Ghana–Nigeria football rivalry

The Ghana–Nigeria football rivalry is a sports rivalry that exists between the national football teams of Ghana and Nigeria, as well as their respective sets of fans. The sport has been played since prior to both countries' respective independence, and the match-up is among the oldest and most proliferate rivalries in African football. The football competition reflects the long-standing socio-economic rivalry between the two nations,[1] which are two of the five Anglophone nations in West Africa and home to the largest populations in the region.[2][3]

2008 Africa Cup of Nations Quarter-Final
Teams	Ghana  Nigeria
First meeting	Ghana 1–0 Nigeria Friendly (16 October 1950)
Latest meeting	Nigeria 0–0 (1–4 p) Ghana 2014 African Nations Championship (29 January 2014)
Next meeting	TBD
Statistics
Meetings total	56
All-time series	Ghana: 25 Draw: 19 Nigeria: 12
Largest victory	Ghana 7–0 Nigeria Jalco Cup (1 June 1955)

Background and history

FIFA lists the first official match between the two as a World Cup qualifier taking place in 1960. However, both national teams had already engaged in numerous domestic friendlies and tournaments between themselves and other nations dating back to 1950.[4]

The national teams of these two West African countries were formed while both were still protectorates of the British Empire. At that time the modern nation of Ghana was known as the Gold Coast and members of the team from Nigeria, prior to adopting their national colors of green and white, wore scarlet tops over white shorts and were known as the "Red Devils".[5]

Gold Coast's football federation, founded in 1920, was over twenty years older than Nigeria's and its team was more respected among Britain's colonies. Prior to what is often considered to be first official International "A" match in 1951, the Gold Coast national team had also already toured England, playing friendly matches against various clubs. Not to be outdone, Nigeria followed suit to a lesser degree of success. However, despite their relative histories, Nigeria was able to upset their nascent rivals 5–0 on home soil. The two nations played to relative parity for much of the rest of the 1950s, mostly trading victories on respective home soil, but Ghana would go on to dominate much of the competition between the 1960s and the early 2000s and win the Africa Cup of Nations four times to Nigeria's two in that time period. In the meantime, Nigeria would enjoy more success in intercontinental competition, qualifying multiple times for the FIFA World Cup and reaching an African highest FIFA ranking of No. 5 in the world in 1994. The team further distinguished themselves with memorable runs to the knockout stages that year and 1998, beating Spain and coming within minutes of defeating international powerhouse and eventual 1994 finalists Italy.

Regional Cup era

Until 1960 Egypt was the only African nation to ever participate in FIFA World Cup qualifying. Since decolonization had yet to begin in earnest, few nations on the African continent were able to assemble national teams that were internationally recognized and thus eligible for FIFA competitions. Various rivalry cups and tournaments were instituted instead. During the 1950s and 1960s, Nigeria and Ghana would compete in three cup competitions.

1951–59 Jalco Cup

Nigeria Red Devils - Jalco Cup Champions - 1956

There are various records of matches having been played between the national teams dating back to 1938. These unofficial matches list the scores and winners but, as with the match in 1938, specific details such as player lineups and often even the exact date that the match took place, are unknown. The first well-documented matches were organized under the banner of the Jalco Cup, a competition sponsored by the Ford Motor Company by way of a subsidiary, Joe Allen & Company (J.Allen & Co.) [6][7]for whom the cup was named. It is generally held to be the beginning of the rivalry's historical record.[8] The cup was contested between the two countries every year except 1952.

1959–67 Dr Kwame Nkrumah Gold Cup

1959 Ghanaian postage stamp published to advertise the Dr Kwame Nkrumah Gold Cup.

After Ghanaian independence the country's football officials harbored ambitions of competing in the Olympic Games. To this end they met with officials from the most prominent West African nations, including Nigeria, to create the West African Soccer Federation. The aim of the new federation was to sponsor a regional football tournament which would help to raise the level of the game in the respective nations for future participation in international tournaments. The result was the Dr. Kwame Nkrumah Gold Cup, also called the West African Soccer Federation championship.

The tournament had middling success; it was plagued from the outset by organizational and funding shortfalls. In the initial tournament in 1959, the qualifying stages were only partially completed. In addition, Nigeria did not appear for the semifinal of that tournament, and the match had to be replaced with an exhibition game played as a stand-in. Also, the fourth and final tournament in 1967 was postponed following issues having to do with the lack of lighting during the qualifying matches and subsequent complaints on the issue by the Sierra Leone players. There is no record of the final tournament ever having been completed.

Despite these issues, the tournament would see two matches played between Ghana and Nigeria, the high point being when the two sides met in the final of the 1960 tournament in Lagos, Nigeria in which Ghana won 3–0. Both matches played between the two sides during the life of the tournament were won by Ghana by a combined score of 8–0.

