The stage is all set for the 2025 Unity Cup taking place in London as Nigeria aims to defend the trophy they won in the past.
Nigeria, Ghana, Jamaica, and Trinidad & Tobago will take to the centre stage from Tuesday 27 to Saturday 31 May at the Gtech Community Stadium as the Unity Cup returns for the first time since 2004.
DAILY POST reports that the Unity Cup is an Afro-Caribbean international football tournament which was last held in 2004.
Jamaica will face Trinidad and Tobago on Tuesday night, while Nigeria will tackle Ghana on Wednesday night.
The winners of both fixtures will clash in the final on Saturday, while the losing teams will battle for third place.
Nigeria are the current holders of the Unity Cup as they won the last edition, beating the Republic of Ireland 3-0 in the final 21 years ago.
The Super Eagles may start this year’s Unity Cup as favourites given their FIFA ranking and recent performances.
But the form of Eric Chelle’s side doesn’t matter when playing their West African rivals Ghana.
Among the four teams in the tournament, Nigeria is the highest-ranked team in FIFA’s world rankings in 44th position.
Behind Nigeria is Jamaica in 62nd position, followed by Ghana in 77th, and Trinidad & Tobago in 102nd.
Speaking with DAILY POST about the 2025 Unity Cup, Saheed Afolabi, who works at Clear TV, advised Nigeria coach, Eric Chelle to use the tournament as an avenue to test new players and prepare his team for the upcoming World Cup qualifiers.
Afolabi also insisted that all the teams are capable of winning the tournament this year.
He said, “The Unity Cup is going to be a tough battle between the four teams.
“All the four teams have chances of winning the tournament. But one thing Nigeria or the coach [Chelle] should focus on the possibility of not playing to win but rather look at it from the competitive angle of the players.
“Because this should serve as a good preparatory note for the Super Eagles players to test the local home-based players playing in the NPFL and to also know the areas where the team need to improve.
“Gladly we have some foreign-based players that would be joining the nine invited home-based players. So I think the focus should be more on how to improve the team rather not winning.
“Because if we say we want to win, fine we are playing to win also but the focus should be more on how to improve the team psychologically and also prepare the team ahead for the crucial World Cup qualifiers because Nigeria have to win their remaining World Cup qualifiers or else they won’t qualify.
“Because at this time the Super Eagles are now at the edge of not qualifying for the World Cup. They are down in the table and any slip they won’t qualify.
“They actually put themselves in that position so I believe the Unity Cup should serve as the goal post to rebrand the Super Eagles and also pave the way for some home-based players to be part of the senior team.
“You can never say they won’t gel together because the same thing happened in the 2013 AFCON where some home-based players led by the late Stephen Keshi won the AFCON in 2013.
“So I think we need to bring in more home-based players to the team and let’s see how we are going to do.
