WCQ26: Nigeria Versus South Africa Match on Tuesday – a Huge Sports Psychological Warfare

            BY  ENIOLA  OLATUNJI

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The world football cup qualifier between the Super Eagles of Nigeria and the Bafana Bafana of South Africa scheduled for Tuesday at Free Stadium is a sports psychological warfare hinged on five indices namely the Ref; Venue; Team/Players; Boardroom soccer and Inter Government relationship to mention a few.

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A ref may be a spoiler who has been bought over to tilt the game and his decision on the pitch counts. The Ref for the South Africa versus Nigeria match is Pierre Ghislain Atcho, a 32 year old born on 10th October 1992 whose record should be of important concern to Nigeria.

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Ref Atcho was at the center when Nigeria lost to Benin Republic 1-2 in the world cup qualifier in Abidjan. He has shown 175 yellow cards and only one red card in 43 fixtures. That’s an average of 4.1 yellows per match. So yellows may fly. The only red card was in an AFCON match. This means he loves free flowing play and won’t be bothered whether opponents remove your teeth, eye or demolish your leg. He often overlooks rough play but loves flashing the yellow card. Straight red is an abomination to him.  He is due to be assisted by his Gabonese brothers Boris Ditsoga as AR1; Amos Ndong as AR2 and 4th man is Fleury Moukagni.

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The venue, Free State Stadium, Bloemfintein in South Africa is been used by three countries in the group namely South Africa, Zimbabwe and Lesotho which is an aberration or gross mistake by FIFA the world Football Governing Council and CAF that rules African football. The three neighboring countries should not have been in the same group as they are political satellites to South Africa. It means South Africa will be playing six of their ten matches obviously at home. They played last Friday on that pitch against Lesotho and they would play Nigeria on same pitch on Tuesday.

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Both South Africa and Nigeria have been bitter soccer rivals since the Apartheid regime vanished and the country was admitted into African soccer. They played 14 games in between them with Nigeria winning 7; drawing 5 and losing twice. A record 30 goals were scored in those games with Nigeria scoring 20 of them. They met thrice at world cup qualifiers with Nigeria winning two and drawing once.

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Nigeria’s biggest win over South Africa was a 4-0 drubbing at AFCON on 31st January 2004 while South Africa’s greatest victory was a 2-0 win also at AFCON on 10th January 2017. In their last three encounters Nigeria won 2-1 on 10th July 2019; played 1-1 also at AFCON on 7th February 2024 and on 7th June 2024 in the 1st leg of the world cup qualifier at Uyo it was 1-1.

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On FIFA notice board, Nigeria is ranked higher at 44 and South Africa at 56. South Africa has made three world cup appearances losing all at group stages in 1998, 2002 and 2014 while Nigeria has a better record of six appearances making the round of 16 thrice in 1994, 1998 and 2014 but all this is a “Gwadam it” or rubbish to South Africa who does not admit Nigeria’s superiority at any level even in the women football.

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Individual players always ‘eye’ themselves. Both choice goalkeepers play in South Africa. Stanley Nwabali plays for Chippa United and South African Captain, Romwen Williams play s for Mamelodi Sundowns both always contesting for the South African Golden Gloves award for Best Goalkeeper. Commercially, Nigerian players are worth double of the collective pay of all the South Africans. Nigeria has the best legs worldwide but that has to be proved on the pitch on Tuesday.

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Star boy, Victor Osimhen is injured but there is Tolu Arokodare who intimidates everyone with his stature. That Tuesday match will be Nigeria versus Romwen Williams again. Nigeria’s defence is solid but there’s kwashiorkor of goals. South Africa will wait for fast breaks and clinical shooting at goal.

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Boardroom Soccer is when football administrators make tilted decisions at their board management meetings. We have talked on why three neighboring countries should play in the same group with same venue but South Africa made a slip fielding an ineligible player in this qualifier which by FIFA rules should be penalized with minus 3 points and minus three goals. Perhaps FIFA and CAF headed by a South African are waiting for their actions to affect close rivals of South Africa in Nigeria and Benin Republic before ensuring justice.

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Benin Coach who was former Nigerian Head Coach, Gernot Rohr protested to the highest heavens that the deductions be made before Match Day 7 but that entered voice mail. The Angola Head Coach, Adel Amroucha told the media; “This is Africa, you know the politics, I don’t want to say anything so they don’t suspend me again”.

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There were suspicions that Nigeria may play the Libyan game where Libya was punished by FIFA for locking Nigerian Players at the airport and Nigeria refused to play the match. So the South African Ambassador in Abuja paid a visit to Abuja Glass House of NFF to assure all will be well especially on fears of xenophobic attack which is on again in South Africa. As at the time of filing this report on Sunday 7th September at 1345 hours Nigerian time, South Africa has not given landing signals to Nigeria who are expected to be in Bloemfintein in South Africa on Sunday for the match on Tuesday. That creates anxiety and anger for the opponent. A weapon Boxing Legend Muhammed Ali used to defeat all-time great, Sonny Lison in world Heavyweight Boxing contest decades ago. A phone call can erase that anyway.

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Officially, South Africa still tops group C with 16 points scoring 13 goals and conceding 5; Benin is 2nd with 11 points scoring 7 goals and conceding 7; Nigeria jumped to the 3rd position with 10 points scoring 8 goals and conceding 6; Rwanda has 8 points scoring 4 goals and conceding 5; Lesotho is 5th with 6 points scoring 4 goals and conceding 8 while Zimbabwe has 4 points scoring 5 goals and conceding 10.

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Day 8 matches in the group will be played on Tuesday 9th September when South Africa will host Nigeria at the 42,000 capacity Free State Stadium, Bloemfintein in South Africa where they played an away game on Saturday at 5pm Nigerian time; Zimbabwe will face Rwanda at 2pm at the 37,313 capacity Orlando Stadium, Soweto – Johannesburg while Benin Republic will stay back at the33,000 Stade Felix Houphouet-Boigny in Abidjan to host Lesotho.

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It is important to inform you that only the group winner will get automatic ticket to the world cup finals to be hosted in 2026 by USA, Canada and Mexico. The group runners up will have a chance to compete in a play off in an inter conference battle.

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Eniola Olatunji reporting for Patmos Media Line.

Rev. Eniola Olatunji is a 1990 holder of the Masters of Communication Arts Degree; 2018 holder of Masters of Divinity Degree who has been covering football for 50 years as Commentator/Reporter on Radio; Commentator/Reporter on TV and Reporter/Editor in Print Journalaism.

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