Tunde Sulaiman
22 October 2008
Lagos — The outcome of a simple ceremony lasting barely 45 minutes and taking place in the hallowed chambers of the auditorium of the FIFA headquarters in Zurich will go a long way in determining the World Cup qualification dreams of millions of Nigerians and others across the African continent.
For the ceremony billed to kick off at 11am (Nig time) is the draw for the final round of qualifying for the World Cup taking place in South Africa in 2010.
After almost two years of weeding the wheat from the chaff the field has finally been narrowed down to just 20 of the top teams in Africa with every one of them harbouring the aspiration of taking part in the world's greatest football show on earth.
However, only five of the remaining sides can make to the show because the final is strictly limited to the top 32 sides on the globe.
So the ceremony taking place in Zurich this morning will now put the 20 remaining sides into five groups of four with only the group winners making it to the finals in South Africa.
Although in theory the remaining teams are all admirably qualified to play in the World Cup finals having already survived the earlier weeding out process, the reality is that some teams are still 'bigger' than others, which is why FIFA has seeded five of them.
Luckily and with a big relief to millions of Nigerian fans, the Super Eagles were one of those fortunate enough to make the seeding 'cut off mark' courtesy of their superlative performances in the second round of qualifying where they garnered a 100 percent record.
This in turn meant that they rose up the monthly FIFA Rankings, which the world football governing body used to choose the seeded the teams.
The Super Eagles were rated the second best team on the continent behind first placed Cameroon, Ghana and Egypt trailed on the September Rankings, which FIFA used.
Perhaps had FIFA relied on any other formula the Eagles might not have been so fortunate considering the fact that they failed to make it to the last World Cup finals in Germany and had a woeful outing at Ghana 2008.
Also seeded with the Eagles are the Indomitable Lions of Cameroon, the Black Stars of Ghana, the Elephants of Cote d'Ivoire and Egypt's Pharaohs - all among some of the biggest and strongest footballing nations on the continent.
But even though Nigeria has escaped such formidable opposition, there still exists a number of potential banana peels in the remaining nations - who are all harbouring their own dreams of competing at the World Cup.
Such countries include World Cup campaign veterans like Morocco and Tunisia and emerging sides like Mali, Togo and Sudan.
However, also waiting in the wings to cause possible fatal damage to the dreams of the 'big five' are such nations as Kenya, Malawi and Mozambique.
So while in theory a group with the likes of Mali, Kenya and Rwanda should be an ideal fixture list for the Eagles, however, the truth of the matter is that unless the federation and players get their act together and approach the competition with all the seriousness that is deserves, than even this may be a bridge to far.
One only has to go back to the last campaign for this harsh reality to be driven home. Placed in an 'easy' group containing Angola, Algeria, Zimbabwe, Gabon and Rwanda, the Eagles contrived to even bungle this allowing the Palancas Negras of Angola to 'steal' the sole Germany 2006 ticket.
Hopefully the players and federation officials would have learnt their lessons from this and avoid the same pitfalls that could derail another World Cup dream for millions of Nigerian football fans.
So before 12 noon today, the Super Eagles and millions of football fans across the African continent will know, which teams stand between them and an access to play on the stage of the greatest show on earth - the World Cup finals!
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