THIS WEEKEND’S 2011 Federation Cup (FA Cup) final  between Enyimba Football Club of Aba and Heartland Football Club of Owerri is the perfect tonic that Nigerian football needs to break away, even if temporarily, from the protracted crisis that is strangulating our domestic football.

We’re all aware of the perpetual turmoil in the Premier League caused by the endless legal wrangling between Davidson Owumi and Victor Rumson Baribote. As I wrote in this column last week, I have lost interest in the matter because neither side is willing to accept the counsel of neutrals like me, so why should I continue to waste my time. When both sides have exhausted themselves at the law courts, we will be waiting for them to come and pick up whatever remnants remain of the battered Premier League.

In the meantime, it’s the Cup Final this weekend in Lagos and that is where my interest lies: the football action!  Enyimba versus Heartland is a big match-up, and I’m calling on Lagos fans to turn out en masse on Sunday at the Teslim Balogun Stadium for a celebration of Nigerian football. Despite all our domestic football problems, this is our own equivalent of Manchester United versus Chelsea in the English FA Cup final or Barcelona versus Real Madrid in the Spanish Kings Cup. For whatever it is worth, let the media be seen to contribute our own quota to promote and celebrate the oldest competition in Nigerian football. And let the fans be seen to support their teams and encourage the players with their heavy presence at the stadium.

For me, the Federation Cup (formerly FA Cup or Challenge Cup) evokes a lot of sweet memories. And when two teams from the Eastern part of the country are involved in an Oriental Derby as we are going to witness on Sunday, the memories are even sweeter.

As a National Youth Service Corp (NYSC) member serving in Enugu, in the old Anambra State between 1987 and ‘88, I remember being a very fanatical supporter of Enugu Rangers that football season. I watched every home game of the Flying Antelopes and I used to enjoy the drumming and singing of the Rangers Supporters Club.

The club’s main motivator at the time was the very passionate Chief Ben Osi Umuma who spent his own resources to reorganise the club, hired a foreign coach  (Janusz Kowalik, a Pole) and introduced the innovative Rangers  Annual Awards. Some of the star players at the time were captain Jude Agada, defenders Herbert Anijekwu and Iyalla Iyalla, regular goal scorer Joe Ashinze and a host of others.

I even followed Rangers to an away game in Owerri against Iwuanyanwu Nationale and I recall that “we” (Rangers) snatched a dramatic late equalizer for a 1-1 draw which suddenly silenced the noisy Nationale fans at the then dusty Dan  Anyiam Stadium. That match was particularly unforgettable for me because, on my way back to Enugu from Owerri, the driver of my Ekene Dili Chukwu bus was so reckless that we nearly had a crash.

As we say it in local parlance, I nearly watched football enter trouble. But thank God, I’m still alive to tell the story.

When I joined Complete Football magazine at the end of my youth service in 1988, my first major assignment was to cover an African Champions Cup (now Champions League) match involving Iwuanyanwu Nationale again in Owerri. Nationale were the richest team in Nigeria at that time and they paraded the best players such as Ghanaian goalkeeper Edward Ansah, captain and left-back Mike Obi, skillful right-back Ramson Madu, central defenders Cyril Levi and Andrew Uwe; midfielders Friday Ekpo and Thompson Oliha; and strikers Benji Nzeakor, Lawrence Ukaegbu and Uwem Ekarika.

 I remember visiting all these star players at their Naze camp, near Owerri where I picked Toyin Ayinla as  my interview subject. They became my favourite club!

Nationale won that match 4 -1 against FAR of Morocco  and went all the way to the Champions Cup final where they lost to Entente Setif of Algeria. However, they compensated by winning the Nigeria FA Cup, beating Flash Flamingoes of Benin 3-0 in the final played in Ibadan.
Incidentally, that would be the last time Nationale would touch the trophy, as the then proprietor, Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, who took over the club as Spartans, later returned them to the Imo State Government who subsequently renamed them as Heartland. Heartland are looking to re-enact Nationale’s feat of 1988 this year, but Enyimba will have something to say about that.

