Football Nigeria -- Eagles Etcetera

This is the second The Fan's Annual Report for Nigerian Football (The inaugural version can be found here ). Similar to the previous report, this one will grade five units (see below) and the cumulative grades will inform the total grade for Nigeria's football: 1. Youth Football 2. Women Football 3. Local Professional Football. 4. Football Administration. 5. The Super Eagles. Additionally, the 2017 individual and team data for Nigerian football is presented along with recognition of selected individual accomplishments. YOUTH FOOTBALL 2017 has been a barren year for Nigerian youth football, at least at the international level. The failures, at the qualifying stages, in the previous years meant Nigeria was absent from both African and World phases of the age grade tournaments. Locally, the NPFL organized an exciting youth tournament for club academies and there were other youth tournaments. Overall, however, it was an unusually down year. Grade: D based largely on...

Ambivalence pervades analyses of Nigeria's 2018 World Cup group. For some, this is definitely a group where Nigeria is certain to finish among the qualifying two teams. For others, the ranking states otherwise and both Argentina and Croatia should keep Nigeria out. The uncertainty among analysts about the likely outcome in the group has led some to christen it the Group of Death even though there are surely much stronger groups from top to bottom. My analysis is not so much to claim that I have a crystal ball. Instead, it is to provide some insight, another perspective, or fresh thinking beyond just results achieved by each team in the group. In doing so, I intend to examine the draw, the schedule of games, and then the teams. I believe those three areas are critical in gaining insight on what could happen in June in Russia. The Draw The draw on December 1 was certainly not what Nigeria hoped for but it was not the worst case scenario either. In a sense, the best possible dr...