Football rivalry between Ghana and Nigeria is an age-old phenomenon and no matter the level of the competition, both nations attach a lot of seriousness and passion to it. It is with this background that this weekend’s match involving home based players in the novelty African Nations Championships has attracted so much attention in both countries.

The African Nations Championships is an innovation by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) to create a platform for home based international stars to display their skills. It is quite a healthy innovation by CAF because it would surely unearth and give national recognition to a lot of talented players who might find it difficult to penetrate the choked and extremely competitive European market.

The finals of this new tournament will be hosted by Cote D’Ivoire early next year and the Ghana- Nigeria clash in Accra this weekend is the first leg of the final qualifying series. Ghana has reached this stage by eliminating Niger 4-1 and Togo 3-1 on aggregate. Nigeria on the other hand edged out Burkina Faso to reach this stage and will have the advantage of hosting Ghana in the final decider to determine who goes to Cote d’Ivoire in 2009.

This year, Ghana and Nigeria have clashed in three levels starting from the Cup of Nations in March where the Black Stars of Ghana came from a goal down to beat the Super Eagles of Nigeria 2-1. Then the junior team Flying Eagles of Nigeria avenged defeat by eliminating their Ghanaian counterparts Black Meteors from the Beijing Olympic Games football qualifiers. Just a couple of weeks ago the women’s team of Ghana, the Black Queens played a pulsating 1-1 draw with their Nigerian counterparts, Super Falcons in the African Women’s Championships in Equatorial Guinea.

So in terms of clashes this year Ghana and Nigeria have shared honours so far and this should add more attraction to Sunday’s match to be played at the Ohene Djan Sports Stadium in Accra

Both sides can boast of a lot of youngsters anxious to make it big in the game. Goal king Eric Bekoe of Asante Kotoko fame leads a formidable attacking trio for the Black Stars comprising team mate Kwadwo Opoku and Sam Ayew of Liberty Professionals and on a good day they can actually run riot.

Goalkeeper Osei Boateng will have a reliable defensive shield in Isaac Inkoom, Godfred Yeboah and Habib Mohammed and the midfield will be controlled by Daniel Yeboah of Hearts of Lions.

Nigeria coach Okey Emordi who guided Enyimba to the CAF Champions League title in 2004 would not disclose his line up for the big clash but has promised that fans would get their money’s worth with the kind of game the Flying Eagles would put up.

Meanwhile Ghana coach Milovan Rajevac has reminded his players of the recent bitter experience suffered by the Under 17 Black Starlets who won 3-1 at home against Gambia in their Africa youth qualifiers but lost 2-0 in the second leg. It is therefore going to be a tight game with the Black Stars tightening their defence and at the same time looking for maximum points whereas the Flying Eagles would be frantically searching for the elusive away goal to make the final game at home less burdensome. Surely this will be a match full of thrills and the Ohene Djan Stadium is expected to be filled to capacity. It is hoped the match would be exciting enough to help reduce the political tension in Ghana preceding the national elections on Dec 7.