By Patrick Omorodion
The2013 Nations Cup qualifiers which hold today across the continent have been taken to a new level with presidents of Nigeria and Liberia jumping into the fray, backing their teams to qualify for the event which begins on odd number years in South Africa for the very first time.
President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf of Liberia began the political campaign for the country's national football team, the Lone Star when she mobilised both the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Youth and Sports to garner support for them against the Super Eagles.
She reportedly promised to provide free tickets to Liberian fans to throng the stadium to drum support for their darling team. The support yielded some fruit in a friendly as the Lone Star downed Malawi 1-0 at the Samuel Kanyon Doe Stadium in Monrovia.
President Johnson-Sirleaf promised that "I will offer support to encourage players to excel," adding that the team deserve an apology from the Liberian people because, according to her, "the team has been insulted whenever it lost a game."
On his part, President Goodluck Jonathan, still sulking over Team Nigeria's woeful outing at the London 2012 Olympics didn't want to be beaten to the game, also stormed the Eagles camp during the week to cheer them up ahead today's crucial first leg encounter in Monrovia.
The Eagles didn't qualify for the 2012 edition co-hosted by Equatorial Guinea and Gabon which incidentally marked the end of the competition in even number years and President Jonathan, who doesn't want a repeat of the embarrassment, urged the players to put in their best to be among the teams that would be on parade in South Africa.
"Let me encourage you that we will do our best for you and provide all you need. I will personally like to be in South Africa to watch the final match of the competition but for that to be a possibility, you must qualify for the tournament," president Jonathan said.
While the Liberian sports minister is not emphatic about what the outcome of today's match would be as he canvassed support for the Lone Stars saying, "we need to go(to the Nations Cup), we cannot stay back." president Jonathan is not expecting anything less than outright victory from coach Stephen Keshi and his wards.
"I am very sure you will win in Liberia and I want to congratulate you in advance for the victory," he said emphatically, to which Keshi responded with some air of assurance too that "Your visit, Mr President, is a big morale booster for us. Your presence here at our training ground is more than money for us. We will take this with us to Liberia and by God's grace, we will do Nigeria proud."
Vanguard Nigeria
Nigeria is likely to win if they don't lose focus.Our strikeforce will be our strong point i'm sure.