Nigerian Football
WAFU Rolls Back to Life as Nigeria, Ghana Renew Rivalry
BY KUNLE SOLAJA.
The WAFU Nations Cup which was scuttled by the immediate past CAF regime of Issa Hayatou has now been resuscitated. This follows a draw ceremony on Thursday at Labadi Beach Hotel in Accra, Ghana. Nigeria, Ghana, The Gambia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Mauritania and Guinea Bissau are drawn in Group A of the competition which final competition will hold in Ghana from September 9 to 24 this year. Group A teams will play in Takoradi.
In Group B are Senegal, Liberia, Burkina Faso, Niger Republic, Togo, Benin Republic Cote d’Ivoire and Cape Verde.
The Group B teams will play in Cape Coast. Like in the previous edition, the teams will feature only players in their domestic competitions.
The revived competition adopted a unique format that will see teams play single games before proceeding to the quarter finals. Nigeria will face Sierra Leone.
The competition suffered a premature death when on May 16, 2011 the Executive Committee of CAF in Cairo split the largest sub-regional football body in Africa into two thus administering a deadly pill on WAFU Cup that had been running for some time.
Contrary to wide held belief that the sub regional body was founded in 1975, the body has it origin in March 1959 when it came into existence as West Africa Football Federation (WAFF).
At the time, football associations from 16 West African countries, including Cameroon met in Accra for the football conference that led to the formation of WAFF and a competition for the Kwame Nkrumah Gold Cup which replaced the annual Jalco Cup competed by Nigeria and Ghana.
Reginald Banham Allen popularly called Derby Allen along with Effiom Okon represented Nigeria at the inauguration of WAFF, the fore-runner of WAFU.
The body adopted zonal groupings which pitched Nigeria with Cameroon, Dahomey (now Benin Republic) and Togo.
Nigeria’s Effiom Okon unsuccessfully proposed that zonal groupings be replaced with ballot system to avoid monotony of the same teams meeting every time.
The British president of Nigeria Football Association, Reginald Allen was elected as one of the two vice presidents of WAFF. About six years later, WAFF collapsed and was re-established as WAFU on September 7, 1975 in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire.
But 36 years later, life was snuffed out of the largest sub regional body in Africa.
THE DRAW
GROUP A
Ghana Vs The Gambia
Nigeria Vs Sierra Leone
Mali Vs Mauritania
Guinea Vs Guinea Bissau
GROUP B
Senegal Vs Liberia
Burkina Faso Vs Niger Republic
Cote d’Ivoire Vs Togo
Benin Republic Vs Cape Verde
The miserable run of Akwa United and Ikorodu City came to an end after six games in the Nigerian Premier League this season. Both teams were initially glued at the bottom of the league table.
They now got respite as Akwa United beat Kano Pillar by 2-0 while Ikorodu City even did what could be considered an upset, beating Bendel Insurance 3-0.
Remo Stars bounced back to the top of the log after a 3-0 defeat of Nasarawa United. Shooting Stars are yet to get their rhythm this season, playing a barren draw with Enyimba in Ibadan.
Kwara United who got their first full points of the season last week after a 1-0 defeat of Remo Stars could not consolidate as they were beaten 1-0 by Abia Warriors.
Heartland under Emmanuel Amuneke are gradually recovering as they got a valuable away draw against El-Kanemi Warriors.
BY KUNLE SOLAJA.
It is 75 years since Nigeria’s national football team first played an international match. That was on 8 October 1949 when the first set of Nigeria’s assembly on their return voyage stopped over in Freetown and engaged Sierra Leone in an international football match. Nigeria won 2-0, setting a chain of positive results on 8 October.
The country never lost any competitive duel on that date. More significantly, the Super Eagles first qualified for the World Cup on an 8 October date.
That was in 1993 when they were held to a 1-1 draw by Algeria in the quest for USA ‘94 World Cup.
Nigeria became the first English-speaking African country to qualify for the World Cup. Another significance of the October 8 match at the July 5 Stadium, Algiers is that Nigeria were unbeaten for the first time by Algeria at home.
The only deviation from the 8 October Magic was in 2015 when Nigeria lost 2-0 to Congo in a friendly match.
Twenty-six years after Nigeria’s debut international match, one of Africa’s biggest football nations, Egypt fell to the October 8 magic, losing 4-0 to Nigeria in the last stage of the triangular World Cup qualifying series for Argentina ’78.
Up till October 15, 2013, when Ghana beat Egypt 6-1 in Kumasi, the October 8, 1977 duel with Nigeria remained Egypt’s biggest loss in a World Cup qualifying match.
Before the 1977 duel, Nigeria in 1963 played a friendly match with Liberia in Monrovia. The October 8 magic was active, even in an away match. Nigeria drew 2-2 in their very first encounter with Liberia. It was shortly after the team had, through a protest, upturned a victory by Guinea to pick Nigeria’s very first African Nations’ Cup ticket.
Little wonder then that when FIFA suspended Nigeria in 2010, the world governing body provisionally lifted the ban on October 8!
Nigeria on 8 October
- 1949 – Freetown (Friendly) Sierra Leone 0-2 Nigeria
- 1963 – Monrovia (Friendly) Liberia 2-2 Nigeria
- 1977 – Lagos (World Cup qualifier) Nigeria 4-0 Egypt
- 1993 – Algiers (World Cup qualifier) Algeria 1-1 Nigeria… qualify for USA ‘94.
- 2005 – Abuja (World Cup qualifier) Nigeria 5-1 Zimbabwe
- 2010 – FIFA, in apparent respect to the 8 October magic, provisionally lifted a ban imposed on Nigeria.
- 2011 – Abuja (African Nations Cup qualifier) Nigeria 2-2 Guinea. Although undefeated, Nigeria failed to make it to the 2012 African Nations Cup.
- 2015 – D.R. Congo beat Nigeria 2-0 in Visé, Belgium. The ‘October 8 Magic’ is finally broken.
Rivers United have launched themselves to the top of the log at the end of the match day 5 of the Nigeria Premier League. The Port Harcourt side beat Akwa United 2-1 to go afloat after initial leaders, Remo Stars crumbled to a 1-0 defeat at Kwara United in Ilorin on Sunday.
It was Remo Stars’ first defeat in the season. Rivers United are now with 13 points. Stephen Mayo put Rivers United ahead after 31 minutes. But it turned a temporary lead as Akwa United bounced back almost at the blast of the referee’s whistle for the second half.
Friday Apollos levelled up for Akwa United before Ndifreke Effiong Udo scored the winner in the 85th minute.
Sunday Results
- Kwara United 1-0 Remo Stars
- Rangers International 1-0 Abia Warriors
- Heartland FC 2-0 Niger Tornadoes
- Kano Pillars 2-0 Sunshine Stars
- Plateau United 1-0 Ikorodu City
- Rivers United 2-1 Akwa United
- Enyimba 3-0 Katsina United* Suspended
- Nasarawa 0-0 Bayelsa United
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