Super Eagles return to South Africa: CHAN 2014

Segun Agbede
| credits: File copy

The Super Eagles are  headed back to South Africa next year. They are revisiting the scene of one of our country’s greatest  sporting triumphs, where the Super Eagles lifted the African Cup of Nations for the third time in our history and for the first time in 19 long  years. It was the utter  bemusement/ bewilderment of the African continent and the amazement/disbelief of an incredulous nation. I rate it as one of our most significant sporting victories mainly due to the parlous state of Nigerian sports leading up to the tournament. 2012, I’m sure we’ll all agree, was an annus horriblis for Nigerian sport, exemplified by the Eagles failure to qualify for AFCON 2012  and Team Nigeria’s  abysmal performance at the London Olympics. The Eagles totally unexpected the AFCON win, went a long way to redress the balance and restore some vestige of national pride.

South Africa holds a  unique place in our football history. I shall always insist that Nigeria should have one more AFCON title on our  Roll of Honour. The Super Eagles enforced absence from AFCON 1996 still rankles and leaves a bitter taste in the mouth. At that period, the Eagles were the strongest, most dominant force  in African football. I’m convinced the then reigning African Champions would have easily defended their crown. Fate has subsequently decreed that we return to South Africa for new frontiers to conquer.

Rarely has one celebrated a defeat, the way I celebrated the home-based Super Eagles loss to Cote d’Ivoire last Saturday. The Eagles lost 2-0 in the second leg of the final qualifier for the Orange African Nations Championship. I was following the match on Twitter and was almost a nervous wreck at the final whistle. Credit must go to the Eagles for not buckling under the incessant Ivorien pressure and denying the home team, the all important third goal. The final score meant that even though the Eagles lost on the day, we won the tie 4-3 on aggregate and qualified for CHAN 2014.

The tournament will take place in South Africa from January 11 to February 1, 2014. This is the third edition of the 16 nation championship, designed by the confederation of African Football, specifically for footballers playing in their domestic leagues.

CAF divided Africa into 6 qualifying zones, from which 12 of the 16 teams that will compete have emerged. Mauritania and Mali  from Zone West A, Nigeria, Burkina Faso and Ghana from Zone West B. Central Zone has three teams but only Congo Brazzaville has qualified from there. Central East Zone provides three teams, Burundi, Uganda and Ethiopia. Libya and Morocco qualified  from the  Northern Zone. While  South Africa  qualified automatically as hosts, along with two yet to be determined teams in the Southern Zone.

This will be the Eagles first appearance at the biennial championship, which  was first hosted by Cote d’Ivoire in 2009. The Eagles were eliminated from the inaugural tournament by Ghana. It was the same sad story  in 2011 when the Eagles were knocked out on the road to CHAN 2011 in Sudan by Niger. Coach Stephen Keshi has once again written his name in the record books by being the first Eagles coach to qualify for CHAN.

The positive ramifications of the Eagles qualification for CHAN 2014 cannot be over emphasised. It is a massive boost for our domestic league, as it is bound to attract more focus and attention  between now and January. It is the perfect platform for  the home-based players to showcase their talents on a global stage. GLO Premier League clubs will also benefit commercially from their players participation in the tournament. There will be scouts from the world over at the tournament and all the players will be in the proverbial shop window.

In Keshi, we already have a national team coach who believes in the potential of home-based players, as he well should. He was vindicated with his decision to take six home based players for AFCON. Keshi also boldly included eight home-based players in his Confederations Cup squad. His selection of so many home-based players on the trip to Brazil, exposed him  to some fierce and in my opinion, unwarranted criticism from some ex-internationals. They ascribed  the Eagles failure to reach the semis to the high proportion of home-based players in the squad. Blame that was manifestly unfair, as ironically, the major culprits for the Eagles  group stage exit in Brazil,  were the much vaunted  foreign-based professionals.

Concerted and orchestrated efforts must be made by all concerned parties to use the Eagles qualification for CHAN 2014 to further promote our domestic league and its players. This is also a golden opportunity for the Super Eagles coaching crew to send scouts all over the nation, to watch the GLO Premier League games and familiarise themselves with the players; selecting only the very best the league has to offer.