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Do Nigeria Really Care About The 2015 AFCON?

Published

10 years ago

January 17, 2015

On a preponderance of evidence, 2014 was a year to forget for Nigerian football.
Like the effect of rotten tomatoes in a room, could the stench from last year’s mess adversely influence the followership of the 2015 Afcon in the most populous black nation in the world?
For some, like Monday Mordecai, “there’s no Afcon without the Super Eagles,” and who can blame such people for being blunt with their feelings?
Naturally, Nigerians are sometimes unrealistically optimistic, especially when it comes to football, and that perhaps explains why the damage caused by Stephen Keshi and his men would linger for a long time.
“Why would I watch it?” Cyril Okolie blasted, “[the] Nations Cup is [about] following your country, so what is the motive to watch Burkina [Faso] v Congo [for example] or any other game?”
As far back as January 2014, the 2015 Afcon was eagerly anticipated and the reason is quite simple: football is like a religion in Nigeria, and footballing events of such magnitude are taken seriously.
Secondly, the Super Eagles, having won the 2013 edition after almost two decades of trial and error, were expected to defend their title, giving many great conviction that the team would soar through qualification, however, it didn’t quite pan out as many had hoped.
The fiasco within the Nigeria Football Federation grabbed international headlines as Amaju Pinnick and the Chris Giwa-led faction shamed Nigerians with their power tussle. However, that intriguing series, which is currently hibernating, cannot be compared to ‘the great disaster’—Nigeria’s Afcon failure.
The final qualifying game in Uyo against South Africa, which ended 2-2 and sealed the Super Eagles’ fate, left millions inconsolably devastated as untold grief permeated hearts.
Despite ‘the great disaster’, however, the Afcon spectacle is bigger than both Nigeria and the Super Eagles. Therefore, the show, like they say, must go on.
Now we do love to here your opinion, are you going to follow up AFCON with out the Super Eagles playing? Do you think it’s gonna be interesting without the Super Eagles ?