Failure is Not an Option for Nigeria

The Nigerian FA are a demanding bunch aren’t they? Manager Berti Vogts has been told he has “no excuses” for not winning the African Cup of Nations, which starts next month. Their argument seems to be that they’ve done their job by offering the players $49,000 each to win the tournament, now he has to do his. Which means bringing them the trophy. NFA secretary-general Bolaji Ojo-Oba told Punch newspaper

We have also sorted out the team bonuses for the tournament, so there is absolutely no excuse or whatsoever for failure … Our target is the trophy, we went for a quality coach and now we are working hard with the preparation. Hence, we expect the best from the coach and his players because we have fulfilled our own administrative part.

No pressure then Berti.

The flaw in the NFA’s seemingly perfect plan is that there will be 15 other teams with similar trophy-lifting plans. Just because they’ve dotted every i and crossed every t and put a big wodge of cash on the table, doesn’t mean the other teams will roll over. And of course, Scotland fans would likely disagree with the NFA’s description of Vogts as “a quality coach,” though he did manage Germany to Euro ‘96 glory before his disastrous tartan adventure. Wisely or not, Vogts has agreed with his paymasters, saying

Nigeria has an over-flowing abundance of players in the best leagues of the world. They are showing the right attitude in their clubs and the NFA has also shown enough support. With all this, I believe that the players cannot fail.

No pressure then Super Eagles.

But Vogts is right about one thing, Nigeria have plenty of talent. There’s Everton’s Joseph Yobo and young Marseilles left back Taye Taiwo in defence and Chelsea’s John Obi Mikel in midfield. And Vogts is heavily stocked going forward, with the likes of Portsmouth’s Kanu (the team captain) and John Utaka, Everton’s Yakubu (who’s just rediscovered his form) and Victor Anichebe, Newcastle’s Obafemi Martins and Lazio’s Stephen Makinwa. So Nigeria won’t be hurting for goals.

To add to expectation, Nigeria are the highest African nation in FIFA’s latest World Rankings. The Super Eagles come in at 20th, ahead of Cameroon (24th,) Guinea (33rd) and Ivory Coast (37th.)

But Vogts better hope his team aren’t overconfident. Despite all the talent at their disposal, Nigeria haven’t won the ACN since 1994 and have been halted at the semi-final stage in 2002, 2004 and 2006. Nigeria will be in Group B with Ivory Coast, Mali and Benin, so Vogts will be hoping Didier Drogba doesn’t make the trip to Ghana.

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