As from next week, January 13 through to February 4, football fans’ attention will shift to Morocco where the Total African Nations Championship [often known as African Championship of Nations or CHAN] is taking place. The biennial tournament is played between the best national teams in Africa, exclusively featuring players who are based in their home country’s domestic league. Stars playing in Europe and even those who have moved to other African leagues are not allowed to take part.
CHAN’s maiden edition was held in Cote d’Ivoire in 2009. It was won by Democratic Republic of Congo, DRC. Sixteen countries will participate in this year’s tournament. They are Morocco, Nigeria, Zambia, Uganda, Sudan, Namibia, Mauritania, Libya, Guinea, Cote d’Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Egypt, Congo, Cameroon, Angola and Burkina Faso. CHAN’s creation was a response to the desire to revive or strengthen national competitions regularly weakened by a mass exodus of top players who leave their home countries to play for foreign teams. Starting from the 2014 edition onwards, all of the matches are recognized by FIFA as first team matches.
Locally-based players are rarely seen under the international spotlight these days but CHAN is designed to bridge a growing gap. It opens the door for leagues to promote their players and ultimately help improve national teams. If the thought of a competition virtually bereft of familiar names seems strange, it is worth bearing in mind that once, swathes of the continent’s footballing talent have been conveyor-belted to Europe and beyond that leaves the rump largely neglected. It is increasingly common for an African player moving abroad not to have appeared in his domestic league at all. A proliferation of academies, notably those aligned to European top club sides have replaced the traditional means of development and footballers are often moved on without debuting in leagues.
CHAN seeks to aid those who have slipped through the cracks, or may have developed later, helping them bridge the gap to international football. It also serves a valuable purpose for smaller nations where the big business of nurturing players has yet to take hold.
Nigeria’s domestic football, long seen as underachieving despite its lofty potential, could certainly do with the CHAN boost. With matches recognised by FIFA as full internationals with results counting toward the monthly rankings, Nigeria will seek to improve on her dwindling stature in world football as the buildup for the Russia 2018 World Cup also gathers momentum.
Nigeria is in group C with 2014 champions Libya, Rwanda and Equatorial Guinea. The Home-based Eagles making their third appearance at the football showpiece would seek to improve on their 2014 CHAN outing where they clinched the bronze medal. Also the team will look to make amends for their group stage exit in their disastrous outing in Rwanda two years ago.
With the mundial around the corner, players who distinguished themselves in the tournament may be invited to the World Cup team and some lucky ones will attract the attention of foreign clubs. So far the preparation has been going on well. The team have been playing some friendly games and it has been good preparation all round. Eagles should take each game as it comes. Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) should continue to prepare and motivate the squad on the task ahead of eclipsing that underwhelming feat in Rwanda when they get to Morocco.
Eagles must not underrate any opposition. Rwanda, Libya and Equatorial Guinea are very good sides when it comes to the CHAN tournament. At the last edition, Rwanda were very tough and they performed better than Nigeria while Libya are former champions. For Equatorial Guinea, they will be coming with the bunch of players that played the World Cup qualifiers for them. It’s going to be a very tough group for us but we are up to the task.
We urge the team to work hard to win the championship for Nigeria. We believe the Salisu Yusuf tutored side can do the country proud and they should realize that Nigerians are solidly behind them.
