Exclusive: 2023 AFCON Tops Others, Football Expert Analyzes His Experience

Nigerian football Expert and photojournalist, Sulaiman Pooja Adebayor, has described the 2023 African Cup of Nations (AFCON) in Ivory Coast as the best he has ever witnessed.

Pooja was one of the Nigerian journalists who travelled to Ivory Coast to cover the 2023 AFCON from the start of the tournament on January 13 to the end on February 11.

Throughout the tournament, the journalist kept his over 637,000 followers on his verified X account busy with images and stories from the tournament, especially as it concerned the Super Eagles of Nigeria.

Though most political activists have been advocating for African unity through the ease of travelling from one part of the continent to another, Pooja, who is an accredited FIFA, CAF, and Imago photojournalist, noted that it was not easy to find his way to Ivory Coast from Nigeria for the tournament.

“It wasn’t easy as a Nigerian journalist & it takes months of planning to raise funds to cover it”, Pooja told Naija News in an exclusive interview.

During the 2023 AFCON, there were speculations that the hosts of the tournament, Ivory Coast, were hostile to some of the visitors, especially Nigerians, due to the high possibility of the Super Eagles stopping the Elephants from winning the tournament.

But Pooja revealed a different experience, saying, “The Ivorians were friendly, accommodating & ready to assist.”

However, he admitted that it was not all rosy for Nigerian football supporters at the tournament, especially when the two countries had to play against each other.

“The only hostility that was obvious was when we played them, but generally, they were friendly”, Pooja admitted.

Recall that the Super Eagles of Nigeria met with Ivory Coast in the group stage of the tournament on February 18. Surprisingly, the Nigerian side defeated the hosts in front of their home fans courtesy of a lone goal from William Troost-Ekong from the penalty spot.

At the end of the group stage campaign, Nigeria finished second with 7 points in three games, on the same points as first-placed Equatorial Guinea in Group A. Ivory Coast finished third in the group but managed to scale through to the knockout stage as one of the four best losers.

Interestingly, the Super Eagles and the Elephants of Ivory Coast met again, but this time around, in the final of the tournament on February 11. To the dismay of most Nigerian football fans, the hosts stopped Nigeria from winning their fourth AFCON with a 2-1 win.

In his assessment of the entire tournament, Pooja said the 2023 AFCON is the best he has ever witnessed, noting that the just concluded edition of the game topped the last two he attended.

When asked about his assessment of the 2023 AFCON, Pooja said: “Brilliant. It was my 3rd AFCON, and I must confess, it tops others.

“The only issue was the allocation of buses, but that’s understandable because we had more journalists this time.”

Talking about allocation in terms of ticketing, there were speculations that Nigerians were prevented from buying tickets to watch the Super Eagles play against Elephants of Ivory Coast in the final of the tournament.

This speculation held a bit of water when it was noticed that over 80 percent of the over 60,000 spectators that watched the final at the Olympic Stadium of Ebimpé wore the colours of the Ivorians making the venue more intimidating for the Super Eagles.

But Pooja said: “This is false. What happened was that some vendors purchased many tickets and they were selling at black markets which made the tickets so expensive. There were tickets but very expensive.”

When asked what went wrong when the Super Eagles, who defeated Ivory Coast in the group stage of the competition, were outplayed and beaten in the final by the same hosts, the photojournalist submitted, “Nothing went wrong”.

He added, “It’s football & teams are meant to win or lose. Even Senegal lost to Cote d’Ivoire.

“The occasion was bigger playing against the host country inside a 60K capacity stadium, it wasn’t meant to be easy for any team.”

On how he, as an English speaker, was able to navigate his way around a francophone country like Ivory Coast, Pooja said: “It was tough from the airport, but after I settled, I started using Google translator & before I left, I learnt the simple french.”

On his fondest moment at the tournament, he added, “I think its how the Ivorians love their football. The love for their national team is out of this world.”