The year 2011 got off to a flying start early in the year with the staging of the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia.  The two weeks tournament, which began on January 17, witnessed fireworks from some of the game’s top stars, from Roger Federer to Rafael Nadal, Maria Sharapova, Kim Clijsters and Li Na to Novak Djokovic. In the end, Djokovic and Clijsters, won the men’s singles and ladies singles finals at the expense of Federer and Na respectively. For Djokovic, the victory was his second Australian Open win in three years, having first won the title in 2008.

For many Nigerian soccer fans, 2011 had looked quite promising in the beginning as many of them looked forward to seeing Nigeria participate and excel in some major competitions. These included the FIFA Women’s World Cup, the All Africa Games, the Africa Cup of Nations and the Olympic Games. But it all turned out a disappointment. One after the other, Nigerian soccer fans watched mouth agape, as the nation’s soccer teams, beginning with the Super Falcons, followed by the Super Eagles and U-23 team, recorded one dismal result after the other.

The disappointing run began with the Super Falcons which failed to get over the Ghana challenge to qualify for the All Africa Games which held in Maputo, in September. The dismal showing was followed by the performance of the Nigerian flag bearers at the FIFA Women’s World Cup which held in Germany, between June 26 to July 17. It was the latest world cup competition that the Super Falcons would be participating in and many Nigerians expected that   the team would use the opportunity to make a bold statement on the world stage. That did not happen as the Super Falcons was only able to win one of the three group matches, and thus failed to qualify from the group. They also failed to qualify for the Olympic Games scheduled for later this year.

They are not alone. Their male counterparts, the U-23 national team, will also be missing in action in the same upcoming Olympic Games, having failed to pick a ticket in the Olympic qualifiers that held in Morocco in November. The U-23 soccer team’s failure was preceded by the Super Eagles inability to qualify for the upcoming Africa Cup of Nations scheduled for Equatorial Guinea and Gabon. Against all expectations, the Super Eagles, for the first time in 25 years, failed to qualify for Africa’s biggest soccer showpiece billed to begin this January.

Nigeria’s poor performance continued with the Nigerian Beach soccer team that competed in the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup that held in Italy in September. The Nigerian team’s ride was halted by Brazil in the quarter finals. But the Beach soccer team later avenged the defeat by beating the same Brazilian team 9-4, to win the inaugural Copa Lagos Beach Soccer title which was hosted by Nigeria in December.

The poor performance of Nigeria’s national football teams led to the sacking of Eucharia Uche, the Super Falcon’s coach, Samson Siasia, the Super Eagles handler, and the resignation of Austin Eguaveon, the coach of the U-23 male team. In Siasia’s place, Stephen Keshi was appointed the coach of the Super Eagles. This happened in November.

It was, however, not just at the national team level that Nigeria failed to make an impact in the game of football. The country’s representatives in the African club competitions-the CAF Champions League and the Confederations Cup-also failed to win any trophy.  While Enyimba Football Club of Aba’s ambition of winning the CAF Champions League for the third time was truncated in the Semi finals by Wydad Casablanca of Morocco, Sunshine of Akure could not advance beyond the semi final stage in its bid to win the Confederations Cup. It lost to Club Africain of Tunisia, which had also earlier knocked out another Nigerian team, Kaduna United, from the Confederations Cup race.

But Sunshine will have another opportunity to represent Nigeria in the CAF Champions league next year, along with Dolphins of Port Harcourt, and Warri Wolves. Dolphins and Sunshine will fly the country’s flag in the CAF Champions League, having placed first and second in the Nigerian league respectively, while Warri Wolves, which emerged third, will compete in the Confederations Cup.

In the Nigerian Federation Cup which was played at the Teslim Balogun Stadium, Lagos on Sunday, September 25, Heartland of Owerri defeated Enyimba of Aba, by a lone goal to lift the trophy. It was the first time, since 1988, that Heartland would win the cup.

Although Nigeria’s performance in football could generally be summed up as disastrous, the country was able to record a commendable performance in some other sports during the 10th All Africa Games which held in Maputo.  Nigeria placed third, after raking 98 medals comprising 31 gold, 28 silver and 39 bronze. The medals came from, among others, table tennis, badminton, taekwondo and athletics. The performance of Nigerian sportsmen in these games was the reason Patrick Ekeji, the director-general of the National Sports Commission, declared in December that Nigerian sports did not generally fare badly in 2011.  Those who hold a contrary view, he insisted, were persons who equate sport with just football. “It is unfortunate that most people see sports from the narrow prism of football. Each time football is doing well then it means that sports is doing well, but when football fails as witnessed this year, then sports has failed. People fail to realise that sports is not just football,” he said. 

In April, death sneaked into the football family and took away Olubayo Adefemi, a Super Eagles and Skoda Xanthi of Greece defender. He died in an auto crash in Greece, after losing control of his car while on his way to the airport to catch a flight to Nigeria. The player had represented Nigeria at the FIFA World Youth championship in Holland, in 2005, and his death shocked many football fans. But it was not the only death that was recorded in the sporting arena in 2011.

In November, death also snatched Joseph William Frazier, popularly known as “smoking Joe.” He was a renowned heavyweight and Olympic champion and is remembered as the first boxer to have defeated Muhammad Ali, who is considered by many as probably the greatest boxer the world has ever seen. Frazier’s defeat of Ali in 1971 was the first of three fights between them. The two others ended in Ali’s favour, but that didn’t erode Ali’s respect for his fellow American. “The world has lost a great champion. I will always remember Joe with respect and admiration,” he had said, in his tribute to Frazier.

In Nigeria, tributes were also paid to Sunday Bada, who died on December 12, in Lagos, aged 42.  Bada, a former Olympic and indoor sport world champion, was, until his death, the technical and performance director of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria.

Apart from the successes recorded by some African national teams, some individuals were also recognised for their efforts in 2011. They include Yaya Toure of Cote d’ Ivoire and Perpetua Nkwocha of Nigeria who were both crowned the Glo-CAF African male and female footballer of the year 2011.