Lessons from AFCON 2023

The 34th edition of the biennial African football tournament, the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations (2023 AFCON or CAN 2023) ended on Sunday, with host Cote d’Ivoire, beating Nigeria’s Super Eagles 2-1 to win the trophy.

The Confederation of African Football (CAF)-organised tournament, which was held from January 13, 2024 to February 11, 2024 involved 24 teams and took place in six venues in five host cities.

Cote d’Ivoire’s win at Alassane-Ouattara Stadium in Ebimpé on Sunday is a repeat of what happened 40 years ago in the same Abidjan, when the Nigerian team threw away a first half lead and ended up losing the final match to Cameroon. Sunday’s loss is the fifth time Nigeria is losing a cup final after those of 1984, 1988, 1990 and 2000.

Going into the finals, Nigeria had lost five of their previous six AFCON semifinals, but survived some nervous moments before clinching a 4-2 penalty shootout victory against South Africa to book a place in Sunday’s decider, where they lost the chance to claim a fourth African title. They had won the title in 1980, 1994 and 2013.

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To score first, Skipper William Troost-Ekong took his tournament goal tally to three when he shot Nigeria ahead in the 38th minute from the Super Eagles’ first corner kick. In the second half, the Ivorians came out strongly, piling pressure on the Nigerian side. Franck Kessie equalised for Côte d’Ivoire just two minutes after the hour-mark. Striker Sebastien Haller then scored the winner with ten minutes remaining, completing the Ivorian victory.

 Despite the loss, we, at Daily Trust, join President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in commending “the team, the coach, the crew, and the entire management for their hard work, assiduity, and sacrifice to come this far in the tournament, acknowledging the hurdles they consistently surpassed with steadily improving performance as they pulled through to the finals.”

We note that though they did not win the trophy, they made the nation proud by playing in the finals. They displayed a great team spirit and sportsmanship and brought joy to the generality of Nigerians, who found reasons to rally round the nation despite the gloomy economic situation.

We also commend the host nation, Cote D’Ivoire, for providing all the needed facilities to make the tournament spectacular. Similarly, officials of the continental football body, CAF, and the officials of the various matches deserve commendation for ensuring a smooth fiesta.

Now, we believe it is time to rebuild the team and prepare for the next tournaments, and use the lessons therein to build a great future for the nation’s football. Nigeria boasts of abundance of talents. Therefore, there is an urgent need to strengthen the national team with a strong mix of home-based talents as the over-reliance on foreign-based players must be addressed. It is such that even for qualifying or friendly international matches, home-based players, who used to be the engine room of most of our successful national teams at male, female, junior and senior levels, are largely ignored.

It has worked before when the local talents, who were raw and hungry to raise their career levels to international standards, were used by the late Stephen Keshi to win Nigeria’s last AFCON trophy.

Daily Trust also calls on the football authorities to begin talent scouting early and not wait until the next batch of tournaments comes. The Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) should immediately begin the process of developing our local leagues as there is a large pool of players to dominate the continent, if the right set of home-based players is developed in the local leagues.

This is very important because the so-called smaller African countries, without known international players, performed creditably this year, with Equatorial Guinea beating Côte d’Ivoire (4-0) and Guinea Bissau (4-2); Cape Verde beat Ghana (2-1) and football giants Algeria was held to a 1-1 draw with Angola and Burkina Faso (2-2). It is also instructive that none of Africa’s top five football nations – Morocco, Senegal, Algeria, Tunisia and Egypt, made it to the finals.

The Super Eagles must rekindle their renowned old combat and come-back spirit, which was exemplified by the Ivorians, who appeared down and out during the group stages such that head coach, Jean-Louis Gasset, was replaced by his assistant, Emerse Fae, yet bounced back and won the tournament.

Daily Trust implores the federal government, especially the Ministry of Sports, to take some lessons from the tournament, including the type of sporting facilities in place for the competition. We can do better with our stadia. 

In addition, our political and football leaders should work towards a new national football philosophy for the country and begin preparations for the next AFCON or World Cup and other global competitions. Football is a unifying factor and it rekindles patriotic passion in citizens, while engendering unity.  Therefore, we must be intentional about it.