Hafia of Conakry denied Enugu Rangers the opportunity of being crowned first winners of the African Super Cup in 1978. The Guineans were CAF Champions League winners [ then known as Africa Cup for Champion Clubs] in 1977 while the Flying Antelopes won the Africa Winners Cup in the same year. The Supreme Council for Sports in Africa [SCSA] decided to create a one-leg game between the two champions to choose the best for the continent.
President Omar Bongo of Gabon donated a trophy for the match which was called Cup for African Solidarity. It was to be decided in Libreville. Rangers were ready and arrived the Gabonese capital. Africa waited for Hafia. Everyone expected a super game between to great teams. The Guineans chickened out in the last minute and refused to honour the continent.
SCSA could not believe that the Guinea of Sekou Toure and Diallo Telli could put up such a shameful attitude. The way out would have been to grant Rangers a Walk Over and hand the trophy over to them. It did not happen. The Nigerians faced a Gabonese Selected. The Coal City Boys showed they were in top form by battering the ad hoc team 5-2.
It was obvious Hafia dreaded Rangers. And many would have been surprised. The Guineans had beaten the Flying Antelopes home and away, in 1975, to win the CAF Champions League [ it was known as Africa Cup for Champion Clubs until 1997]. It did not sound logical that winners should be afraid of losers in the next three years.
Hafia knew better. After Mamadou Aliou Keita’s [N’jo Lea] goal gave them a lone goal victory in the first leg of the 1975 finals, they were surprised to beat Rangers 2-1 in Lagos. The hosts had gone ahead through Mathias Obianika’s penalty in the first half before Rangers who had not lost at home that year, collapsed.
Rangers simply ran out of gas because the players arrived Lagos a few hours to D-Day. Their officials wanted the game in Enugu where they had beaten Mehalla of Egypt 3-0 to erase a 3-1 deficit in the semi finals. Lagos was a hostile ground.
In the second round against Young Africans [Yanga] of Tanzania, the Flying Antelopes were attacked by a section of the Lagos crowd after the game ended goalless. Rangers had defeated Accra Great Olympics away and home in the first round. The barren draw with Yanga was wrongly seen as deliberate, to say thank you to Tanzania, the first country to recognize Biafra during the Civil War.
NFA Chairman, Sunday Dankaro, whose wife [Elizabeth Odu] was Igbo sent Major Ibikunle Armstrong to Enugu pleading that Rangers needed to be in Lagos early enough. Philip Achebe, an Igbo, who worked at the NFA also joined in begging Rangers officials to hit Lagos early enough. They did not heed. The journey to Lagos took its toll, Rangers lost steam and could not beat Hafia .
Hafia won the Cup in 1975, lost it to Mouloudia Chalia of Algeria in 1976 before bouncing back to win again against Accra Hearts of Oak in 1977. Rangers lost to Mouloudia in the semi finals in 1976 but won the Africa Winners Cup in 1977. They hammered Canon Sportif, Yaoundé in the finals.
The Rangers team of 1977 was unbeaten all through the Winners Cup campaign. An away goal advantage over Ahly Tripoli in the first round, two away wins in subsequent rounds against Electric Company of Ethiopia and AS Police of Senegal, a scoreless draw with defending champions, Shooting Stars of Ibadan, in Lagos and a 1-1 draw with Canon in Yaoundé meant no team could beat the Flying Antelopes away from home.
The Hafia side of 1977 could only win twice outside Conakry, against Diable Noire of Congo in the second round and Hearts in the finals. The Guineans lost 4-2 to Water Corporation of Ibadan in the quarter finals and 2-1 to Lome Two in the semis.
Hafia had such a dumb striking force that no player scored more than one goal all through the competition. The highest scorer was Mahmoud Al Khatib of Ahl Ahly who scored four times. Even finalists , Hearts of Ghana had a better scoring record. Robert Hammond and Peter Lamptey scored scored three goals each. Mohammed Polo and Anas Seidu each scored twice.
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Rangers were deadly upfront. Chimezie ‘Watch me’ Ngadi scored five goals including a hattrick in the 4-0 demolition of Electric Company in Lagos. Skipper Chriastian Chukwu, a defender, scored three goals, the duo of Sam Onyeaka and Nwachukwu Onyekwelu [Igariga] each hit the back of the net twice. Two other goals were scored by Aloy Atuegbu and Christian Madu respectively.
Hafia knew all this and were afraid Rangers would tear them to shreds. The man they dreaded most was goalkeeper Emmanuel Anthony Oguejiofo Okala [Tallest]. In 1975, Hafia came to Lagos with Petit Sory, Papa Camara, Cherif Souleymane, Bengally Sylla, Jacob Bangoura, Mony Kone, Abdoulaye Keita and N’jo Lea. They knew Rangers lost because of fatigue. Okala was not to blame.
When the Green Eagles met Sylli at the Ethiopia ;76 Nations Cup, Okala was not there. Joe Erico manned the posts for Nigeria. Both teams played a 1-1 draw. Guinea finished with silver behind Morocco. Nigeria won bronze. Papa Camara and Petit Sory were happy Okala was absent.
In 1977, Okala was in splendid form for Rangers. And Rangers were in a killer mood. In that great squad were stars like Okey Isima, Arthur Ebunam, Francis ‘German Wall’ Nwosu, Charles ‘Wagner’ Adimora, Ogidi Ibeabuchi, Foster Ikeagu, Okey Emordi, Dr. Johnny Egbuonu,Stanley ‘Englishman’ Okoronkwo, Nnamdi ‘Policeman’ Anyafo,Vincent Chika, Patrick Iluno, Humphrey Okechukwu,, Ignatius Ilechukwu, Innocent Obi-Ekwo and Ifeanyi Onyejiaka. Okala dwarfed keepers John Uwanaka, Sylvester Onwuekwe and Joseph Aniedobe.
Rangers were indeed outstanding. They dethroned defending champions, Shooting Stars and were the only team that neither lost nor conceded more than a goal in Yaoundé against Canon. All these statistics were known to Hafia who had won the Guinean League nine times consecutively between 1971 and 1979.
In 1990, I met Petit Sory in Bauchi. He was part of the technical crew of the Guinean Under -20 team to the ECOWAS Soccer Championships. The very first question he asked me at Zaranda Hotel was : ” Where is Okala? Okala was a great goalkeeper but I beat him in Lagos. I am proud to say I beat him because we all had a lot of respect for him”.
Okala was voted African Footballer of the Year, 1978 by the African Sports Journalists Union[ ASJU]. Rangers have not won a continental trophy since Okala retired. Enyimba would later win the African Super Cup for Nigeria in 2003, retaining it in 2004. Rangers and Enyimba were founded by the same person, Sir Jerry Amadi Enyeazu.
The First African Super Cup was won by Africa Sports of Cote D’ Ivoire on January 10, 1993 in Abidjan. Losers were WAC of Morocco who won the Champions League in 1992. Africa Sports, like Rangers, lifted the Africa Winners Cup in 1992. There were two Nigerians, Gabriel Okolosi and Thompson Oliha. Okolosi was the 1992 Winners Cup top scorer with eight goals. Their coach was also a Nigerian, Ibrahim Sunday, from Kano.
When Enugu Rangers won the Africa Winners Cup in 1977, there was another club, Rangers International, of Tanzania. They beat Matlama of Lesotho 11-4 aggreagate in the early round.
