₦airaland Forum

you didn't get the general gist of my comment. In all i'm saying Nigeria and some other African countries are capable. But this discussion can easily digress into politics -- bad leadership. Let's get back to the basics, than wanting to be tag teams with countries who are enjoying the result of better leadership.

We can enjoy EPL as much as we want. We can celebrate SE as much as we want, but the problems of this country will keep coming back to bite us -- bad leadership.

goldfish80:
My suggestion is not solely based on hosting but participation. Those Gulf countries have money and the glitz and glamour the AFCON will have with their participation will increase sponsorship and TV money.
We have to get real. Having Djibouti and Swaziland play against themselves in an AFCON game in Angola is not attractive enough for good sponsorship.

By the way, you do realise that hosting is beyond just having stadia. You have to think about logistics, transportation, accommodation, electricity,
Some journalists who covered the last 2 AFCONs complained of lacking decent accommodation. And we are talking about just a 16 team championship, what will happen when it is stretched to 24?

Thia could be a bit out of line but I recall Nigeria withdrew their bid to host the world cup in 2010 because of lacking infrastructure to host the tournament. For instance, for a city to qualify as a host city for the World Cup she must have at least 15k hotel rooms. Ask yourself, which city throughout the length and breth of Nigeria can boost of having decent 15k hotel rooms?

yes. Africans need to rise up.

Africa no be baby. Go to these countries we call poor countries, you will be surprised that corruption is still an issue.. We like to be spoon-fed, when we the citizens are not demanding that our leaders do the right thing, but we keep being distracted with tribal sentiments. That's our problem. Nigerians for example are distracted. If we rise up as one to demand accountability in all fronts, that will be the beginning of greatness.

.

BascoVanVeli:
First it was a billion dollars. Second I was not celebrating. The fact is that bringing Asian teams into AFCON will not change anything. The deal is already done and dusted, the monies CAF will get is already set in stone. The only people who will make anything extra will be the TV people not CAF. Even if EPL brings barca and real into their league, their money will remain the same.

The only thing that might be gained would be facilities but we have not yet exhausted Morocco, Egypt, Tunisia, South Africa and even Nigeria. This is an opportunity improve things in Africa, going that route will only cover up the issue. What happen when the Asian teams don't want to host again and we still don't have facilities in Africa.

We need to use this as a tool to work on the continent. Sure most can't host by themselves but they can co-host. This can enable unity in the continent with countries working hand in hand.

Africa has enough teams to fill up 24 slots, we don't need to follow that route

They have just succeeded in doing just that for the age-grade tournaments.

BascoVanVeli:
My eyes dey on this new board o, u know they even wanted to make the world cup qualifiers regional.

I hope so too..

Icon79:
Well, let's hope that they are coordinating this effort with Rohr. Creating confusion within the coaching crew is the last thing we need right now.


O pari

That's not a solution to countries who choose not to move forward. There are 52 countries in Africa for God sake. At least 10 are capable of rotating as hosts of AFCON if the others choose to remain behind.. Nigeria should have at least 8 standard stadia only if we have a good maintenance culture.. so the problem is really a self-inflicting one.. We ship our entertainment jobs abroad.. we patronize everything abroad. now our only beloved sports some are asking we ship away. We cannot hide behind globalization to conceal our backwardness.

How about we go back to the real issues and get serious about demanding our leaders do their jobs..

goldfish80:
The demograph of our North African brothers and say Bahrain are basically the same. Humans carved out barriers for themselves.
Australia is not an Asian country but they chose to be part of the Asian Federation.
Having you asked yourself why Isreal is playing in the Uefa champions league when they are located in the middle East. They even hosted a European U21 championship some years ago.

Morocco are presently a member of Ecowas.

Frontiers are being expanded my good friend.

Ur last sentence though -- staging AFCON outside Africa. Does that even make sense?

goldfish80:
CAF should seek for strategic partnership with Arab Gulf Federation. The partnership should be so packaged to have 4 teams from that Federation participate in the Afcon. This partnership will benefit both parties ,with the Gulf countries getting the benefit to play against top African oppositions which will develop their football, while CAF benefit from more TV money and sponsorship from those Arabian money bags and companies.

We have seen the South American federation partner with CONCACAF and teams like Mexico and Honduras played in the Copa America.

Interregional partnership is the way forward.

This partnership could even be extended to club competition. Imagine a Caf champions league featuring teams from Saudi Arabia and Qatar. The viewer-ship and sponsorship generated will see the present chewing gum money on the table as prize money for the winners of the competition reviewed upwords to meet a resemblance of what is obtainable in competitions of such magnitude in other climes. Its a shame winners of the PSL get nearly 10 folds of what winners of the CAf champions league take home.

