CHAN Eagles’ disastrous outing

THERE are so many reasons for which Nigeria’s football-loving fans always serenade good coaches. One of them is the discovery of top local talents. Till today, Nigerians still talk glowingly about the Dutch tactician, Clemens Westerhof, because he studied Nigeria’s local league closely and analytically, discovered talents and rolled out a culture for the national team that proved enduring. At the moment, though, things are going south for Nigerian football, and Nigerians have been left with a deep feeling of frustration, disappointment and anger following the disastrous outing of Nigeria’s Super Eagles (B team) at the ongoing 2024 African Nations Championship (CHAN) in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. At a competition meant exclusively for players who are active in their home countries and in which the Team B Eagles were supposed to sell themselves to the outside world, they showed a complete lack of bite, and dragged Nigeria’s name through the mud. Drawn into Group D with defending champions Senegal, Sudan and Congo, the team looked poor and uninspiring from the beginning of the continental competition, putting the problems hobbling the domestic league, the Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL), including tactical naivety and technical deficiency, in bold relief.

After enduring a disappointing 0-1 loss to Senegal, the home Eagles were expected to go all out against Sudan and restore Nigeria’s prestige, and members of the team and Coach Eric Chelle said just as much. Expectations were high, as the players themselves knew that the game against Sudan was going to be a do-or-die affair. However, as it turned out, it was all talk. They lost by four goals to nil, a result interpreted by many as a damning indictment on the quality of the country’s domestic league and a stark reminder of the systemic rot in Nigerian football. With that result, even a win in their final match against Congo could never have salvaged their chances. They were down and out already. A stunned Coach Eric Chelle expressed his disappointment with the margin of the team’s defeat, saying that the game turned out to be the worst game he had ever witnessed. Hear him: “We have lost all ambition. The CHAN is over for us. We have a third match to play for our honour and respect. But I am disappointed by this match. It is the worst game I’ve overseen from the dugout as coach. If we play this way against Congo, it wouldn’t be just four. We have to clear our minds and mentally get ready for Congo.”

 Even Sudan’s Coach, Kwesi Appiah, was surprised at the demolition of Nigeria. And the Eagles’ Assistant coach, Daniel Ogunmodede, who had qualified the team for the tournament as head coach before being confined to the assistant role, said that since he had taken up the role, he would swim and sink with Chelle, as that was what loyalty and professionalism were all about. In January this year, president of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Ibrahim Gusau, had declared that the Super Eagles new coach, Chelle, would be the one to lead the Super Eagles B to the 2024 CHAN. His words: “We have come out with the policy that whoever we employ as the Super Eagles coach will also be the one to manage the affairs of the CHAN Eagles.”

We are deeply disappointed with Nigeria’s outing at CHAN 2024. The performance raises very severe questions about the state and fate of football in Nigeria, a country globally considered to be Africa’s football powerhouse. For many years now, Nigeria’s domestic league, the NPFL, has been marred by poor organisation, scandalous officiating, financial constraints and the maltreatment of players, among other drawbacks. It is no surprise, then, that an overview of Nigeria’s record at the African Nations Championship (CHAN), the tournament featuring only domestically based players, leaves a sour taste in the mouth. The home-based Eagles have participated in three CHAN editions, namely the 2014, 2016, and 2018 editions, posting the best result at the 2018 edition where they endured a 4–0 shellacking at the hands of hosts Morocco in the final. They secured a bronze medal at the 2014 edition, but the rest is pure dross. In 2016, they were eliminated in the group stage. They did not qualify for the initial CHAN editions in 2009 and 2011, nor for the 2020 and 2022 editions. They have never won the CHAN title.

The CHAN 2024 performance is the worst in history. This is certainly an indictment on Nigerian football with all the talent available in the country. And even though a salad of excuses has not been in short supply, it is not hard to surmise that Coach Chelle’s tactics are rather poor. As many have pointed out already, he featured many of the players in unfamiliar positions. That is not how to build a victorious team. And it is no coincidence that even the World Cup prospects of the main Super Eagles team are dim. As things stand, it would take FIFA deducting three points from the Bafana Bafana of South Africa and the Eagles turning the tide against them and against Rwanda for Nigeria to have any hope of featuring at the 2026 World Cup. On current evidence, and given Coach Chelle’s performance, that would be a miracle, although we are not suggesting that a miracle cannot happen.

It is high time the government, the NFF and other stakeholders held a solemn assembly. They should study the situation and come up with solutions, confident in the assurances that raw talents are never lacking in the country. Everything that needs to improve the NPFL and the Nigeria National League (NNL) should be done. There can be no shortcut to success. There should be no repeat of the CHAN 2024 disaster.

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