A bitter February night at Griffin Park in 2007. A friendly between Nigeria and Ghana, as though such a thing were possible. Ghana had not beaten their neighbours in 15 years but when Nigerian defences cracked, they collapsed.
It was 0-0 at half-time but then Laryea Kingson, Sulley Muntari and Junior Agogo struck between the 50th and 60th minutes. It was a lot less than 10 minutes of playing time given the gleeful pitch invasions that followed each goal. The game finished 4-1, well over an hour later than scheduled, thanks to a delayed start for a larger than expected crowd and the frequent interruptions (a personal confession: I queued for more than an hour at an overwhelmed press entrance with the Observer’s then-sports editor Brian Oliver, before giving up and hopping over a barrier, ripping my coat as I did so).
In his final game as Nigeria coach before being replaced by Berti Vogts, Augustine Eguavoen just about retained his dignity in a ferocious post-match press conference. For 15 minutes the Nigerian media tore into him before he called a halt by suggesting that because the Ghana coach, Claude Le Roy, who had been awkwardly sitting alongside him throughout, had turned 59 the previous day, everybody should sing “happy birthday”, which they lustily did.
It was a night of unforgettable and glorious chaos, but in hindsight perhaps the most memorable aspect was the Ghanaian radio commentator whose voice dominated the press box. “More than 15 years! More than 15 years!” he bellowed at the final whistle. “It will be more than 15 years before they beat us again.”
He was right. Nigeria have not beaten Ghana since. But more than 15 years have passed and as the two great rivals prepare for Friday’s first leg of their World Cup qualifying play-off, it is Ghana who look to be in an even bigger mess than Nigeria.
The intertwined sporting histories of the nations began in the 1930s, before either existed in their present form, with ‘inter-colonial’ events in football, boxing and tennis. When Ethel Jacks became African women’s table-tennis champion in 1964, she was competing as a Ghanaian; 12 years later, when she finally surrendered her crown, she was representing the land of her birth, Nigeria. The Cudgoe brothers were born in Ghana but played football for Nigeria. Alex Quist and his brother Anthony at various times played football and cricket for both nations against the other.
The Kwame Nkrumah leadership in Ghana (or the Gold Coast, as it then was) soon recognised the propaganda potential of sport and matches against Nigeria, who were still perceived as playing sport in “the effete English manner” – to quote an editorial in the Nigerian daily Vanguard – began to take on additional edge.
Ghana quickly established themselves as the major power of west African football, players such as Wilberforce Mfum and Opoku Afriyie helping them to three Cups of Nations before Nigeria, emerging from civil war, claimed their first, in 1980. Two years later, as though making a point, Ghana won it again. In Barcelona in 1992, Ghana became the first African country to win a football medal at the Olympics; four years later in Atlanta, Nigeria took gold.
Nigeria’s performances at the 1994 and 1998 World Cups won global appreciation and meant they were unquestionably the best side in west Africa, despite politics preventing them from competing at the 1996 and 1998 Cups of Nations. Until 2006, the familiar taunt from Nigeria fans was that Ghana had never qualified for a World Cup, although that was largely because of a lack of African representation at the tournament before 1982. Twice, in 1960 and 1972, Ghana had beaten Nigeria in World Cup qualifiers – the latter victory coming after rioting in Lagos forced the game to be abandoned with five minutes remaining.
This latest chapter in the rivalry comes after Ghana suffered an embarrassing Cup of Nations campaign in Cameroon. Milovan Rajevac, who had led Ghana to the final of the tournament in 2010, was mysteriously appointed coach in September but as even the president of the Ghana Football Association Kurt Okraku acknowledged, he had little time to work with his squad. The result was a series of dismal performances culminating in a 3-2 defeat to Comoros that eliminated them in the group stage. Rajevac was promptly sacked.
Chris Hughton was named as technical director, although exactly where his role ends and that of the interim coach, Otto Addo, begins is unclear. That is only the beginning of the confusion, with André Ayew and Benjamin Tetteh suspended and Jordan Ayew testing positive for Covid, although he was included in the squad that was finally announced in the early hours of Tuesday morning, after a planned Monday launch on the controversial GFA app was abandoned.
The first leg had initially been scheduled for the 20,000-capacity Cape Coast Sports Stadium and there had been some talk that after the draw the GFA had wanted to move to a larger arena, only to be thwarted by CAF regulations that venues have to be set a minimum 90 days in advance. Independence Day celebrations staged by the Ghana government on 6 March damaged the pitch to such an extent that despite the release of some optimistically Photoshopped images CAF has agreed the game can be switched to the 40,000-capacity Baba Yara Stadium in Kumasi.
Nigeria’s chaos is relatively low-key by comparison. Gernot Rohr was sacked as coach on 13 December, after which the president of the Nigerian Football Federation, Amaju Pinnick, announced that the Portuguese coach José Peseiro, who was supposed to be attached to the team at the Cup of Nations in an observer’s role, would take over.
But Peseiro was not in Cameroon and it turned out his contract might not be quite as signed as Pinnick had intimated so the interim who led Nigeria to a last-16 exit stays on: Augustine Eguavoen, implausibly, finds himself facing Ghana again with the chance to put right what went wrong in Brentford 15 years ago. And it’s not Hughton’s or Addo’s birthday any time soon.