An expanded Afcon with featuring teams like Djibouti,Tanzania, Gambia and Rwanda will just be another boring thing on tv. Interregional partnership is the way to go. Even if it means th Afcon being played outside the continent, so be it.

The goalkeeper department needs help all round. A new trainer can also press for trying other keepers that have more potential since Agu is blind lol

Icon79:
I agree that it doesn't hurt to hire one immediately; however, my point is much more simpler than that. The argument I was trying to make is that they are diagnosing the wrong problem. The main problem we have right now is lack of a competent goal keeper. Hence, that should be the priority, because you can hire the best goalkeeper trainer in the world he still can't perform wonders if all he has to work with are a bunch of incompetent folks.

Like Jose Mourinho would say "you need an egg to make omelets".

O pari

The problem is players of the U23 category will have issues getting release from their club for ANOTHER AFCON. If you are speaking of the home based ones, it's fair that they must compete with the older players in the domestic league for a shot at SE.

chrisooblog:
apart from being an olympic qualifier an U23 tournament would help better bridge the gap between the U21s and the senior national team. plus it would help in generating a pool of young players for the national team who we have a fair opinion of being ready. we don't have much resources to go round so if i'm forced to choose between one tournament that brings young players through the ranks to one that doesn't necessarily improve the main national team in terms of addition of players then i choose youth everyday of the week

And u want the finals to be played in a stadium yet to be built. Not a bad idea.

PDPGuy:
Its partly based on existing facilities. The Lagos venue could be a new football-specific stadium (50k-60k capacity) to be built on the existing site of the main bowl of the Lagos National stadium, which may have to be demolished.

The new stadium could be jointly built by LASG and a consortium of companies.

Take note. I had said "the finalists".. Doesn't have to be 10 or more. Africa will have better representation this way.

PDPGuy:
That would entail the Super eagles playing 104 qualifying matches in a 3-year window because there are 54 CAF member nations that are also FIFA members.
The players will suffer from extreme fatigue, bearing in mind that they also play for their clubs; so it will be logistically impossible to implement such a qualifying schedule.
The CONMEBOL format works because there are only 10 countries in the confederation. Thus, each team only gets to play 18 WCQ matches over a three-year period.

Does it cause any harm in the short run? How about the aspect of training whatever keeper we may choose to use -- Enyeama or not?

Icon79:
In the long run, Yes! But for the coming games against Cameroun, it's a silly move.

Right now, the best solution would be to convince Enyeama to come out of retirement. And if he insists, then we have Emmanuel Daniels who has proved himself even at the Olympic stage. He's definitely better than Akpeyi. I find it surprising that no one has ever thought about giving him a chance.


O pari

Is this based on the facilities we have on ground or?

PDPGuy:
If Nigeria were to bid and awarded the hosting rights for a future AFCON, my preferred host cities would be:
Abuja, Lagos, Ibadan, Port Harcourt, Enugu, Uyo, Jos, Warri/Asaba.

The round of 16 would be held in all stadia

Quarter final games in Uyo, Lagos, Jos, Abuja

Semis in Lagos and Abuja

Third-place game in Uyo, the final in Lagos.

What will an U23 AFCON "in the real sense" help to achieve? Please throw some light on this.

If you didn't read that part of my earlier comment, let me repeat, I think stretching CHAN to accommodate players based in Africa maybe as well as uncapped players especially those in lower leagues will add more value and purpose to it.

chrisooblog:
there isn't any U23 tournament in the real sense of it just hastily arranged tournaments to decide olympic qualifiers. CHAN for me is a huge waste of time and money. yes we want players especially homebased ones to get opportunities to show their talent that's nothing specially arranged friendlies or regional tournaments like WAFU, COSAFA cup can't achieve. i think its even more insulting to the locally based player because we dont trust his ability to break into the national team on his own steam abi how many CHANs did sunday mba or oboabona play before breaking into our AFCON winning team?

We already have an U23 tournament. CHAN is a good idea, but it should be stretched to accommodate players playing in Africa and MAYBE as well as uncapped players usually ignored especially because they ply their trades in lower/obscure leagues.

chrisooblog:
i support increasing the number of teams to 24 would be more interesting to watch. alot of african teams have improved so the competition would be intense you won't see too many scorelines showing the big countries hammering the smaller ones.

june/july date would be ideal for our players but the weather of most african countries during that period would be a huge problem. how many countries can afford to renovate existing stadiums, not to talk of building new ones or constructing retractable roofs? or maybe fixing the competition to late july to early august considering that the AFCON wont be played during a world cup year so the european season won't start until mid to late august and by then the rains should have subsided.

the four year gap is ok. it's just a matter of tweaking our qualifying schedule to accommodate more more matches especially for smaller teams.

