AFCON
TODAY IN HISTORY: FATHER TIKO, NIGERIA ‘S YUGOSLAVIAN COACH DIES
BY KUNLE SOLAJA
On this date, 1 July 1986, one of Nigeria’s most successful and charismatic coach, Jelisavicic Tihomir-Tiko, popularly known as ‘Father Tiko’ died, aged 57.
He coached the then Green Eagles in the 1970s and took the team to the last qualifying point for the Argentina ’78 World Cup before an own-goal by hitherto reliable Godwin Odiye, ended the dream.
Sadly it was almost at the occasion of a World Cup tournament that the Yugoslavian died. He had been part of the Mexico ’86 World Cup as an observer. But two days after the tournament, he was heading to Cancum in Mexico to take up a new coaching appointment before an automobile accident took his life.
He was the Green Eagles’ coach at the 1976 Africa Cup of Nations in Ethiopia where he surpassed Nigeria’s previous efforts by taken the team to the second runners-up position.
He achieved the same position at the 1978 Africa Cup of Nations in Ghana, but was relegated to the Flying Eagles in the late 1989 when the National Sports Commission signed on a Brazilian, Otto Gloria to guide the Green Eagles to the 1980 Africa Cup of Nations on home soil.
For the records, he is the third coach with most matches for the Nigerian national team. Under him from 1975 to 1978, Nigeria had 45 matches, ranking him behind four-term Amodu Shaibu (53 matches) and Clemens Westerhof (52 matches).
In terms of duration, he stayed longest among all the foreign coaches Nigeria ever had, as he stay in the country was for eight years even though he handled the then Green Eagles for only three years.
He was also the most widely travelled in Nigeria among those in his ilk as moved from one match venue to the other in search of talents in the then National League.
The legendry Nigerian speedy winger, Segun Odegbami once told the story of how Father Tiko switched him from the inside left position to the right wing just days before a Nigeria versus Sierra Leone World Cup qualifiers in October 1976.
AFCON
NFF Communication director unfolds 20 Points of a 20-hour ordeal on Libyan soil
NFF’s Director of Communications, Dr Ademola Olajire, provides a point-by-point account of how a keenly-anticipated Africa Cup of Nations qualifying match was relegated to a fiasco by Libyan federal authorities and Football Federation
1) The chartered ValueJet aircraft departed from the Victor Attah International Airport, Uyo at 11.55hours on Sunday, 13th October 2024, and landed at the Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano at 13.10hours, for the completion of immigration formalities and for the aircraft to refuel.
2) The aircraft took off from Kano at 15.18hours, for the 3 hours and 35 minutes flight to Benghazi, Libya, expecting to arrive a few minutes before 8pm Libya time.
3) Just as he was about to commence his initial approach into Benghazi, the captain (pilot) was instructed by the control tower that he could not land in Benghazi (despite having all the required landing papers and having completed all formalities before leaving Uyo and later, Kano, but should proceed to the Al-Abraq International Airport, even though the airport lacked the control navigators for landing at such hours. He complained that he was short on fuel but his words fell on deaf ears as he was told sternly that the directive was from ‘higher authorities.’
4) On landing at the Al-Abraq International Airport, in the small town of Labraq, at 19.50 hours, it was clear that the airport was not a well-utilized facility. There were no scanning machines or the usual equipment for this service, and officials had to make do with mobile phones to scan passport data pages.
5) The delegation, which included 22 players and team officials; NFF President Alh. Ibrahim Musa Gusau; Deputy Governor of Edo State, Comrade Philip Shaibu; a couple of NFF Board members; NFF General Secretary, Dr Mohammed Sanusi; a couple of parliamentarians; a couple of NFF Management; a couple of media representatives and; a couple of stakeholders, was shown scant respect by the airport authorities who applied curt manners and stern tones.
6) It took over one hour for the team’s luggage to roll through the carousel, despite the fact that the bags and other items had already been hauled from the aircraft immediately on arrival.