It is ironic that while Enugu Rangers and later, Iwuanyanwu Nationale were dominating the Nigerian football scene as the Eastern flag bearers, Enyimba were just  a poor clubside in Aba formerly sponsored by Falcons Bottling Company which originally gave them the name “Falcons.” (Not Super Falcons o!). When the Abia State government took over the club and appointed a certain Chief Jerry Kalu as chairman, their annual subvention was a meagre N200,000 (Two hundred thousand Naira) while Nationale were already swimming in millions. But today, the Peoples’ Elephant (Enyimba) are the dominant clubside in Nigeria, thanks to the influence of former Abia governor, Chief Orji Uzor Kalu, and the club chairman, Chief Felix Anyansi Agwu.

My narration shows that I have been a Rangers and Nationale fan at different times. But presently, Enyimba are my favourite club from Eastern Nigeria because, not only did they break the African Champions Cup (Champions League) jinx for Nigeria by winning the trophy back-to-back in 2003 and 2004, they have remained consistent in the domestic scene where they have won six League and two Cup titles during the last decade or so.

My only major disappointment with Enyimba so far is that they did not seize the opportunity offered by their double Champions League conquest to go public. Enyimba were so popular at the time of their triumph that I am convinced that my Igbo brothers and other Nigerian soccer fans would have put their money on the table had the Abia State government offered the cub for privatisation. With the right professional management, Enyimba would have become a model club by now, not depending on government subvention, but being properly run like Zamalek of Egypt or Kaizer Chiefs of South Africa.

Enyimba are again in the semi-finals of this year’s Champions League already. Let’s hope that they would go on and win it the third time and that, this time, they would seize the opportunity to liberate themselves from dependency.

I am tipping Enyimba to beat Heartland to the Federation Cup this weekend on account of the fact that they have been more active in recent weeks. While the Nigeria Premier League crises-induced lock-out continues, thus rendering Heartland relatively match-rusty, Enyimba have been enjoying regular match practise in the African Champions League. I think that will give them a slight edge, but of course, we all know that Cup finals can be unpredictable.

While Anyansi Agwu deserves commendation for the consistency that he has brought to Enyimba over the years, his opposite number at Heartland, my friend and journalist-colleague, Fan Ndubuoke, also deserves kudos for bringing the Owerri team to limelight again so soon after taking over the club as general manager. Coincidentally, Uche Ejimofor, who led the old Iwuanyanwu Nationale to lots of glory as team manager in the past, was also a journalist before taking up club management. Fan, surely, has a good act to follow.

To the supporters of the two teams and all neutrals in Lagos, my appeal is that we should skip European football on television for once this weekend and troop out to the Teslim Balogun Stadium to cheer our 2011 Federation Cup finalists so that the two sides will give us a match to remember.

When the bus conductor asks the question “Stadium O nia?” (Anyone dropping at the stadium?) Just tell him: “O ga-a pu ! (Yes, I want to get off there!)

Those are some of the Igbo language expressions that I learned during my youth service days in Enugu. See you all at the Teslim Balogun Stadium. “O ga di-egwu!” (It will be hot!).
The Men For The Battle

I HAVE asked our Complete Sports in-house League expert, SAB OSUJI, to pick the players to watch in Sunday’s Federation Cup cracker. Following are his verdicts...  

ENYIMBA

Chijioke 'Arugo Monkey' Ejiogu (can catch anything thrown at him even hot iron from the Amazon).

Uche Kalu [not related to Kalu Uche and Ikechukwu Uche but remains a terror to defenders and goalkeepers).

Captain Chidozie Johnson always provides the Patrick Vieira kind of leadership and qualities for the People's Elephant.

Junior Osagie, striker with pace who can run defenders down; back to the squad after two seasons at Club Africain of Tunisia.

Nnaemeka Anyanwu (central defender who provides the steel in the back four).

Eneji Otekpa, Bernard Okorowanta,Valentine Nwabili, Emmanuel Anyanwu, Kenneth Anyanwu, all U-23 and Super Eagles capped players who can make life difficult  for Heartland.