CHAN should be rebranded into an U23 tournament

Well the coach now is Alloy Agu. And we can't expect to see him do anything different now and in the future. The new goalkeeper coach should be given the responsibility to at least assess the abilities of our current keepers. I think it's a step in the right direction especially for the long run.

Icon79:
I hope this is a joke! Instead of scouting for a talented goalkeeper, these morons are busy looking for a goalkeeper coach who's expected to turn our hopeless goalkeeper into world class with less than 1 week of camping!

As much as I agree that the team needs a real goalkeeping coach, this fire brigade approach isn't the solution. Over the past several year the NFF has maintained this bizarre assumption that being a former goalkeeper automatically makes you a goalkeeping coach. Sorry, it doesn't work that way.


O pari

Exciting forwards -- both of them. It's not easy to play in the Serie A

tbaba1234:
Orji is in Bologna. I think I read a report that he got injured.

And also lets copy CONMEBOL's World Cup qualifying format, where the finalists all play each other in a league format.

Icon4s:
That is another good alternative. If you Make the AFCON once in 4years then all African teams must take part in WC qualifying.

Any reports on Orji Okonkwo? Is he also back with Roma?

tbaba1234:
Sadiq Umar had a sensational game against PSG. The guy is a real talent. If only, he can work on his finishing. He is the real deal.

I think the frequency of the tournament should be changed to every 4 years like every other serious major tournaments. Every 2 years for CHAN -- understandable.

PDPGuy:
You're spot on in your analysis.

The move to June/July would force the hosting nation(s), especially those in West and Cebtral Africa, to spend hundreds of millions of $$ to retrofit their stadia with retractable roofs.

Moreover, as you said, we will most likely have many future AFCONs being co-hosted due to th increased facilities requirements. But countries like Nigeria, SA, Morocco or Egypt can easily provide 6-8 stadia that would be required for the tournament.

BascoVanVeli:
They are want to move it to the summer to avoid that clubs doing that.

More games would equal more money from tv rights.

My idea for CHAN would be to allow countries select players based in Africa.

@bolded. You are a genius!

He wasn't impressive while on loan to Middlesbrough. However, a thought-provoking write up. I believe Omeruo will reach his full potential.

jieta:
Time for Chelsea's Kenneth Omerou To Settle Down


lt must come as something of a mild surprise
that little-seen Chelsea defender Kenneth Omeruo
has already made 31 appearances for Nigeria.
For Omerou, a 23-year-old at the relative
beginning of his career, that is an impressive
number to hold for one so young.


For perspective, that is around half the
appearances made by some former Nigeria
defending greats. The legendary Stephen Keshi
made 64 appearances, Ben Iroha made 50. Uche
Okechukwu recorded 46 caps, while Celestine
Babayaro made just 27 appearances.
Despite the impressive number, though, there
remains the nagging suspicion that Omeruo has
not quite settled at either international or club
level.


He made his international debut at 19, helping the
Super Eagles win their third Africa Cup of Nations
in 2013. Since then, he has been a regular
member of the team without exactly stamping his
authority as a defensive bulwark, largely due to
injuries.


At club level, Omeruo has been shipped from club
to club by Chelsea since joining them in 2012
from Standard Liege, and could be on the move
this pre-season again.


So far, he has been loaned out to ADO Den Haag
in Holland, Middlesbrough in the Championship,
and Turkish sides Kasimpasa and Alanyaspor.
He's never appeared for his parent club's first
team.


To his credit, he has shown up brilliantly
everywhere he has been loaned, making regular
appearances for each of the clubs and earning
wonderful reviews, for both his ability and his
character.


Kasimpasa even had an option to buy him, but
decided to pass when they could not find the
money to meet Chelsea's valuation.
Each pre-season, Omeruo has returned to
Chelsea to mark time before being sent out again
on loan, and this time appears to be no different.
Last weekend, he captained a team of loanees
and development squad players to a 1-1 draw in
a kick-about with Crawley Town, while the main
team scrimmaged with Fulham.


It was a clear indication that the Nigeria defender
would be on his way out on loan again.
This follows a disappointing summer with Nigeria
where he was left to warm the bench in favor of
20-year-old Chidozie Awaziem as Nigeria lost 0-2
at home to South Africa.


Nigeria coach Gernot Rohr justified the decision,
according to a source close to the team, by
saying Omeruo's confidence would be shot from
his previous experience with the South African
strikers in 2014. As dubious as the argument
sounded, it was still a poor reflection on
Omeruo's mental strength.


At 23, Omeruo should be on the verge of his most
productive years as a footballer. Being loaned
from club to club does not help that development
and consistency.


