Abstract
Football frequently evokes emotions across ethnic fissures and could threaten national peace. In 1977, at the semi-final stage of the Africa Cup Winners’ Cup, Enugu Rangers supported by Igbos in the Eastern part of the country confronted Shooting Stars of Ibadan, the most popular club among the Yorubas in Western Nigeria. After the first leg of the two-legged encounter ended 0-0 in Lagos, a heated debate emerged about the location for the final leg. There was controversy over which of the clubs’ players should be released from the national team camp for the match. A crowded football calendar emerged with the national team involved in a contest for a place at the 1978 World Cup finals. This paper employs historical method to analyze content from three newspapers – Daily Star in Enugu, Nigerian Tribune in Ibadan, and the New Nigerian in Kaduna. Using the instrumentalist theory of ethnicity, it reveals how both teams sought to gain support but came close to causing ethnic turmoil that was extinguished by intervention of the military leadership who ordered the second leg moved out of Lagos.
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