match analysis in the friendly against Portugal, said that the Super Eagles players lack coordination between the midfield and attacks.
Jose Peseiro’s side went into the friendly against Portugal with a run of four consecutive friendly defeats, scoring two goals and conceding 11 since the goalless draw against Cameroon in June 2021.
Nigeria’s last friendly victory is a repeat of March 2019, when they saw off seven-time AFCON champions Egypt 1-0 at the Stephen Keshi Stadium courtesy of an early strike from Genk forward Paul Onuachu.
This, according to football pundits, shows the need to create a balance between the foreign based players and their home based counterparts.
Having a blend of both foreign and home based players will make invited players fight for every position that will in the long run deepen the team’s performance.
CAF snubs Nigerian referees for AFCON
Following the unveiling of the list of officials ahead of next year’s TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) Cote D’Ivoire 2023, with Nigerian officials vigorously missing, football fans reacted to the released list of referees as a sign of Nigeria’s lack of political influence on the continent.
The Confederation of African Football (CAF) unveiled a list of 85 referees, comprising center referees, assistant referees, Video Assistant Referees (VARs), technical instructors, physical trainers, VAR technicians, and IT support for a preparation course; however with no Nigerian making the list.
According to a document titled, “List Of Selected Referees To TotalEnergies AFCON Preparation Course”, referees from about 25 countries were listed to take part in the course that will serve as a refresher for AFCON 2023 officiating officials.
Two North African countries, Egypt and Algeria, have the highest number of names penned down in the center referees list (three each) as Morocco, Mauritania, and Mauritius have two each.
Another example of Nigeria’s lack of political strength in sports administration is the FIFPRO Africa, which was founded in Casablanca, Morocco in 2007.
FIFPRO is an affiliated member union from 12 countries across Africa consisting of Angola, Botswana, Cameroon, DR Congo, Egypt, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Morocco, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
The FIFPRO Africa board consists of Geremie Sorelle Njitap Fotso as president (Cameron); Simon Ben Thulaganyo Gaoshubelwe, as vice president (South Africa); Magdy Abdelghani (Egypt); Teresa Calleb (Kenya) Herita Ilunga (DR Congo), Desmond Maringwa (Zimbabwe), Khadidia Timera (Gabon) as members, and Kgosana Masaseng as the general secretary, (Botswana).
CAF competitions
Nigerian teams recorded some mixed results in all CAF organised competition in 2023, with Rivers United as the only clubside competing for any continental glory.
Nigeria’s most successful club side in Africa, Enyimba FC of Aba could not impress after being invited to participate in the inaugural African Football League (AFL) for a chance to win the $4 million prize money.
The AFL kicked off in Dar es Salaam, the capital of Tanzania, and presented a titanic battle of strength versus strength between the giants of African football.
However, Nigeria’s representative Enyimba FC was unable to impress against other continental powerhouse.
Eight of Africa’s most famous clubs were selected by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) to compete for the grand prize of $4 million, which goes to the winners of the inaugural AFL tournament, raising the stakes considerably in a tournament that brings an exciting new African football product to the world football calendar.
The winners of the inaugural AFL received the prize money of $4 Million, while the runner-up got $2.8 million. The two semi-finalists each got $1.7 million. The quarter-finalists each got $900 000.
CAF awards 2023
Nigeria dominated the CAF awards after a long absence from the podium. Nigeria and SSC Napoli striker Victor Osimhen, won the African Footballer of the Year award for men, while Asisat Oshoala was crowned CAF African Women’s Player of the Year for a record sixth time in Marrakech, Morocco.
Similarly, the Super Falcons won the national team of year while FC Paris and Nigeria’s no.1 female goal stopper Chiamaka Nnadozie, was the icing on the cake, winning the inaugural CAF African Women’s Goalkeeper of the Year.
Also the Super Eagles maintain their top 10 ranking in Africa as the 6th best national team on the continent ahead of the AFCON.
Morocco will go for next month’s TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON), Cote d’Ivoire 2023, as the highest ranked team in the tournament following the latest release of the FIFA Rankings.
The Atlas Lions were closely followed by Senegal and Tunisia.
While Algeria, Egypt, Nigeria, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Mali and Burkina Faso complete the top ten countries.
The ranking provides an opportunity to reflect on the statistical performance of the continent’s teams, with a total of 231 matches played throughout the year.
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