Can Nigeria win the Cup?

The African Nations Cup got underway in Ghana on Sunday, 20th January 2008. This is certainly the most hyped contest since the Cup of Nations became one the world could no longer ignore. I was in Accra just over a week before the commencement of the competition, and I could see that football high fever was already in town. Every where you went the games colours and those of its major sponsors MTN were splashed all over the city. One fortuitous side effect of this year’s fiesta is that it will take our attention off the unfortunate goings-on in the “House of Obasanjo”. Hopefully in that interval the actors and actresses will take the opportunity to reflect and draw back from the precipice of self-destruction that they have embarked upon. And perhaps seek spiritual counselling and redemption.

But back to the exciting African fiesta that has now taken off in Ghana. The first time I took note of the competition as a young boy must have been the 1974 contest in Egypt and particularly the 1976 edition where Nigeria took third place and our players Kunle Awesu and Baba Otu Muhammed (?) were the best wingers on the left and right, but of course Nigeria had its first real honours in 1980 when we both hosted and won. That glorious 1980 team of Segun Odegbami, Muda Lawal, Captain Christian Chukwu, Adokiye Amaesimeka and others simply overwhelmed all opposition and crushed Algeria 3-0 at the National Stadium in Lagos to claim gold for the very first time. Since then we have won it only one other time-in 1994-even though playing in so many finals in between, and thereafter.

For most of its history the competition was dominated by players who were more or less amateurs playing in the local leagues in the participating countries. It attracted little or no attention from the international community except for the few scouts from fringe European leagues such as Belgium, Israel or Portugal. Domestic interest within African countries was limited, and broadcast and commercial interest was insignificant. The Nations Cup has come a long way, and has changed in many ways. It is no longer a second rate contest of unknown quantities. Many of the teams would fare well against European and South American opposition, and the players play in all the best leagues in England, Spain, Italy and France with only a minority in most of the top national teams being home-based players.

This is both good news and bad. The inward wealth transfer that our footballers and other sportsmen are generating into African economies is a significant inflow that has helped to reduce poverty on the continent. Every time I think about an Obafemi Martins, who might have at best ended up wasting his talents as an ‘area boy’ in central Lagos, or a Kanu Nwankwo who may have best been a textiles trader at Aba or Onitsha market, I think that football has been a source of positive societal transformation. These stars are also becoming beacons of hope and role models in an African society which is so lacking of positive role models. But the fact of exportation of young African foot balling talent also reflects how Africa is losing out in the globalisation era. It reflects the lack of development in the African continent while the rest of the world surges ahead.

The long term imperative for African sports is for entrepreneurially-minded managers to take control of the management of sports, and to evolve a sustainable model of sports funding, marketing and organisation. The leagues in Africa will not develop until the clubs are privately-owned institutions, with wide shareholder participation, a commercial model dependent on gate takings, broadcast revenues, marketing of memorabilia and an enthusiastic fan base. The reluctance of sports administrators to allow such a model in favour of their present rent-facilitating system, will only prolong the drain of African talent to leagues in England, Spain, Italy, France and other countries organised in a commercially viable and sustainable manner.

Any way while we wait for our system to change, we will continue to depend on the Diaspora players to constitute almost one hundred percent of our team. As usual Nigeria has qualified and will be participating in Ghana 2008, but the question is do we stand a chance of victory this time around? The problem is that Nigerians (your columnist included) are incurable optimists, and perhaps patriots. Six months ago when I was a bit more objective about our chances, my honest view was that Nigeria did not have one of the better teams and was therefore unlikely to do well in Ghana. Many of the players in our team will not get a shirt in the Cote d’ivoire, Ghana or Cameroun teams. Just look at the team paraded by Didier Drogba (of Chelsea) and his team mates in Cote d’Ivoire-Kolo Toure and Emmanuel Eboue of Arsenal, Salomon Kalou also of Chelsea, Aruna Dindane, Aruna Kone and a generally first class team.

The Ghanaian team also has Michael Essien also of Chelsea, Sulley Muntari and Laryea Kingston, while Cameroun still has Samuel Etoo of Barcelona who has enough skills, speed and dexterity to almost single-handedly win the cup for his country. Nigeria in my view has an at best slightly above team. Kanu who is the only truly outstanding player in the team is well past his peak. John Mikel Obi is the only other of real star quality and the only Nigerian player who plays in the top global teams. Others feature in middle or bottom league teams such as Portsmouth, Newcastle and Sunderland and even second division teams like Watford or inferior leagues like those in Israel and South Africa. But we must admit that the organisation of this year’s pre-tournament build-up including selection, call-ups, friendly matches and camp arrivals and training have been better organised than on previous occasions.

At the end of the day, the most important lesson managers can learn from football is that it is good teams that win matches, not good individuals. So Cote D’ivoire or Ghana will not necessarily win because they have stronger individuals than other teams. They will only win if in addition, they are a cohesive, united and purposeful team. That is why Real Madrid in the ‘galactico’ era did not win trophies in spite of having the best assembly of individual skill anywhere in the world. In fact, one good illustration of the triumph of teams over individuals in football was the Champions League clashes between Real Madrid and Olympique Lyon of France, in which Lyon trounced Madrid two years ago. In my view, the only hope for Nigeria is if we could leverage the power of team work to overcome the superior skills in the Ivorien team.

My bet, like that of most informed observers is that the winner of this contest will come from Nigeria, Cameroun, Ghana and Cote D’Ivoire. My emotional favourite is of course Nigeria. But I very much like the Cote D’Ivoire team, probably a residue of my Chelsea affiliation and Didier Drogba’s presence in the team, along with the impressive Arsenal contingent. Unfortunately I can’t delay writing this column until I have the result of the Nigeria/Cote D’Ivoire match, but I suspect that whoever wins that game may be on course to win the cup.