NIGERIA’S FIFA WORLD CUP QUALIFICATION

JOSHUA J. OMOJUWA argues that hope is never in short supply in Nigeria

Nigeria endured arguably its worst FIFA World Cup qualifying series and still managed to stay alive, qualifying for the CAF tournament for the best second place finishers in the qualification series of the 2026 World Cup. We were rewarded for dropping points against the last team in our group whilst other teams who beat the last teams in their group got ‘punished’. Nigeria benefited from a CAF rule whereby, “Whenever a group has fewer than five teams due to withdrawal or disqualification, results against the lowest-ranked or withdrawn teams will not be considered when determining the best runners-up”. Eritrea’s withdrawal in Group E landed us qualification for the CAF final round of qualifications. Nigeria technically stayed alive despite missing out on direct qualification.

At the play-off tournament featuring Gabon, Congo DR and Cameroon, we beat Gabon 4-1 after extra time while Congo DR shocked Cameroon, 1-0. We ended up losing to Congo DR on penalties after a 1-1 draw. We’d missed out on qualifying for the FIFA Intercontinental Play-Off tournament where we’d have only needed to wait in the final, win one more game and then qualify for the 2026 World Cup. Congo DR earned the right to achieve that on the pitch. Now, Nigeria is hoping to have that overturned as we play to technicalities again.

We are doing everything we can off the field to qualify for the World Cup. The issue is, all the other teams that qualified for the World Cup did everything they could on the field. That’s why they aren’t now investing in vain hope. The CAF rule we enjoyed to have qualified for the African play-offs would have been knocked by most of us had Nigeria been one of the countries that had to lose maximum points for no fault of theirs. This qualification series couldn’t have favoured us more. It was the easiest group ever in the history of our World Cup qualifiers. And now, here we are.

Nigeria probably has a case but it is weak at best. FIFA is an interesting organisation, so nothing is impossible—FIFA overruled its own laws of the game when it was announced that instead of serving his remaining 2-match ban at the World Cup, Cristiano Ronaldo is now able to play those matches as his suspension has now been suspended. In an organisation that can bend its own rules for a player, Nigeria certainly can hope.

The weakness of our case is that we do not have any FIFA laws or statutes to petition FIFA on. Nigeria’s case appears simple enough. According to the NFF general secretary Mohammed Sanusi, “Our contention is that Fifa was deceived into clearing them. The Congolese rule says you cannot have dual nationality, but some of their players have European and French passports. There is what we consider to be a breach of (Fifa’s) regulations. We are saying it was fraudulent.”

A breach of Congolese laws? Possibly. A breach of FIFA regulations? No. There is no FIFA regulation that says a player cannot hold multiple nationalities. Our argument then will be to claim that those players aren’t Congolese because the laws of their own country invalidates their citizenship. It appears to me that we’d need the Congolese government to cooperate with us to make a strong argument at FIFA, which will then help us replace their own country at the FIFA tournament. I hope you get the point.

After enduring an arduous World Cup qualification series where we could only win 4 matches in 10, in a group with Lesotho, Zimbabwe and Rwanda which should suggest a 6-win return and then add Benin Republic and South Africa which looks to me like the worst we should have returned with is 8 wins at worst. On the pitch, we were such a disaster, to put it mildly and even when we got a second chance, we drew two games in regulation time. Having drawn 5 of 10 games during the main qualifying round, we in essence drew seven games out of 12, losing only one in regulation time. There is something there. And that something is also reflected in our AFCON record where we often fall short at the semi-final stage. We’ve won a record number of bronzes. Of our record 16 AFCON medals, only three are gold, eight being bronze. This indicates that Nigeria without putting in its best effort can be competitive. It is easy to see why, we have an impressive talent pool.

What we lack, where we have always fallen short is in organisation. Days before Nigeria played Gabon in the CAF tournament in Morocco, the players went on strike. Several generations on, we continue to experience bonus issues. As we speak, Monsieur Eric Chelle, the coach of the Super Eagles is owed several months’ salaries. We had gone for a relatively cheap coach and still manage to continue our traditional salary defaults. We return to AFCON this December like we did the last time; with few Nigerians giving the Super Eagles a chance. This was why despite losing the final in Cote d’Ivoire the last time around, the silver medal was treated like it was gold. Because we had such low expectations for that team, a poor final loss felt like a win. This is not an anomaly in Nigerian football. We once returned from an AFCON edition with the bronze medal being referred to as ‘golden bronze’.

We are a country where hope is never in short supply. That is why it wouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that many Super Eagles fans are waiting on FIFA, hoping that someway, somehow, FIFA will find a way, front door, back door, as long as we make it in. I have zero expectations here. And if we somehow, seemingly impossible as it is, if we somehow get FIFA to throw out Congo DR and hand it over to Nigeria, it’d amount to a pyrrhic victory. And rest assured, the results will tell when the World Cup comes around. They always tell.

Omojuwa is chief strategist, Alpha Reach/ BGX Publishing