Nigerians should support Rivers United’s bid for success, says Green

Green

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Going by its pedigree and quality of football stars the country produces every year, stakeholders say it is an aberration that Nigeria has not won any major African inter-club championship since Enyimba took the CAF Champions League back-to-back in 2003 and 2004 seasons.

The closest the country has come to winning any of the major African inter-club competitions was in 2008, when Heartland of Owerri played in the final against TP Mazembe of DR Congo, who eventually took the crown.

That year, Nigeria had two teams in the semifinals, Heartland and Kano Pillars. But the draws, which pitted Heartland against Kano Pillars ensured that only the Owerri-based side moved to the final.

Regrettably, no Nigerian team has since come close to that stage in the Champions League, or even the CAF Confederation Cup.

That is the situation the country’s representatives in the Confederation Cup, Rivers United, want to change. But they say they cannot do it alone.

Many reasons have been advanced as the country’s bane in the competition. These include, inadequate preparation and poor planning, the country’s coaches’ technical inadequacies, unhealthy rivalry among local clubs such that the country’s representatives don’t get required support from rival clubs and officials. There is also the general poor motivation that forces Nigerian clubs’ best footballers to abscond from their teams at crucial moments.

This year, Port Harcourt-based Rivers United have been pitted against Young Africans of Tanzania (YANGA) in the quarterfinals and one of the stakeholders in Nigerian football, Christopher Green, a lawyer, believes the country will break its continental cup hoodoo if everybody