Sports
A former national team goalkeepers’ trainer, Amusa Adisa, on Saturday in Ilorin lamented the state of the Cup competition in Nigeria in recent years.
The ex-international told journalists that the Cup competition, known then as Challenge Cup and later the FA Cup and now the Federation Cup, was a highly prestigious tournament.
“Now, the competition has lost its prestige,” the former goalkeeper of the then Green Eagles said while reflecting on the state Federation Cup final matches billed for Saturday and Sunday across the country.
Adisa however blamed this development on the excessive concentration of attention by Nigerian football fans on everything about foreign clubs
He noted that the Nigerian football fans no longer show commitment and give enough support to clubs within Nigeria.
“Rather, they channel all energies towards everything about European football.”
The then Green Eagles number one goalkeeper recalled that attendance of matches in Nigeria was massive in the 70s when European football was not yet popular in Africa.
“When a Challenge Cup match was to kick off by 4 p.m., the stadium would have been so full to the extent that fans coming to the stadium by 12 noon won’t even find a place to sit,” he said.
Adisa urged Nigerian football fans to have a change in mentality and support the local league competitions.
”This will help us restore the lost glamour of the Challenge Cup (now the Federation Cup) and other local competitions,” he said.
Reflecting on the game he considers his best ever Challenge Cup match, Adisa said: “To me, the toughest and most interesting Challenge Cup match ever was the final game of the competition in 1971.
”It involved the then Western Nigeria Development Corporation (WNDC) Football Club of Ibadan, which later became IICC Shooting Stars and now 3SC or Shooting Stars FC, and Enugu Rangers FC which rose to become Rangers International FC of Enugu.
”They (both WNDC and Rangers) represented Western Nigeria and Eastern Nigeria then,” he stated.(NAN)
30th March, 2024.
C.E.
Tags: Amusa Adisa
