Ademola Olajire
18 February 2002
The Super Eagles had one of the worst preparations for the 23rd African Nations Cup finals. While teams like Cameroon and South Africa were organising camping sessions in different parts of Europe and in Africa, and hosts Mali were having a rash of friendly games across Europe, the Nigerians were busy postponing the day they would resume camping.
International friendlies, many of them were arranged, but were played on paper. The only one that materialised was the one against Japan in Southampton in October. The players kept saying they could not make themselves available for friendlies just like that . There were regular rifts over what to pay for any friendly, but even if the pay was agreed, the matches were not there. The matches played in the Nations Cup exposed the bad blood in the team and such array of unfit players replete with bad attitude towards national assignment.
Time without number several of the old players made indiscipline daily routine and officials were aghast and would do nothing, they could not exercise a measure of real control over the players.
If the technical crew of Shuaib Amodu, Stephen Keshi and Joe Erico had used them as shield to have their say during encounters with top officials, then some of the key players that Nigeria relied on to win the tournament, rode on their back and messed up the Nations Cup campaign.
Technical and tactical deficiencies of the Amodu led coaches were exposed by players who rather had their way on the pitch.
The Nigeria Football Association officials lack the vision and expertise to steer the nations goal and objectives all the way.(ACONS)
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