2015 AFCON: Angry Reactions Greet Eagles Ouster

After Nigeria’s shock ouster from next year’s Africa Cup of Nations (2015 AFCON) following the 2-2 draw the Super Eagles played with South Africa in Uyo on Wednesday evening, ex footballers and fans have been expressing their anger with how the African champions were stopped from defending the title in Equatorial Guinea

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Former Green Eagles skipper, Segun Odegbami, said yesterday that he was shocked that South Africa who had a poor head-to-head record against Nigeria must now be taken a lot more seriously.

"We have always taken South Africa for granted, believing we can have them for breakfast, lunch and dinner, but they have now shown us that this is an end of era," observed the ex international now into sports marketing.

The scorer of Nigeria's two goals in Uyo, Hull City star player, Omatsone Aluko, said the whole Super Eagles were devastated by their inability to defeat South Africa to pick one of the Group ‘A’ tickets to the African football showpiece to defend the title they won in South Africa last year.
"I am disappointed, everybody is disappointed," said Aluko. "We did not get the result we wanted and we now have to pick ourselves up as a team."

Even Stephen Keshi who was hoping to use the 2015 AFCON ticket to bolster his negotiation for a new deal with the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) blamed his players for taking South Africa too lightly in a match they needed to win to qualify for the tournament finals.
"Maybe we took South Africa for granted and we paid dearly for this," said the coach, who was only reinstated to his post last month after being sacked by the NFF for his poor run in the qualifiers.
Similarly, Hapoel Be'er Sheva midfielder, John Ogu, is not a happy man at the moment after his team mates  at Eagles failed to beat South Africa..

The Lagos-born midfielder wrote on his official twitter handle (@ogujohnogu) that he was sad due to the fact that the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations champions will not be in Equatorial Guinea next year but he believes that God know best.

"Sad we couldn't be there to defend the title but God knows best. Yesterday is gone, Let think about the future. God bless Nigeria," he tweeted.
Veteran Sports Journalist, Sam John, told THISDAY yesterday that inasmuch as he would have like Nigeria to qualify for the 2015 AFCON, this present failure should be an avenue for the Amaju Pinnick led board of the NFF to revamp the game in the country.

“When I said during the NFF crisis that Nigeria should allow FIFA to ban us so that we can go back and reorganize both the administration and the development of football in the country, something people didn’t see what I was driving at. What is the different between what I was suggesting then and now that we did not qualify for next year’s Nations Cup,” observed the former sports editor of Daily Times.