It is no longer news that reigning AFCON’13 Champions, Super Eagles of Nigeria will not be at AFCON’15, the result of miserable and pathetic football it played in arguably one of the softest qualifying groups of the Championship.
Opinions are several and polarized as to why the Eagles posted such dismal records on the pages of history: reigning champions not qualifying for the next event. It has come as a huge shock to an unsuspecting and perhaps very permissive public. From sponsored stories to citizen journalism on social media much was said for a failing Eagles and an underperforming coaching crew leading to the fatalistic exit of the team.
The officious bystander, pundits and commentators who saw differently came in for all kinds of name calling, vilification and very uncivilized addresses and accusations. On the Super Eagles matter a lot of people wrote and pretended to be more Nigerian than the rest of us to the detriment of the nation and ultimate fall of the team.
Sentiments and emotions flowed uncontrollably all of which could have forced a dam open. With AFCON’15 exit a rude reality, it becomes imperative for a few truths told earlier to be re-told here even if it hurts.
Super Eagles coach, Stephen Keshi, deserved all the accolades and rewards he got for winning AFCON’13. He made history too by becoming the second African to win AFCON titles as a Player and Coach. The other being Egypt’s Hassan Shehata.Keshi went on to qualify for the World Cup in Brazil at which he and the Eagles qualified for the second round but not without living a few questions as to capacity, tactical savvy, technical acumen and team balance. The sterile and uninspiring play of the Eagles was hurtful to the eyes and hearts of many Nigerian football followers. The very construct of the team was poor, jejune and lacking in ambition. Football aficionados questioned the selection of players for the mundial by Coach Stephen Keshi but the worries and opinions, a plethora of it, went unheeded by our football custodians, the NFF. Several of the players on board the plane to Brazil for the World Cup ought to have headed for rehabilitation homes and centres for the physically handicapped. No more than twelve players in Brazil were good enough for the Super Eagles. The rest, geriatrics, misfits and spent players in Brazil could only have made a national team selected by Stephen Keshi who had now developed a manic ego, which often stood between him, quality advice and the right decisions. His many non-football reasons for excluding the better players from the team was excruciatingly injurious.
The Eagles began to show signs of a non-team or one in pre-mature decline at the Confederation Cup. A tiny minority which voiced this met with thunderous shouts of “Sharrap”, “Keshi is the best Coach Nigeria ever had”, “are you a coach?” etc etc. Keshi had become Lord of the Manor. He had acquired powerful friends at the Presidency, National Assembly, the Sporting press, a motley of very noisy and many times uncivil following on social media. The truth of the true state of the Eagles now submerged in blue truths and red truths is that the team lost its bearing and went on a free fall. Even so, Keshi could do no wrong. Some even swore by his name.
Events in Brazil suggested the need to cleanse the augean stable by the NFF. But embroiled in its own generated crises the NFF could not do the needful. The respected OlusegunAdeniyi leant his voice to the call made by discerning football followers that Coach Stephen Keshi should go and a new man called in having out-lived his usefulness. That was the way to go given the ugly details emanating from the Eagles camp in Brazil and the unconvincing display of the team. Keshi certainly appeared to have reached his limits with the team.
Even from the very highest level of decision making in this country, Keshi was forced on the NFF and the Eagles inspite of the very poor results of the AFON’15 qualifiers showing very serious signals that calamity was on its way to the Eagles.
President Goodluck Jonathan, not exactly known to be a football fan unfortunately got into the fray of Keshi to go or not. It was widely reported he ordered the re-instatement of the under-performing Stephen Keshi. The C-in-C went too far there if indeed he did and I suspected he did given the inertia on Keshi’s fate on the job today.
President Jonathan I thought was busy enough to have the time to force a disengaged employee on unwilling employers. The consequences of that needless move is with us as the Eagles will join other Nigerians in watching AFCON’15 on television.
Were reason, common sense and what is right to prevail, Eagles may just have had a chance to sneak into AFCON’15 by the last two games. Keshi should have been sent packing after the World Cup in Brazil or after the first two games of the qualifiers. But this is a country people do not like to take responsibility until all things crash as it has just happened.
Some blame it on a dysfunctional football structure and administration. But this is the same platform and support cast that Keshi won AFCON’13 with. It cannot be the excuse for defacing the otherwise great brand which has failed to get to the market place, leaving massive collateral damage in Sports and media business which roughly stand between N15.5 billion and N17.5 billion of advertising spend and event leveraging which will go unspent first quarter of 2015. The result of very poor, and irresponsible decisions in Nigeria’s football by all concerned and a sports media that has vacated its responsibility of telling it as it is. Shame!
