Former Shooting Stars Sports Club of Ibadan (3SC) midfielder, Duke Udi, has come out to say that he is not surprised by the exit of Kano Pillars and Enyimba FC from the Confederation of African Football (CAF) Champions League qualifying stage.
He was of the view that the writing was on the wall when Pillars and Enyimba lost to the national Under-20 team, the Flying Eagles, during the Super Six competition in Abuja.
“It was glaring that there were not enough preparations by the teams for the competition. It has been said several times that we cannot achieve success without solid preparations.
“Preparations should have started immediately the teams qualified for the competitions, but that we don’t do until the last minute. Fire brigade approach to victory is no longer working in football; you need to work hard, prepare very well and put in place machinery that could guarantee success.
“Until we start doing that, we will continue to fall by the way sides in international and major competitions,” said he.
However, bad officiating was said to be another factor that contributed to the failure of the Nigerian sides deeper.
Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) General Secretary, Mohammed Sanusi, who was at the match venue in Alexandria, as well as Enyimba FC chairman, Felix Anyansi-Agwu, expressed indignation at the manner of refereeing.
“The officiating was highly questionable. No wonder the Smouha FC officials refused to allow any recording of the game. This is bad for African football,” Sanusi said at the final whistle.
Anyansi-Agwu, also member of the NFF Executive Committee, lamented what could have been the result had the People’s Elephant been able to hold out for the last six minutes.
“My players gave their all, but poor officiating did not help our case and was quite bad in the final minutes,” he said.
Two-time champion, Enyimba, was shoved out of the CAF Champions League after a controversial 0-2 loss to Smouha FC of Egypt in Alexandria. This was after it had won the first leg 1-0 in Aba. Thus, it crashed out on 2-1 goals aggregate.
Pillars, on the other hand, won the second leg of their tie against Moghreb Athletic de Tetouan of Morocco 2-1, but crashed out on goals aggregate of 5-2, having lost the first leg in Morocco 4-0.
However, in the CAF Confederation Cup, Warri Wolves dug its feet into the ground to finish 0-0 with Dedebit FC in Ethiopia, to win 2-0 on aggregate and book a second round fixture with FM CK of DR Congo.
Zamalek of Egypt, Accra Hearts of Oak, AS Vita of DR Congo, ASEC Mimosas, Young Africans of Tanzania, Orlando Pirates of South Africa, Onze Createurs of Mali and ASO Chief of Algeria are the other teams to progress.