What I didn’t like about AFCON 2025 – Mutiu Adepoju

By Jacob Ajom

The just concluded Africa Cup of Nations Morocco 2025 tournament has been rated as the biggest and best organised editions in history. The facilities were top notch and the quality of football exhibited was of the highest standard. 

On the flip side, Morocco 2025 AFCON was full of scandals. Apart from some questionable officiating, the tournament witnessed some bizarre incidences that took African football back to the dark ages. The behaviour of Moroccan officials, match stewards who were supposed to maintain order in the stadium during matches sparked confusion.

Most Nigerians would like to dismiss the hiccups with a wave of hand and rather focus on the Super Eagles participation in the tournament. How did the Super Eagles perform?

A former Nigeria international, Mutiu Adepoju gave the team a pass mark. He told Sports Vanguard, “I think they displayed a very good performance, generally. The team grew in confidence as they kept improving match by match, up to the semi final, which ended in a  penalty shootout with Morocco. It was only unfortunate that two of our players missed his kick.”

He said the Eagles World Cup failure prepared the coach very well for AFCON. During the AFCON, he knew his players better; made some tactical changes that were very good for the team, and that made them play very well. 

Adepoju refused to single out any particular player for praise. “They all played very well, from the goal keeper to the attack. They did very well. 

What is the future of the Super Eagles? “We should build on what we have, I have always been saying that we have players that are doing very well in their various clubs and now we are able to see and realize the potential that we have, I think we should build on that.”

What happened at AFCON 2025 that you did not like? 

“In terms of organization and infrastructure they put in place and most especially the drainage system that keep the field playable even with the heavy rains, I will rate them well on that, but about the officiating, I won’t be able to talk much about that, Yes of course, there were some decisions that were questionable, overall generally, I won’t be able to talk about that and what I see that I don’t like about is about the disrespect and disturbance that some Moroccans were displaying to the goalkeeper, most especially to Nwabali and the Senegalese goalkeeper that we saw, “the towel episode” is a very very bad thing which has to be condemned, I don’t see why any fan or anybody should go and be disturbing the goalkeeper and taking his towel when there are not supposed to be there, I don’t know how they were able to get on the field.

“I think it was the stewards? I think it is a very bad thing that created a very bad image for African football.

On lessons Nigerians can learn from what Morocco displayed, Continuing, Mutiu added, “Well, its not far fetched, its about intention, its about organization and its about making all our infrastructure first-grade, so we have seen what they did, we should be able to do even much better than that.”

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