AFCON
Curiously, Super Eagles Are The Most Decorated Sides At AFCON –
BY KUNLE SOLAJA.
With the original field of 24 now thinned to eight, one significant point that is noted in the on-going Africa Cup of Nations is the rubbishing of the form books.
Virtually all the pre-tournament favourites have been sent packing. The FIFA ranking that was used to seed the teams has waned in importance and rendered useless.
The top five – Morocco, Senegal, Tunisia, Algeria and Egypt have all been eliminated.
At sixth position, the Super Eagles are now the highest ranked among the eight still standing.
What is more, the Nigerian team stands as the most decorated side in Africa Cup of Nations’ history. It might sound curious, but the facts support the assertion.
There have been 33 editions of the tournament before now. No team had had the number of podium finish that the Nigerian team has had.
With three titles, four runners-up placements and eight third-places finishing, it means that the Super Eagles have had 15 podium finishes in 19 editions they attended out of the 33 tournaments.
They thus soar higher than record-winners, Egypt, even with their seven titles. Egypt have placed second on three instances and third also in three instances making their podium appearances to be 13, two behind that of Nigeria.
Next in podium appearance, is Ghana. The Black Stars have won the title four times and were runners-up five times while placing third ones. They thus appeared on the podium 10 times, five behind that of Nigeria.
Cameroon with five titles and two runners-up and third positions, being also twice, have thus had medals on their players nine times.
- Nigeria – 15 times
- Egypt – 13 times
- Ghana – 10 times
- Cameroon – 9 times
- Cote d’Ivoire – 8 times
The Libyan Football Federation (LFF) has sacked its Serbian coach, Milutin Sredojević who is popularly known as Micho.
This is coming ahead of Libya’s back-to-back Africa Cup of Nations clashes with Nigeria next month.
Paradoxically, Sports Village Square gathered that the coach’s contract was only recently renewed for six months before the axe fell on the Serbian.
His sack was precipitated by the results obtained in their teo matches of the AFCON qualifiers.
Libya drew 1-1 with Rwanda at home and lost 2-1 away to Benin Republic despite beig a goal up at half time.
The Libyan side, Mediterranean Knights are due to play against the Nigeria Super Eagles in Uyo on 6 October while the return leg holds on 14 October at the 11 July Stadium in Tripoli.
According to information Sports Village Square gathered from Tripoli, the Mediterranean Knights’ coach, Micho led the Libyan national team to win nine matches since taking over in October of last year, he failed to build a strong team due to his poor choices.
He also took a risk with the footballers chosen in the AFCON qualifiers, and the result was shocking to the Libyan sports audience.
According to sources close to the Libyan Football Federation, there is a strong tendency to sign a national coach to lead the Libyan team during the remaining qualifiers for the African Cup of Nations.
CAF President Patrice Motsepe has lashed out at Ghana and some other African countries whose home grounds were recently banned from hosting CAF matches owing to inadequate facilities. He made the remarks in Nairobi, Kenya during a press conference,
After the MatchDay 2 of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers, CAF ruled Ghana’s Baba Yara Stadium in Kumasi as being inadequate to host international matches. Being the only approved ground in the country, Ghana will now look towards either Cote d’Ivoire or Togo for their remaining home matches of the Afcon qualifiers.
Other African countries without approved home grounds are: Djibouti, Chad, Niger, Eritrea, Gabon, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Madagascar, São Tomé and Burundi.
Motsepe voiced his frustration over the recurring issue of nations being unable to host home games.
“Nothing frustrates me more than a national team or club side having to play home matches outside,” he stated.
He stressed the significance of playing in front of home fans, adding, “You can’t grow football if the national teams or club sides aren’t playing in front of their home fans.”
Motsepe reiterated CAF’s commitment to working with countries to ensure they have at least one suitable stadium to host international fixtures.
“Our conversations in every country are to make sure there is at least one stadium capable of hosting a CAF category C game,” he emphasized.
The on-going CAF AFCON Cote d’Ivoire 2023 Coaches Symposium in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire has brought together, the last three coaches that handled the Nigeria national football team.
Gernot Rohr, Jose Peseiro and Austin Eguavoen are part of the the elite coaches currently gathered in Abidjan.
Gernot Rohr whose tenure of 5 years and 55 matches is the longest ever by any coach in Nigeria, is currently handling Nigeria’s Africa Cupof Nations and World Cup qualifying rivals, Benin Republic. He was succeeded in the interim by Austin Eguavoen who is currently having another interim stint.
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