Mini football figure - Nigeria

Nigeria

The Nigerian national football team is one of the most successful African national football teams. The team, also known as the Super Eagles, has reached the last 16 of a World Cup three times, won the African Championship three times and was Olympic champion in 1996.

The beginnings of organised football in Nigeria cannot be traced precisely. However, when the Nigeria Football Federation was founded in 1945, there were already some club teams and tournaments in the country, some of which could look back on a longer tradition.

As early as 1949, Nigeria is said to have played a match in Sierra Leone, and in the 1950s Nigeria played several matches against the Gold Coast, later Ghana, which FIFA does not recognise as official international matches, however, as all were still British colonies at the time.

When the country became independent in 1960, the NFA was already a member of FIFA and the African Football Association. Nigeria's first FIFA-recognised international match took place on 28 August 1960. In the 1970s, the city of Lagos was said to have more football clubs than the whole of East Africa put together, but it still took time for the national team to achieve its first major success: in 1980, the Nigerians won the Africa Cup in front of an enthusiastic home crowd in Lagos.

The team, whose youth team played even more successfully, achieved lasting success under coach Clemens Westerhof.

Suspension and dissolution

The Confederation of African Football (CAF) suspended Nigeria for two years after Nigerian military dictator Sani Abacha caused the team's withdrawal from the 1996 African Football Championship because Abacha had been criticised by Nelson Mandela for death sentences against political opponents. Nigeria could not play within CAF for two years, but was allowed by FIFA to qualify for the 1998 World Cup in France.

On 30 June 2010, Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan withdrew the Nigerian national football team from all international tournaments for two years and announced restructuring of the NFF federation to allow a new team to be built in peace. Such political interference in football usually results in the suspension of the association based on FIFA statutes. Shortly before the FIFA ultimatum expired on 5 July 2010, the Nigerian president withdrew his suspension of the national teams and the dissolution of the association.