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Showing posts from April, 2014

The Debate on Invited Players' List…….

The ongoing debate on the release of a list of invited players for the World Cup preparation plan has consumed the Nigerian football scene for the past month. Presumably, the NFF Technical Committee issued a query to Coach Stephen Keshi when the latter failed to come before the board to present and discuss a list of player invitees to the World Cup camp. Additionally, several media unable to contain themselves, have named several players claiming they are on the list of invitees in spite of the coach’s strident denials to such list has been provided. The debate features several critical issues that may be listed as follows: whether or not the NFF Technical Committee has the authority to decide who invitees should be? Whether a list of invitees should be submitted at this time? Whether the national team coach can be trusted with inviting a strong squad of players? Whether more than 30 players need to be on the list? While there are perhaps additional issues pertaining to the list o...

Nigeria and World Cup Opponents…..

In a World Cup year, there is always an urge to size up your team against other teams that are also going to be at the World Cup. Thus, fans watch international friendlies with interest in order to imagine their team's World Cup performance. Already, Nigeria has begun its preparatory games for the World Cup and the opening game was early in March against Mexico which ended 0-0. Mexico, is a World Cup team, and, thus, the result goes a long way in measuring Nigeria's potential at the World Cup, at least in our collective imagination. Below we take a look back at Nigeria's historic performances against World Cup teams. Keshi's Era: Nigeria's Record v The Rest Under Manager Stephen "Big Boss" Keshi, Nigeria has played very few games against the teams that will be at the World Cup. The data below shows the outcomes in those games and Nigeria's efficiency score ( i.e. Maximum possible points divided by actual points/This assumes, though unrealistically...

New Book on African Football and Identity

Identity and Nation in African Football: Fans, Community and Clubs edited by Onwumechili and Akindes was recently published by UK's Palgrave MacMillan as part of its group of books under the global culture and sport series. You may click below to learn more. More on the book? This 15-chapter and 288-page academic book features contributions from several key scholars on African football and covers several topics including history, politics, communications, war, rivalries, race, female football, football labor migration, and transnational media and their intersection with football and identity. Identity is the common thread that runs through each chapter. Below are brief descriptions of selected chapters. Chapter 3 -- James Dorsey, a Senior Fellow at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and blogger on Middle East soccer writes an exciting piece on politics, identity, and ultras in North African soccer. He provides, for the first time, insight on how the ultras of...