When the confederation of African Football came up with a faction of African Cup of Nation that will feature only African based players, that is players of African descent that are plight their trade on the continent was applauded and supported by all football federations across Africa as it was seen as an opportunity for those players that play locally to show case their talents especially in the scene that comprises of other African players.
Here in Nigeria, the team is referred to as CHAN Eagles,Home Base Eagles or Local Base. Irrespective of the name you might like to call the team, the tournament has developed over the years with the quality of play always measuring to what we do witnessed at the African Cup of Nations. Since inception of the tournament nations have to go through series of qualifiers to enter into the tournament proper. The CHAN Eagles of Nigeria may as well miss out of this year competition except if they can overturn a 4-1 deficit against the Togo national team in the first leg of the qualifiers played in Lome Togo weeks back.
The return leg is slated for Agege stadium in Lagos on Saturday 19th 2019. Many fans back home in Nigeria are optimistic that the Eagles can overturn the deficits and qualify for the competition proper. In an interview aired early hours of this morning with one of the player expected to be paraded by the Nigerians tomorrow, Theophilous assured Nigerians that the team have all what it takes to qualify, he said if the Togolese can scored four past CHAN EAGLES in Togo , then the Eagles can scored five goals against the Togolese in Agege come Saturday.
In his own view, one of the journalist that has being following this Togolese team around says beating Nigeria at Agege stadium may be mission impossible but the team will protect its lead against the Eagles especially with the recent achievement of the team against CHAN Eagles in the WAFU cup where the Togolese defeated the Eagles 2-1. He went further to say that the President of the Togo has also gave out monetary incentives to the team to go all the way and qualify for the CHAN tournament.
