insidelife22:
Hmmmmmmmm

Tinubu, is that you?

One, popular on online chatrooms, is that the phrase stems from the 1989 Fifa under-16 world championships.

The tournament was actually a very successful one for the Scotland under-16s team, which made it to the final before losing to Saudi Arabia on penalties. Records show Nigeria were also present, with the team knocked out by the Saudis in the quarters.

Significantly, that match was played at Dens Park. In fact the ground was home to four of Nigeria’s games, and the team also trained there. So could this be the answer? Is it possible that a contingent of mischievous Dundee fans could have played a part in the origins of the phrase? Could they have taken it upon themselves to inform a group of 15-year-old Nigerian youth players that “Dundee United” was local slang for an idiot?

A second theory, popular among some Nigerians, is that it stems from a few years earlier, when United reached the semi-finals of the 1983-84 European Cup. Their tie, against Roma, is seared into the memories of United fans.

Jim McLean’s team won the first leg 2-0, only to lose 3-0 away, with subsequent reports suggesting Roma had attempted to bribe the referee the night before the game. And so, according to this version of events, use of ‘Dundee United’ stuck after large numbers of Nigerians backed United at the bookies, only to lose big as Roma headed off to meet Liverpool in the final.

Olumide, who lives in Glasgow, says: “The players were basically just looking, as the other team took the ball off them. They behaved exactly like fools and it didn’t go down well with the gamblers. The Nigerian gamblers then lost their money, and so, out of frustration, anyone who under-performs, or behaves sluggish, or isn’t up to a task at the level expected was, and is still, referred to as ‘Dundee United’ by Nigerians.”

The answer lies in a two-week period, between the end of May and the start of June, 1972, and a disastrous club tour of West Africa. The trip really did go very badly indeed. United were matched against small, local teams, and they were woeful. Records from the tour reveal a middling start, with a 2-2 draw with Stationery Stores on 27 May 1972 followed by a 1-0 win against Benin Vipers on the 31st. That, however, was to mark the high point of the visit – United lost 2-0 to Enugu Rangers on 3 June, in a match played in front of 35,000 people, before drawing 1-1 with Mighty Jets on 7 June, and then ending the whole sorry affair with a 4-1 hammering at the hands of Stationery Stores.

These were amateur teams, and local fans had expected much, much more from a representative of Scotland’s top flight. United looked like fools. There are, of course, mitigating circumstances. The tour was a hectic one, coming at the end of a long season, with United’s players apparently thrown by travel arrangements and ill-equipped to playing five games over 16 days, in Nigeria in June.

PROUDIGBO:
I doubt this is the origin. The phrase is just some years old....not up to two decades! Could be it came from the derogatory term dunderhead!

Obainoman6:
Lai Mohammed is that you?