Super Eagles and NFF’s endless woes

For a second successive time in eight years, Nigerian football fans are left to lament and grapple with which team to support in the world’s premier football fiesta, the World Cup. Again, Nigeria will lose that prestige of being among the world’s football elites, in addition to exposure for its youths and an almost better career prospect.

All this is the result of our failure to qualify for the 2026 World Cup, scheduled to hold in Canada, Mexico and the United States.

On November 16, 2025, Nigeria’s Super Eagles lost to the Democratic Republic of Congo’s national team in a penalty shoot-out during a play-off held in Rabat, Morocco’s capital city. But for many Nigerian football fans, Nigeria lost the slot months earlier for its failure to clinch the sole slot in its group. What makes it more painful is the belief by many football fans that Nigeria had no business losing the slot in a group made up of Benin Republic, Rwanda, Zimbabwe, Lesotho and South Africa.

The signs of the outcome reared their heads very early in the qualifying rounds. Two coaches, including Jose Peseiro and George Finidi were sacked due to the dismal performance of the team. Peseiro managed two draws in the two matches he led against Lesotho and Zimbabwe, while Finidi was forced to resign after the team’s 1-1 draw against South Africa and the 1-2 loss to Benin Republic.

Under the tutelage of the third coach, Eric Chelle, who led the team to six matches, including a play-off, the team was better, with four wins and two draws. These are: a 2-0 win against Rwanda, a 1-1 draw against Zimbabwe, another 1-0 against Rwanda, a draw against South Africa, the 4-0 bashing of Benin and another 2-1 victory against Lesotho in their last qualifying matches.

However, in spite of this, many football pundits believed that Nigeria had lost a spot in the Mundial, and the play-off would just be a face-saving avenue. And true, the Congolese proved that.

We at Daily Trust believe that Nigeria’s performance in the qualifying series was a reflection of the age-long poor approach to football tournaments by the nation’s apex football managers in the Nigeria Football Federation. Many Nigerians have almost forgotten when the nation’s teams made any positive impact in football, even at continental level, maybe with the exception of the senior women’s team. Most of the nation’s age-grade teams either failed to qualify for continental or world championships or simply fizzled out at such tournaments.

One wonders why Nigeria keeps losing appearances at important tournaments with the calibre of players who are making waves at their various clubs.

In the same week Nigeria crashed out, Victor Osimhen was celebrating a league-and-cup double with Galatasaray after scoring 37 goals.

Ademola Lookman is Atalanta’s talisman; Victor Boniface is terrorising Bundesliga defences; and Premier League Nigerians Ola Aina, Wilfred Ndidi, Alex Iwobi, Calvin Bassey and others are starting every weekend for their clubs.

First, there is the cavalier treatment of the players. This reared its head just before their match against DR Congo when the players boycotted training, demanding their unpaid allowances. Many of the players have, at different times, complained of being abandoned by the NFF after suffering injuries while serving their fatherland. This has been a recurring decimal.

The football managers also failed in recruiting world-class coaches to steer the nation’s teams. Even where they managed to recruit second-class coaches, many of them were often forced to leave with bad experiences of unpaid wages or interference in the team’s management.

Again, the NFF still likes to operate in a fire-brigade manner. Often, preparations are left to the last minute, which leads to poor readiness and uncertainty. Often, the fans are left to wonder what to expect of their teams.

We at Daily Trust call for an immediate change of attitude from our football managers. The federal government must come in to instill sanity and confidence into the management of the nation’s football. We must tell those who are not ready to give the nation the best of their effort to either simply resign or be shown the way out. Nigerians cannot continue to condone shattered hopes from the country’s football managers. Football has proved to be the nation’s unifying factor, a source of income and a tool for Nigeria to show its prowess internationally. No one should be allowed to continue to toy with it. We should not.

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