AFCON 2025 Sets Early Festival Standards
AFCON 2025 has ticked most of the boxes in the measure of a great African football festival even in the first week since it started.
The low attendances at many of the matches are probably the only ‘set back’ so far.
The opening ceremony was beautiful, simple in execution and culturally rich in content. The pyrotechnics were brief but beautiful took. The ceremony definitely ranks amongst the best that I have seen in the AFCON history.
Beyond that, the various stadia, in Rabat, Casablanca, Mac Fez (where I probably scored the best goal of my career in 1984), and so on, score very high also, in architectural design and state-of-the-art facilities. They are all masterpieces built with a future in mind – the 2030 FIFA World Cup!
Also Read: AFCON 2025 – Siddon Look! — Odegbami
The quality of football has been good. However, in the first week it has lacked the level of drama of the 2024 AFCON in Abidjan that produced suspense and dramatic results in several of the early games worthy of an OSCAR.
AFCON 2025 And Super Eagles’ Early Struggles
By the time I am writing this, the Super Eagles have played only one match, against the Taifa Stars of Tanzania. By the time you are reading me, however, they would be playing the second match, against Tunisia.
I pray they survive, even with a drawn game.
The Eagles, as predicted by most analysts before the championship, laboured through their first match. Even on victory, the team did not play brilliantly, and never looked anywhere like a team preparing to take home Africa’s most coveted trophy.
Having said that, no matter what happens in the match against Tunisia (today), the team will still play well enough to qualify from the Group stage, and get to the knockout stage beyond which the men will start to be separated from the boys.
So far, the Super Eagles players generally have not been exceptional. A few of the players have demonstrated some individual good performance, but collectively they have been struggling to play like a team.
AFCON 2025, Rewards And Unanswered Questions
The rewards promised to the team for finishing as runner-up at the AFCON 2024 (houses and national honours) were redeemed by the Federal Government of Nigeria on the eve of their first match in Morocco. No one knows how that would impact or affect the team.
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Ordinarily, that should serve as motivation for the players to go out and play to win, but their performance immediately after did not reflect such. Was that move ill-timed and an unnecessary distraction and pressure for the team, collectively?
The next set of matches will tell.
The question that will now linger for the rest of the championship would be: ‘what reward would the team get should they get to the final again, or for even winning the 2025 AFCON trophy?
The Turf Factor And Nigeria’s Football Reality
So far, from the comfort of my observatory in Wasimi, Nigeria, the AFCON 2025 has been an enjoyable and colourful spectacle of football on television.
The best part, however, has been the least commented on even by the commentators on television and the reports in the media. Yet, to me, the most important item that makes possible the best football to be played, to be watched, to be covered for television, to be great advertisement for marketing to the world, has been the football grounds, the turfs. They have been of the very best quality, comparable to the best anywhere on the planet. The Moroccans have not spared anything, and in ample quantity, the most important single ingredient that ensures the best quality of football.
As I expected, in Nigeria, particularly, I have not read any comments about the immaculate condition of the turfs. Understandably, it is often taken for granted that turf condition would never be an issue at this level of event. No host would ever take it lightly.
Not saying anything about it publicly in Nigeria does not help our football cause because past and current administrators do not fully appreciate just how important it is, what impact it can have, and the level of transformation it can effect on the domestic game and leagues. If they did, Nigeria, with all the country’s resources and achievements in global football, and the disappointment of not rising to the apex of the game and becoming one of the topmost footballing nations in the world as predicted by Pele some 40 years ago, would not be struggling to present a single stadium with a turf good enough for Grade A FIFA matches.
Simply put, a superb turf would always enhance the performances of Nigeria’s players used to playing on the best grounds in Europe. It will also catalyse the development of an economic system around football in Nigeria. It is that simple.
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Outside Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria has no second ground good enough for matches that will catalyse the transformation that domestic Nigerian football needs so badly.
It is not taken as very critical by most football stakeholders in Nigeria. They do not see it well enough. Even if they do, they do not seem to know what to do to change things around.
Despite decades of my sermonizing and trying to raise awareness about this simple, single item, nothing has happened in 30 years to show it is appreciated and understood for its seriousness.
Incidentally, the story is similar in several other African countries. Until that attitude changes and we start to install excellent grounds of grass for training and for matches around Nigeria, the dream to join the league of the best in the world would remain just that – a dream! By the way, even the Uyo stadium is not good enough and is too expensive to maintain.
As we continue to watch and enjoy the matches coming out of Morocco, I urge all Nigerians to appreciate more closely the quality of the playing turfs and observe the pleasure at the feet and on the faces of the players performing, unhindered by poor turf, at the AFCON, where lush, green, flat, well-manicured grass fields make all the difference!
