Welcome to Adeke Emmanuel's football blog

If the problems posed by an overbearing football
federation stay away.
Nigeria ended a long slump to win the African Cup last year
with a powerful display in South Africa under coach Stephen
Keshi, beating Ivory Coast and Mali on the way to their first
continental title in nearly 20 years.
But off-the-field issues have followed the team and Keshi,
Nigeria's captain, in 1994 when the country previously won
the African Cup and went on to make the second round at the
World Cup in the United States as group winner over
Argentina.
Keshi quit
Keshi quit as coach right after Nigeria won the continental
title a year ago, a clear indication of the friction between him
and the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF). He was convinced
to stay, but has sometimes gone months without pay and in
the latest of many squabbles had to fend off demands from
the NFF that he names his World Cup players two months
before the tournament.
The Nigerian public, boosted by the African Cup triumph, also
demand the team's best-ever performance at a World Cup
and a place in the quarter-finals, even if the Super Eagles
failed to win a game in their last two World Cup appearances
and haven't made the second round since 1998.
"We still have a lot of work to be done," Keshi said in
response to the now constant question about whether the
squad he coaches will do better than the team he captained in
1994. "Our plan is to try and win our games, game by game,
until the end of the tournament."
Benchmark team
The 1994 World Cup team is still the benchmark for Nigeria,
which will again face Argentina in the group stage in Brazil,
along with Bosnia and Iran.
But Lionel Messi and Argentina aside, Nigeria should expect
to qualify for the second round ahead of the other two
countries in Group F and may have better strength in depth
than the team Keshi led two decades ago.
Forwards Emmanuel Emenike and Victor Moses are powerful
and quick, and Chelsea midfielder John Obi Mikel has plenty
to prove after falling out of favour at his Premier League club.
Mikel will likely be joined in the centre of midfield by 21-year-
old Lazio player Ogenyi Onazi, and Sunday Mba was a huge
success at the African Cup playing behind the strikers.