1961–67 Azikiwe Cup

The figurative successor to the Jalco Cup, the Azikiwe Cup was named for Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, who was Nigeria's first postcolonial president. The tournament was initially contested under the same rotating, single match, format as the Jalco Cup, but was later switched to an aggregate home and away setup with each team hosting one match apiece.

Unlike the Jalco Cup, the teams did not share the cup in the event of a tie under the single leg format, but rather the cup returned to the nation that had held it. This only occurred in 1962 when Ghana secured a 0-0 result in Lagos and were able to retain the cup that they initially won in the competition in 1961. Ghana won or retained the cup in every year that it was contested, continuing a dominance in the rivalry stemming in the early 1960s broken only during a brief period in the mid-1970s and 1980s and lasting until early 2000s.

Titles

Ghana	Competition	Nigeria
4	African Cup of Nations	3
8	Jalco Cup/Dr Kwame Nkrumah Gold Cup/Azikiwe Cup	8
3	West African Football Union Nations Cup	0
15	Aggregate	11

Matches between the two countries: Tournaments and friendlies

Totals

Matches	Ghana Total Wins	Draws	Nigeria Total Wins	Goal Difference
56	25	19	12	91:57

Ghana Home Matches	Wins	Draws	Losses	Last Defeat
23	16	6	1	15 Dec 02

Nigeria Home Matches	Wins	Draws	Losses	Last Defeat
20	8	9	3	10 Feb 73

Neutral Venue Matches	Won by  Ghana	Draws	Won by  Nigeria	Latest Result
13	6	4	3	11 October 2011 0-0 Draw