David Tyavkase (the only survivor of the 2003/2004 Enyimba golden era.)

Coach: Okey Emordi (Nigeria).

HEARTLAND

Bassey Akpan, Golden Eaglets keeper at 2001 Trinidad and Tobago FIFA U-17 World Cup, F/Eagles keeper, U23 and Super Eagles capped shotstopper].

Bello Kofarmata,  ex-Flying Eagles striker who is slippery and cunningly deceptive in front of defenders. Two FA Cup goals so far.

Okey Nwadike, pacy, power-shooting striker already with two FA Cup goals.

Ikechukwu Ibenegbu, 2010 Eagles Team B WAFU Nations Cup winner, Beach Eagles World Cup veteran midfielder with scoring ability.

Osas Okoro, Julius Ubido (midfielders with WAFU Nations Cup experience).

Captain Chinedu Efugh (central defender with midfield and striking abilities, more dangerous in the air).

Chibuzor Okonkwo (right wing-back with Olympic Games silver medal and Super Eagles experience).

Coach: Lodewijk de Kruif (Holland)

HEAD-TO-HEAD

ENYIMBA: Winners in 2005 and 2009. Finalist in 2010.

HEARTLAND: Winners in 1988; Finalist, in 1989 (As Iwuanyanwu Nationale).

NFF, Where Is Your Sponsor?

IT IS AN embarrassment for the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) that they’ve not been able to find another sponsor for the Federation Cup since the withdrawal of the former sponsors, Coca-Cola.

If an “ordinary” Lagos State Schools’ Principal Cup can boast of a big corporate sponsor like GT Bank, how much more Nigeria’s oldest national soccer competition?

I challenge NFF president Alhaji Aminu Maigari to shun sentiments and open up the space for more serious sponsors to enter Nigerian football. Politics of patronage is getting us nowhere.

10th All-Africa Jokes (Part 2)

THE CURTAINS were drawn on the 10th All-Africa Games in Maputo, Mozambique over the weekend. Predictably, South Africa won the games by scooping 61 gold, 55 silver and 40 bronze medals (Total 156).

Team Nigeria looked set to sneak second place until the last day when Egypt overhauled the “Giant of Africa.” The Pharaohs collected a gold-silver-bronze ratio of 32-14 -20 (Total 66) compared to Nigeria’s 31-28-39 (Total 98). Had Nigeria managed to grab just one gold more to tie the gold medal count at 32, we would have beaten Egypt to second place on account of our superior silver and bronze medal haul. But ‘nearly’ doesn’t kill a bird.

Nevertheless, the only thing I have for the Nigerian athletes to the Games is praise.
Considering the below-par preparation they had before the event, their effort is commendable.

Not same for the officials, however. I have read some of them talking about learning some lessons in Maputo which they will use at “future” games. These officials should simply shut up and cover their faces in shame. After every major event, it is the usual refrain. They should spare us the noise this time around and direct their energy to counting their estacodes instead.

Will Nigeria ever truly learn anything for the future? Not until we have swept the stable clean of greedy officials.

However, my heroines and heroes of Maputo are the Nigerian female athletes who grabbed eight of our ten gold medals in athletics while their men were fumbling and wobbling; and the men’s basketball team who finally defeated our nemesis Angola in the semi-final en route to beating the host country, Mozambique, in the final to grab the gold medal.

Since we didn’t qualify for the football events (men and women), the basketball gold is a good consolation. Congrats, D’Tigers!

Re: Tribute to Aikhomu

THANKS for your tribute to the late vice-president, Admiral Augustus Aikhomu. But you forgot to add that it was he who changed the national team’s name from Green Eagles to Super Eagles while welcoming them from Tunisia ‘94 Africa Cup of Nations. He declared: “From today, you are no longer Green Eagles, but Super Eagles.” – Pastor Austin.

* Thanks for the reminder and the quote, Pastor, But the occasion was the team’s reception after Maroc ‘88 Nations Cup, NOT Tunisia ‘94. Thanks.