ABAKALIKI – Football fans in Ebonyi have chosen favourite countries to support as the AFCON 2015
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kicks-off in four Equatorial Guinean cities on Saturday.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that their choice of other countries followed the inability of defending champions, Nigeria to qualify for the tournament.
The fans, who spoke to NAN on Saturday in Abakaliki, offered various reasons for supporting the [pro_ad_display_adzone id=”10″]countries, adding that they wanted to savour the euphoria of the African flagship football tournament in spite of Nigeria’ absence.
Vincent Okpalaka, former Enugu Rangers defender, said that he would support all the teams that played at the last FIFA World Cup in Brazil.
“I will support Ghana, Cote D’Ivoire, Algeria and Cameroon because their administrators built on the [pro_ad_display_adzone id=”10″]lessons of a ‘bitter’ World Cup and planned ahead for this competition.
“However, the reverse is the case with Nigeria, as its administrators engaged in the competition for the Nigerian Football Association (NFA) executive positions against all advice to sheath their sword for the [pro_ad_display_adzone id=”10″]nation’s qualification,” he said.
Felix Odionye, the immediate past chairman of the Ebonyi Referees Council, said that it was these countries that should have been enmeshed in leadership tussle instead of Nigeria.
“Nigeria and Algeria reached the second round of the world cup, while the other countries in addition to their first round exit, had off-field issues that could have warranted tussles for their football associations’ leadership.
“Ghana had a disgraceful players’ welfare debacle, Cameroon’s team squabble led to the players fighting themselves on the pitch.
“While the disunity among Ivorian players led to its conceding a last minute goal against Greece to exit from the competition,” he said.
Chike Ogiji, the Ebonyi House of Assembly Committee Chairman on Youths and Sports, said that South Africa, Senegal and Cameroon would get his support for re-launching themselves at the competition after missing the recent editions.
“These countries built on the lessons of past failures to qualify for the competition as they could not have achieved this with continued leadership squabbles like Nigeria.
“Their players also realised the effect of missing the AFCON on their club careers as they played with unbridled commitment during the qualifiers unlike the Nigerian players, whose only interest is the money that would be paid to them,” he said.
For Mr Charlse Edusei, a Ghanaian living in Abakaliki, he would support his native country while praying fervently that it survived the scare from the countries in its tough group.
“Ghana took many rookies to this competition due to injuries to its top stars but I pray the Black Stars rise to the occasion to end the country’s long trophy-wait since 1982,” he said.
Miss Judith Odo, a psychologist, advised soccer fans to pick countries they would support to assuage the disappointment of Nigeria’s absence.
“This recipe helped several fans when the country missed the 2012 edition in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea as the effect of one’s country missing such tournament is usually intense.
“Regrettably, Nigeria seems not to have learnt a lesson from the AFCON miss with the NFA’s protracted negotiation with Stephen Keshi over a new contract, an indication of managerial ineptitude,” she said. (NAN)