By match

#	Date	Competition	Venue	Home team	Score	Away team
1	16 October 1950	Friendly	Accra, Greater Accra Region,  Gold Coast	Gold Coast*	1–0	Nigeria
2	20 October 1951	Jalco Cup	Lagos, Lagos State, Nigeria	Nigeria	5–0	Gold Coast*
3	11 October 1953		Accra, Greater Accra Region,  Gold Coast	Gold Coast*	1–0	Nigeria
4	30 October 1954		Lagos, Lagos State, Nigeria	Nigeria	3–0	Gold Coast*
5	28 May 1955	Friendly	Accra, Greater Accra Region,  Gold Coast	Gold Coast*	1–0	Nigeria
6	30 October 1955	Jalco Cup	Accra, Greater Accra Region,  Gold Coast		7–0
7	27 October 1956		Lagos, Lagos State, Nigeria	Nigeria	3–0	Gold Coast*
8	27 October 1957		Accra, Greater Accra Region,  Ghana	Ghana	3–3	Nigeria
9	25 October 1958		Lagos, Lagos State, Nigeria	Nigeria	3–2	Ghana
10	21 November 1959		Accra, Greater Accra Region,  Ghana	Ghana	5–2	Nigeria
11	27 August 1960	1962 FIFA World Cup qualification	Accra, Greater Accra Region,  Ghana		4–1
12	10 September 1960		Lagos, Lagos State, Nigeria	Nigeria	2–2	Ghana
13	9 October 1960	1960 Nkrumah Cup Final (West African Soccer Federation championship)	Lagos, Lagos State,  Nigeria	Nigeria	0–3	Ghana
14	29 October 1960	Independence Cup		Nigeria	1–1	Ghana
15	8 April 1961	1963 African Cup of Nations Qualifiers			0–0
16	30 April 1961		Accra, Greater Accra Region,  Ghana	Ghana	2–2	Nigeria
17	1 June 1961	WAC		Ghana	3–0	Nigeria
18	17 December 1961	1961 Azikiwe Cup			5–1
19	3 January 1962	1963 African Cup of Nations Preliminary	Addis Ababa, Ethiopia	Nigeria	1–1	Ghana
20	10 November 1962	1962 Azikiwe Cup	Surulere, Lagos State,  Nigeria		0–0
21	24 February 1963	1961-63 Nkrumah Cup Semifinal	Kumasi, Ashanti Region,  Ghana	Ghana	5–0	Nigeria
22	30 October 1965	1965 Azikiwe Cup	Surulere, Lagos State,  Nigeria	Nigeria	0–4	Ghana
23	7 November 1965		Accra, Greater Accra Region,  Ghana	Ghana	3–0	Nigeria
24	28 January 1967	1966 Azikiwe Cup	Lagos, Lagos State,  Nigeria	Nigeria	2–2	Ghana
25	12 February 1967		Accra, Greater Accra Region,  Ghana	Ghana	2–0	Nigeria
26	21 October 1967	1967 Azikiwe Cup			2–1
27	23 December 1967		Lagos, Lagos State,  Nigeria	Nigeria	2–2	Ghana
28	10 May 1969	1970 FIFA World Cup qualification		Nigeria	2–1	Ghana
29	18 May 1969		Accra, Greater Accra Region,  Ghana	Ghana	1–1	Nigeria
30	8 January 1973	All African Games Group A	Surulere, Lagos State,  Nigeria	Nigeria	4–2	Ghana
31	10 February 1973	1974 FIFA World Cup qualification		Nigeria	2–3	Ghana
32	22 February 1973		Accra, Greater Accra Region,  Ghana	Ghana	0–0	Nigeria
33	31 August 1975	Friendly		Ghana	3–0	Nigeria
34	8 March 1978	1963 African Cup of Nations		Ghana	1–1	Nigeria
35	21 July 1978	All African Games Group B	Algiers, Algeria	Nigeria	0–0	Ghana
36	1 May 1983	Friendly	Accra, Greater Accra Region,  Ghana	Ghana	1–0	Nigeria
37	5 March 1984	1984 African Cup of Nations	Bouaké, Côte d'Ivoire	Ghana	1–2	Nigeria
38	27 July 1986	CEDEAO Cup	Monrovia, Liberia	Ghana	2–0	Nigeria
39	6 February 1987	ZONE 3 Semi-final			3–1
40	2 September 1990	1990 African Cup of Nations	Kumasi, Ashanti Region,  Ghana	Ghana	1–0	Nigeria
41	13 April 1991	1992 African Cup of Nations Qualifiers	Surulere, Lagos State,  Nigeria	Nigeria	0–0	Ghana
42	2 November 1991	CEDEAO Cup 3rd place match	Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire	Ghana	1–0	Nigeria
43	23 January 1992	1992 African Cup of Nations	Dakar, Senegal		2–1
44	9 March 1994	Friendly	Lagos, Lagos State,  Nigeria	Nigeria	0–0	Ghana
45	28 August 1999
46	10 March 2001	2002 FIFA World Cup qualification	Accra, Greater Accra Region,  Ghana	Ghana		Nigeria
47	28 July 2001	2002 FIFA World Cup qualification	Port Harcourt, Lagos State,  Nigeria	Nigeria	3–0	Ghana
48	3 February 2002	Friendly	Stade du 26 Mars, Bamako Mali		1–0
49	15 December 2002	Friendly	Accra, Greater Accra Region,  Ghana	Ghana	0–1	Nigeria
50	23 February 2003	Friendly	Warri, Delta State,  Nigeria	Nigeria	0–0	Ghana
51	30 May 2003	LG Cup Semi-final	Abuja National Stadium, Abuja,  Nigeria	Nigeria	3–1	Ghana
52	23 January 2006	2006 Africa Cup of Nations	Port Said, Egypt		1–0
53	6 February 2007	Friendly	Griffin Park, London, England	Ghana	4–1	Nigeria
54	3 February 2008	2008 Africa Cup of Nations	Ohene Djan Stadium, Accra,  Ghana		2–1
55	28 January 2010	2010 Africa Cup of Nations	Luanda, Angola		1–0
56	11 October 2011	Friendly	Vicarage Road England	Ghana	0–0	Nigeria

* Ghana was organized under the Gold Coast Football Federation from this time until its independence

• Table lists only senior team competitions. Olympics, underage competition and African Nations Championship matches are excluded
• Matches which go which are won after extra time with penalty kicks are listed as draws, per official FIFA designation.

See also

• List of association football rivalries

References

1. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-54088878
2. "Ghanaians vs Nigerians: Sibling Rivalry". 11 January 2014. Retrieved 2016-11-11.
3. "Biggest Rivalry In Africa: Ghana vs. Nigeria". 2 February 2008. Retrieved 2016-11-11.
4. "Nigeria vs Ghana: Head to Head". 29 January 2014. Retrieved 2016-11-11.
5. "Nigeria, Ghana and the genesis of a rivalry". 22 November 2012. Retrieved 2016-11-11.
6. "Nigeria/Ghana: Today in History!!! (CyberEagles)". 20 October 2006. Retrieved 2018-12-28.
7. "Nigeria Red Devils celebrate victory against Ghana, 1956. Holding the cup is captain Dan Anyiam". 18 July 2017. Retrieved 2018-12-28.
8. "History favours Ghana". 25 July 2001. Retrieved 2016-11-11.

External links

• Details at 11v11.com
• History of Jalco Cup 1951-1959 - RSSF.com
• History of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah Cup 1959-1967 - RSSF.com
• History of Azikiwe Cup 1961-1967 - RSSF.com