7) No official of the Libyan Football Federation was at the airport to receive the delegation, as is the best practice globally. Airport officials could not answer the simple question on where the buses that would take the delegation members back to Benghazi (where the NFF had booked hotel rooms) were.
8) When delegation members including the NFF President, Comrade Shaibu and Dr Sanusi attempted to venture outside the airport to ascertain if there were vehicles waiting for the team, they were stopped in the most uncouth of manners by airport security personnel.
9) Calls to the General Secretary of LFF, Mr. Abdul-Nasser by Dr Sanusi yielded no fruits as the former kept promising that the buses would arrive in ‘10 minutes’, which later became ‘two hours’, and afterwards, ‘three hours.’ Later in the evening, it was no longer possible to reach him on the phone. Frustrated by this attitude, Dr Sanusi approached the security operatives to request that the team be allowed to go out and board the buses the NFF eventually hired. This request was rejected with insults. It took the intervention of the NFF dignitaries to prevent what would have escalated into a row as the NFF President himself was not spared when he heard an exchange of voices between the security personnel and his General Secretary. This aggravated the tension and further frustrated the team.
10) Hour after hour, and with mounting frustration, delegation members, particularly the players, grew restless. There was no food or water provided by the LFF, or where to even procure these items, and there was no network or internet connection at the airport. These swiftly increased the level of frustration and anger.
11) At past midnight, it was learnt that there had been word from ‘higher authorities’ (Libya is a jurisdiction governed by two different administrations – a UN-recognized cabinet in Tripoli and a self-imposed team over Eastern Libya including places like Benghazi and Labraq) that the Nigeria delegation should be delayed for minimum of 10 hours at the airport for what they falsely claimed was done to their team in Nigeria. (All conversations between the NFF General Secretary and the LFF General Secretary on the match in Uyo, both written text and voices notes, are still in the NFF General Secretary’s phone)
12) The NFF team was shocked because the incident referred to in Nigeria was entirely generated by the Libyans. They informed the NFF that their contingent would be landing in Port Harcourt, and not Uyo, only two hours to the team’s arrival in Nigeria. Despite this, the NFF moved swiftly to get authorities to grant their aircraft movement permit from Port Harcourt to Uyo, but this was jettisoned as the LFF apparently did not cherish the additional fee dispatched by the charter company. They opted to travel by road, refused to use the buses hired by the NFF and instead hired their own, and disrespected advice not to travel by night. When they stuck to their guns to move by night, the NFF provided security. The NFF even provided the team training facility the day after the match and secured direct flight permit from Uyo to Benghazi for the delegation.
13) Infuriated, the NFF President reacted: “We anticipated some shocks here given the false account of what happened in Nigeria as narrated by their team captain. But we did not expect these shenanigans. What I am seeing is despicable and has no place in the game of football which is meant to foster excellent relationships among nations and bring peoples from diverse cultures, religious persuasions and economic and political interests together in an ambience of peace and joy.”
14) The NFF learnt that the Embassy of Nigeria in Tripoli had written, a fortnight earlier, to the authorities in Benghazi that they would want to welcome the Nigeria delegation on arrival. This application was said to have been rejected outright.
15) In a conscious effort to play down their frustration, anger and hunger, players and officials resorted to playing games, listening to music, chatting themselves up, scanning through the airport exit door to see if any vehicles had arrived, and generally looked forward to daybreak, which they hoped would bring much-sought-after relief.
16) Many calls were made to higher authorities in Nigeria to apprise them of the situation, and these persons all expressed fears for the safety and security of the team. These fears were real and justified given the plethora of threats thrown by the Libyans on legacy and social media in the days before and after the match in Uyo. At 2am, Captain William Ekong met the NFF President in the company of the NFF General Secretary to inform the President that the team may not be able to go ahead with the match, due to trauma, fatigue and body aches that resulted from lack of food, dehydration and very cruel and unimaginable treatment, which had led to some players falling ill.
