The African Nations Cup

The third big international championship of 1980 ended months before the European Championship and the Olympic Games – the 12th African Nations Cup started and ended unnoticed by the world. It was not because it was dwarfed by bigger events – African football still did not count. Nigeria was hosting the final stage: 8 finalists playing in 2 round-robin groups, followed by the semi-finals and final. Nigeria qualified directly as hosts and Ghana – as holders of the title. For the remaining 6 places qualification stages were – as ever – many. And just ever many teams declined to play one after another – Niger in the preliminary round, Burundi, Tunisia, Uganda, and Somalia in the first round. Only in the second round all scheduled matches were played. There were no qualification groups, but standard cup format of direct elimination. The only drama happened in the first round – Guinea and Cameroon exchanged 3-0 wins, went into overtime and penalty shoot-out, won by Guinea. Cameroon was eliminated at home. At the end Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, Cote d’Ivoire, Zambia, and Guinea qualified – no major surprises really. May be Zaire and Tunisia were a bit of surprising absentees, but Tunisia refused to play and Zaire was declining, relatively speaking, for in Africa there was no real classy team, but fairly equal in their undeveloped stages teams.

Group A, which played in Lagos produced no upsets and surprises – the hosts were favourites by the virtue of hosting, and Egypt was traditionally a favourite.

1.NIGERIA 3 2 1 0 4- 1 5

2.EGYPT 3 2 0 1 4- 3 4

3.Ivory Coast 3 0 2 1 2- 3 2

4.Tanzania 3 0 1 2 3- 6 1

Group B, played in Ibadan, was tougher: Guinea, which judging by strong years at international club level, must have been good as a national team too, Ghana – not only the reigning African champion, but more or less considered to be the strongest African country in football, and Algeria and Morocco – which, along with Egypt, had old and better organized football than the rest of the continent. North prevailed over South – not really a ground-braking news.

1.ALGERIA 3 2 1 0 4- 2 5

2.MOROCCO 3 1 1 1 2- 2 3

3.Ghana 3 1 1 1 1- 1 3

4.Guinea 3 0 1 2 3- 5 1

In the semi-finals Nigeria eliminated Morocco thanks to early goal – Owolabi scored in the 9th minute and that was enough. Hosts have their privileges… no matter where, no matter when, hosts get easy draws. Nigeria played only in Lagos – which means huge support.

In Ibadan Egypt and Algeria dominated half of the match each and ended in 2-2 tie. Egypt had a 2-0 lead by the 47th minute, but the Algerians scored two goals in the 55th and 62nd minute. The winner was decided by penalty shoot-out – Algeria prevailed 4-2.

The last two matches were played in Lagos. Morocco won bronze after beating Egypt 2-0. Labied scored both goals – the first early in the game, in the 9th minute; the second – near the end, in the 78th minute.

The final was attended by 80 000! Even if the numbers were inflated by creative accounting, they were huge. So little attention was paid to African football, that something important was missed: the sport was very popular. Facilities were not great, clubs were poor, training was not even amateurish, but the popularity of the game meant that sooner or later African football will go up. So far quality was low… and the final testifies to that. Some footage can be seen today and it makes it clear how far behind European and South American football the Africans were: technical skills were there, but the teams were still naïve, tactically poor, physically weak. The last few minutes of the game are particularly impressive: the Nigerians killed time by sheer technical ability, but walking. As for why the Algerians were not able to win the ball… well, the only possible explanation could be that African players were good with the ball in their feet – without it, they were kind of lost, lacking defensive skills. But no matter – in front of jubilant home crowd, Nigeria scored 3 goals. Algeria – nil. With the final whistle, the happy crowd poured on the pitch.

Final (Lagos, National stadium; att: 80,000)

22- 3-80 Nigeria 3-0 Algeria

[Segun Odegbami 2, 42, Muda Lawal 50]

[Nigeria: Best Ogedengbe, David Adiele, Christian Chukwu,

Babatunde Bamidele, Alloysius Atuegbu, Godwin Odiye

(Ikhana Kadiri), Felix Owolabi, Okey Isima, Segun

Odegbami, Muda Lawal, Adokie Amiesemeka;

Algeria: Mehdi Cerbah, Chaabane Merzekane, Abdelkader Horr,

Mohammed Khedis, Mustapha Kouici, Bouzid Mahyouz, Ali

Fergani, Lakhdar Belloumi (Guemri), Salah Assad, Tdej

Bensaoula (Rabah Madjer), Benmiloudi;

referee: Gebreyesus Tesfaye (Ethiopia)

Nigeria won her first trophy!

Missing here is the only famous member of the African champions: their coach.

The Brazilian Otto Gloria had – and has – great reputation. It is based largely on his work with Benfica (Lisbon), but his CV is impressive by all accounts. At 63, he was not exactly ‘hot’ and perhaps not up to modern football – Gloria is associated largely with football in the 1950-s and 1960s, already outdated – but still was good: he made Nigeria African champions and perhaps his presence laid strong foundation for Nigeria becoming a top team since 1990. As for the coach himself – one more trophy added to his impressive collection of 4 Portuguese titles, 5 Portuguese Cups, 2 Brazilian titles – one Carioca, and one Paulista, and bronze World Cup medals with Portugal. In terms of teams coached, perhaps Nigeria ranks at the bottom, along with CF Monterrey (Mexico), but he conquered Africa with group of players nobody heard of.

And that is the trouble with the champions: not a single one became really famous. They have local importance and even that is arguable. The already mentioned Segun Odegbami was big Nigerian star at the time, but he played only a single season outside his home country and it was not even in the top North American league. Winners usually become instant legends and no doubt most of the African champions are in Nigeria, but in global terms they remain anonymous. It is hard to compare Odegbami to, say, Jay-jay Okocha.

The captain of the champions Christian Chukwu is often considered the best Nigerian defender ever, but it seems mostly historic recognition of first winner. Chukwu never played outside Nigeria – compared to Celestine Babayaro’s career, this is nothing. No European club rushed to hire any of the new African champions – the Nigerians suffered the fate of the previous African champions: Ghana, Zaire, etc. More than mere football was at play, of course, but compared to losing finalists Nigerian remained anonymous. Lakhdar Belloumi was wanted by Barcelona and only Algerian rules prevented him from going to Spain. Rabah Madjer won the European Champions Cup with FC Porto and his goal at the final is remembered to this very day. Circumstances were against the Nigerians surely – at that time only France, Belgium, and Portugal were interested in African players, but only from their former colonies – Nigeria was not among them, Algeria was… No matter what, it was great success for Nigeria, a historic victory, important for long-term development of football in the country and the whole continent.