It doesn't do him much good at international
level either. He has to put his imprint on that
Super Eagles defense. At 6ft2", he has the build
to be an imposing centreback, and is nimble
enough to operate as a quick central defender or
a decent full back.


His contract with Chelsea is up in 2019. Omeruo
has to either find a way to establish himself at
his parent club, or push for a permanent move
elsewhere. His career will be better for it. http://kwese.espn.com/football/nigeria/story/3161254/time-for-chelseas-kenneth-omeruo-to-settle-down/?ex_cid=Omeruo_fb_gb_ng_pd_RC

A Nwakaeme brace and Ogu opener guaranteed Beer Sheva ran away with a 5-3 aggregate win over Honved of Hungary in UEFA Champions league qualification

Obi Mikel is Rohr's captain. He would accept that.

Humility017:
The problem I have wit enyeama coming back to the team...is who will now be the captain of the team?
Will he accept the leadership of obi mikel ?

ok thanks for that!!!

1. Henry Onyekuru ==> Eupen -> Anderlecht(Everton)
2. Dennis Bonaventure ==> FC Zorya -> Club Brugge
3. Theophilus Solomon ==> Istra (Rijeka) -> Lokeren OR Gent (not confirmed)
4. Abduljalil Ajagun ==> Roda -> Krotrijk
5. Reuben Yem ==> GBM -> Gent
6. Peter Olayinka ==> Dukla Prag -> Zulte Waregem(Gent)

Humility017:
Least we forget....olayinka who just reunit wit his parent club after the injury issue he had last time...he has been scoring goals
I can't write the name of the club...something zult or so....but it is same club wit kingsley madu

The problem with Nigerian officials is they always want to prove a point that they are important.. This is the number one thing the Nigerians in diaspora notice on returning back. From the official in the airport to that in the street they want to show that they matter. Why stretch an issue after a written apology? Enyeama has served us well and the problem with us Nigerian masses is that we always fail to hold officials accountable. I think Enyeama has issues with not just one individual but the general set up and our mentality. He has served us well over the years and at this point he can decide to remain retired. Who Naija epp?

TheGoodJoe:
Super Eagles number one goalkeeper and captain Vincent Enyeama has shunned the Nigeria Football Federation's summon to appear before the disciplinary committee.

The 32-year-old tore up a query letter from the NFF which was related to his uncomplimentary statement about the security of Kaduna where the 2017 African Cup of Nations qualifiers against Chad was played.

Though the Lille of France goalkeeper has a written an apology letter to the NFF, he was summoned before the disciplinary committee on Tuesday, June 23, or risk being sanctioned.

Enyeama could face a lengthy ban after he refused to attend the hearing on Tuesday.

His national team coach, Stephen Keshi however attended but refused to comment on why his captain did not make it.

"No I am not aware. I only know about my own invitation," Keshi said told newsmen after his hearing.

"You can ask the NFF officials they should be able to tell you."

http://www.pulse.ng/sports/football/vincent-enyeama-super-eagles-captain-shuns-nff-id3900234.html

The problem was on before Oliseh became coach. Oliseh came in and did the bidding of the NFF to punish Enyeama. Enyeama knows this and that is why he does not want to work with those who treated him badly.

That's also a very good one. Let's make a list of all the wonderful transfers of Nigerians to Belgium.

1. Henry Onyekuru ==> Eupen -> Anderlecht(Everton)
2. Dennis Bonaventure ==> FC Zorya -> Club Brugge
3. Theophilus Solomon ==> Istra (Rijeka) -> Lokeren OR Gent (not confirmed)
4. Abduljalil Ajagun ==> Roda -> Krotrijk
5. Reuben Yem ==> GBM -> Gent

Humility017:
Bonaventure move to club de brugg
I do much cherish the guy gradual rose to stardom....I must appreciate his handlers they're doing a good job

it's exciting when we keep saying the same things over and over again. For those who want to, ride on..

BascoVanVeli:
It's not about pages devoted, it is about if we want to discuss about it or not and right now we do. It's a civil exchange no cause for alarm.

haven't we devoted a library of pages to it already?

BascoVanVeli:
No this is about the match against SA.

yes that's definitely a promotion. Onyekuru is making good progression.

There have been many other Nigerian move to Belgium over the summer

tbaba1234:
Onyekuru to Anderlecht champions league football.

all of a Sudden we are about to replay the same argument because Disu said this or that.. are we lacking stories for argument? Una don chop?

BascoVanVeli:
Moses didn't hold up anything for Pete sake the boy tapped a loose ball to Nacho. It still depends on the passing all the same. If the ball doesn't make it to his area then how does he hold the ball up?

Number 9 nice !!!

tbaba1234:
Onyekuru's goal


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2rs8uEWDrM