17) The NFF repeated calls to officials of the Confederation of African Football, Nigeria’s FIFA Council Member Mr. Amaju Melvin Pinnick and higher authorities in Nigeria. It dispatched a letter to CAF in which it detailed the antics of the hosts and hoped that the continental governing body would go ahead to “punish this rare bestiality visited on the beautiful game.” It noted that the Super Eagles had travelled hoping to enjoy a great game of football but had been sorely disappointed and frustrated by the unprecedented level of hostility and poor attitude of the hosts.
18) At daybreak, Mr. Maurice Eromosele, president of the Nigerian community in Eastern Libya, arrived with words of empathy from the Ambassador of Nigeria to Libya, His Excellency Alhaji Muhammad Muhammad. He expressed shock at the treatment meted out to the Nigeria delegation, who were made to spend the entire night inside the departure lounge of the Al-Abraq Airport. He said His Excellency ordered him to get a few things for the team, and he later returned with plastic bags loaded with croissants and drinks. These served as breakfast for the team.
19) More calls were made and eventually, it was agreed by all parties that the team should not go ahead with the match, but return to Nigeria to await the decision of CAF (who were briefed in detail on the situation) with regards to the un-played match.
20) After spending many more hours waiting for the Al-Abraq airport authorities to sell fuel to refill the chartered ValueJet aircraft (which was initially proving to be some sort of robotic engineering), the Nigeria delegation departed the Al-Abraq Airport (not worth the toga of ‘international’ by any scale) at exactly 15.05hours, bound for the city of Kano, and onwards to the Federal Capital, Abuja.
AFCON
African football legends, Adebayor and Aubameyang condemn Libya’s treatment of Super Eagles
Two former African Footballers of the Year, Emmanuel Adebayo of Togo and Pierre Emerick-Aubameyang of Gabon have condemned the actions of the Libyan authorities who subjected the Super Eagles of Nigeria to inhumane treatment at the Al Abaq Airport Adebayor was the African Footballer of the Year in 2008 while Aubameyang won the 2015 edition.
Local authorities left the Nigerian contingents unattended for more than 15 hours after they arrived on Sunday night.
Players were seen sleeping on the bench, and the team’s doctors raised concerns over their health ahead of the match.
Adebayor, a legend of African football and Arsenal wrote on X-platform:
“Nigerian Super Eagles were stranded at a Libyan airport, locked in without food, wi-fi, or a place to sleep after their flight was diverted.
“This type of behaviour is unacceptable for the progress of African football. No team should face such treatment. We stand with Nigeria’s Super Eagles.
“Respect and fair play must come first on and off the field.”
His Gabonese counterpart, Aubameyang who also played for Arsenal that the Libyan action should not happen in 2024. He wrote on X:
“Anyway that is not possible in 2024 acting like that.”
In a related development, the cheerleader of Nigerian football, Dr. Raufu Ladipo told Sports Village Square: “It is a big shame that an African country will treat our Super Eagles this way. It is barbaric. If they could do this to our team,
“One could imagine what they would have done to members of the supporters club . It is high time CAF and indeed, FIFA takes a very serious look and takes a decision that will serve as deterrent to forestall future occurrence.”
AFCON
BREAKING! CAF wades into the Libya-Nigeria Airport episode
Just as the Nigerian delegation is set to return to the country from Libya, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) has waded in and referred the matter to its disciplinary board for investigation and appropriate action will be taken against those who violated the CAF Statutes and Regulations.
CAF issued the following statement:
“The Confederation Africaine de Football (CAF) has been in contact with the Libyan and Nigerian authorities after it had been informed that the Nigerian National Football Team (‘’Super Eagles’’) and their technical team were stranded in disturbing conditions for several hours at an airport that they were allegedly instructed to land by the Libyan authorities.
“The matter has been referred to the CAF Disciplinary Board for investigation and appropriate action will be taken against those who violated the CAF Statutes and Regulations.”
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