Ides of March

If you are a lover of literature, especially the works of the genius Williams Shakespeare, then you must have heard this phrase – “Beware the ides of March.” It was the story of the assassination of one of Rome’s greatest rulers, Julius Caesar. A soothsayer had warned, with pin point accuracy, about a plot to eliminate him. The soothsayer had predicted the date in the month of March and even the venue where the killing would take place. Caesar brushed all the negative reports aside. Sadly, doomsday arrived. The great emperor fell on the day ‘appointed’. The story could have been different if he did not ignore all the red flags.

Applying this to March 2025 within the context of Nigerian sports especially football, March is already half way done and so are the two major hurdles on Nigeria’s path. The more important hurdle is still ahead and it will be faced on the football pitch, the less important one is done and dusted. It took place in the boardroom, specifically inside the Conference room of the Marriott Mena House in Cairo, Egypt on Wednesday, March 12, 2025. It was the FIFA Executive Council elections. Nigeria’s Amaju Pinnick was seeking a second term on the FIFA Executive Council. He was highly rated by many as a strong voice for Nigeria and Anglophone Africa, preventing the total dominance of African football by the Arab Africans (mostly in North Africa) and the francophone Africans spread across Central and West Africa.

Pinnick’s profile was on the rise, he had grown to become one of the strongest allies of the FIFA President, Gianni Infantino. His influence within CAF was also growing and some close watchers felt it was just a matter of time before he got a bigger role to play in African or world football.

There are different reports from various quarters about how some top football personalities, some of them probably Amaju’s close allies, started to feel uncomfortable with his rising profile and initiated plots to slow him down. Inspite of the adoption of the strange election format for the FIFA Council membership – the new format puts all the candidates in one poll in a survival of the strongest contest as against the zoning format based on language adopted in 2021 – many still felt there would be no stopping Pinnick because he was a front runner. Alas, it was not to be. The manner of the loss made it more painful. Just one vote. Given the brutal nature of African football politics, it is more often than not that there would not be an opportunity for a comeback. Even if Pinnick does not get back to football administration at the highest levels, a high profile role within the sports ecosystem in Nigeria cannot be ruled out for him. And if not in sports, he has invested his resources wisely and become a major player in Oil/Gas, Agriculture, Construction, Entertainment and Politics. So he will always be relevant.

Permit me to reproduce parts of Pinnick’s statement after he lost his FIFA Council seat: “When I started out 26 years ago as a volunteer at the FIFA U20 World Cup that Nigeria hosted. I never dreamed of reaching these heights, never thought I could become the number one administrator of football in Nigeria (and for eight years for that matter), play key roles in African football and easily mingle with the world’s top football governors. I have only gratitude to give to the Almighty God, to those who have helped me one way or the other and to all those I have met on my way.

“I was to be no more than the head of the NFF Electoral Committee back in 2014 but fate catapulted me to the Presidency and I became the youngest ever Nigerian in world football’s supreme council. I am more than fulfilled.”

This is the right attitude to have. When a good spell, season, position or appointment comes to an end, there is a natural tendency to be bitter. This tendency must be consciously and deliberately ‘buried’. Rather than stay angry and bitter that it ended, we should rather be grateful and appreciative to God it ever happened. As my former boss, I would like to wish Pinnick the best of luck in his future endeavours.
As a close follower of the African game, Wednesday’s misadventure in Cairo was more than a personal loss, it was also a national loss.
Nigeria lost her voice in FIFA and is also not on the CAF Executive Committee (unless a Nigerian gets co-opted on the CAF Executive Committee). Indeed, these positions may not have any direct impact on the football played and the accomplishments on the pitch but they do come into play when decisions are to be made about the allocation of resources and developmental projects from FIFA, and even CAF to their affiliates.

Nigeria’s loss is the gain of Niger Republic, Djibouti, Mauritania and Comoros, among others, now having members on football’s highest levels. Nigeria now has to bid her time, start afresh and steadily grow through the ranks again. Presently, the NFF President Ibrahim Gusau is the First Vice President of the West African Football Union (WAFU) B Zone, which may be a good place to start the rebuilding process. However, it will not be out of place to wish the new and returning FIFA Council and CAF Executive Committee members the best of luck in the interest of African football.

Now to the second and more important hurdle in this month of March – the 2026 World Cup qualifiers. On March 21, we face Rwanda in Kigali and on the 25, we face Zimbabwe in Uyo. Coach Eric Chelle’s final squad of 23 has been unveiled, a few injury withdrawals here and there, but they do not change or diminish the task at hand. These are crucial, ‘must win’ games. Nigeria desperately needs to get her first set of wins in the 2026 World Cup campaign this month. There are no margins for errors because we are already four points off the top three teams above us on the Group C log. Anything less than six points from both games this month could put the Super Eagles at the risk of falling at least six points behind the leaders with 4 games left. Rwanda has back to back home games this month. Our most important game right now, without any doubt, is in Kigali on Friday, March 21. The strategy to turning around our 2026 World Cup aspirations has not changed. Take it on a game by game basis. One game at a time. Resist every temptation to look or think about what the other teams in our group are doing, at least not for now. Let all our resources, focus, planning be 100 per cent on our games and the other matters will sort themselves out.

To the Super Eagles’ fan, get ready to support the team ceaselessly and cheer them endlessly. Rwanda, just like Nigeria, has a new coach, Adel Amrouche, a very experienced Algerian Belgian. Interestingly, Amrouche is a big self confessed fan of the Super Eagles. In 2018, as coach of Libya, he made some controversial remarks about Nigerians being heavily dependent on voodoo for success. He later apologised. In his many years of coaching, his best result against Nigeria was a 1-1 draw when he led Kenya to a 2014 World Cup qualifier in Calabar. Kenya lost the reverse fixture at home 1-0. So, let’s hope his poor run of results against Nigeria continues.