Sports
Nigerian Clubs Can’t Win CAFCL – Coach
The chairman of Remo Stars FC, Kunle Soname, has declared that it would be difficult for any Nigerian club to win the prestigious CAF Champions League for now. Enyimba of Aba is Nigeria’s most successful club, after winning the CAF Champions League twice in 2003 and 2004. The Peoples’ Elephants defeated Ismaily of Egypt 2-1 on goals aggregate to lift the title for the first time in 2003 to end Nigerians long wait. They retained the crown the following year, with cash and moral support flowing from former Abia State governor, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu.
Since then, Nigerian clubs merely make up the numbers in CAF competitions.
Speaking with Tidesports source at Ikenne on Friday at the end of the 2023 MTN/NPFL/LaLiga U-15 tournament, Soname said: “I don’t see any Nigerian club winning the CAF Champions League for now because of the huge financial burden involved.”
This season, Remo Stars made its continental debut, but faded away in the early stage of the CAF Confederation Cup. The Ikenne Warriors lost at home 1-0 to Morocco’s AS FAR, after recording a soul lifting 1-1 draw away in Casablanca two weeks earlier. They lost 2-1 on aggregate to become the fifth Nigerian club to crash out to the ‘military’ tactics of the Royal Moroccan Army football club.
Soname whose football academy and sports facilities at Remo, Ikenne is attracting football scouts from across the world, said that Nigerian clubs does not have the financial capacity required to win the CAF Champions League at the moment.
“I am saying this with all sincerity because finance has a huge role to play in modern day football,” Soname said. “We played against Morocco’s AS FAR and lost due to a number of factors. In our team, the highest paid player earns around $1,000, if you convert it at the rate of N750 per dollar. But in the Morocco’s AS FAR, a majority of the players earn between $10,000 and $11,000 monthly. Apart from having more money to recruit players, the North African clubs have more experience players. The only good thing about us is that in Nigeria, we have abundant talents waiting to be nurtured into stardom. You need a combination of experience players and money to do well in CAF competitions. We will continue to do our best,” Soname stated.
A well-known football pundit in the State, Chief Christopher Okonkwo has lauded the efforts and vision of the Super Eagles Coach Eric Chelle for going from one venue of the Nigeria Domestic Nigeria Professional Football League match to the other in monitoring Nigerian players, with a view to invite some exceptional good one discovered into the main stream of the Super Eagles team.
Okonkwo, who made the commendation in an interview at the Port Harcourt Club recently, described the positive move by Coach Chelle as a good step in the right direction, noting that the practice was how its been done in the past among any contracted coach assigned to tinker the Super Eagles team.
“Truly, it has been an old tradition in the country seeing any newly engaged Coach to lead the National team, visiting some our Nigeria League venues during the league matches to spot light some good talents that could be used to beef up some grey areas in the department of Eagles team”
He, however, frowned at the current situation where our coaches had continously been over depending on the use of foreign based players during invitation of players to the National camp, thereby, relegating the domestic home based league players to the background as if they have nothing much to offer to the team.
“I can vividly recall that the likes of great players in the mode of Finidi George, Taribo West, Kanu Nwankwo, Austin Okocha, Richard Owobokiri, Emmanuel Osuigwe among others started from Nigeria football league before they graduated to play in Europe through which they later invited to Super Eagles camp to represent Nigeria”
“Besides, I’m also of the view that going to secondary school football competitive games could equally serves as a a good platform to discover budding talents that could be nurtured to become great stars in near future”, Okonkwo frankly added.
Okonkwo, therefore, prayed that any football coach to be engaged by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to tinker the Super Eagles should be told not to confine himself in staying in big hotel alone but to be visiting some of our local league match venues, with a view to discover some good players that can be drafted into the Super Eagles team.
“Indeed, I stand to be challenged that there some young good players in the Nigeria Professional League. If spotted and exposed, could give the some of the invited foreign based players a stiff competitive fight in securing a postion in the team”, Okonkwo emphatically stated.
Ezechukwu, one of the youngest members of the Nigerian contingent at the championship in Ghana, said her ambition was to win the 100m title in style and cap it with a new personal record.
The fresh secondary school graduate explained that she is fully focused on contributing to Team Nigeria’s medal hopes and is determined to deliver strong performances across her events.
“My main objective in Ghana is to clinch the 100m title and the 4×100m,” Ezechukwu told Tidesports source.
“Nigeria can be assured of my very best and my commitment to the Team. I would love to set a new personal best in Ghana, but anything that comes, I will take it. The spirit in the team is high, and I think we are ready to go,” she said.
Ezechukwu, who was part of Nigeria’s women’s 4x100m relay squad at the World Relays in Botswana, said the experience gained from that competition has strengthened her mindset heading into the continental championships.
She admitted that she learned valuable lessons from her previous outing, including a difficult moment during the relay where an early error affected the team’s rhythm, but said she has used the experience to improve her discipline and composure.
“The secret is just being disciplined, training hard and trusting my coach and believing in God, and the result will show,” she added.
The teenager is part of a 41-member Nigerian team comprising 24 female and 17 male athletes competing at the championships, which begin today at the University of Ghana, Legon.
Nigeria are expected to compete across multiple track and field events as they aim for a strong finish against the continent’s elite athletes.
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