Ivory Coast were chosen as the host of the 2023 AFCON tournament back in 2014 and since then, have put in the work to make sure it lives up to expectations.
President of the Ivorian Football Federation, Yacine Idriss Diallo, has ignored the Super Eagles in his choice of the top three countries he counts to be favourites at the AFCON tournament, Soccernet.ng reports.
Diallo, 63, became the president of the Federation in October 2022, spearheading the football body in preparation for the biggest football tournament in Africa.
Speaking to FourFourTwo, the President was optimistic about his country's performance in the tournament which is set to start in eight days, claiming they are well prepared, but aren't favourites.
Despite the attacking prowess the Super Eagles possess, and the recent crowning of Victor Osimhen as the African Player of the Year, Diallo did not include the Nigerian football team as one of his favourites to go all the way in Ivory Coast.
“I trust our team, but we know that we are not favourites. The favourites are Morocco, Senegal, Egypt, all those teams. We're building a new team,” the President said.
He revealed that the team's lack of experience might play a huge role in how they perform in the competition, but he expects his team to put up a fight at least.
“If you see our team now, quite a number of them are very young, it's their first competition, but we will try to bring a very good squad to be ready. We will try to do our best to go as far as possible and try to win the trophy. This is why we are here.”
The tournament kicks off on Saturday, 13 January when the hosts will take on Guinea-Bissau at the Alassane Ouattara Stadium in Abidjan.
I agree with him. I don’t think Super Eagles might even reach the quarter finals. There are many odds against the team. Firstly, the Manager lacks technical acumen to steer the team to victory. Secondly, the team lacks good goalkeeper, holding midfielder and the defence is porous. The team plays uncoordinated football, without cohesion, pattern or direction. Thirdly, the team doesn’t play as a team but individually without patriotic zeal and determination to win. Lastly, the NFF , as usual, is inept, directionless and incapable to provide good administrative leadership to ginger the team to perform well. I shall not be surprised if the players refuse to play for failure to settle either an outstanding or current bonuses.
Bitter truth. Some Nigerians would not like such comment.