Nigeria conundrum in the FIFA World Cup qualifiers
The Super Eagles have disappointed Nigerians in the FIFA World Cup African qualifiers with their sub-par performance.
Nigeria in group C with Benin Republic, South Africa, Lesotho, Rwanda, and Zimbabwe were expected to qualify with ease due to their superiority and little strength of their opponent.
Unfortunately, reverse is the case. Nigeria in two legs drew Zimbabwe ranked 125 by FIFA. That is 2 points out of a possible 6 and it sums up the whole thing going on with the Super Eagles.
Nigeria currently lies in 3rd place in group C with qualification hopes not in their hand.
Nigerians now have their calculator out punching in figures with IF statements. If we can beat Benin Republic in the last match while South Africa loses, we qualify. If we can beat Benin Republic and South Africa wins, then we come second and qualify for playoffs but still require results from other countries like DR Congo and Uganda.
There is also the issue of goals where we need to score a high number of goals to boost our goal difference. It is just funny at this point.
How can the Super Eagles have 14 points in 9 matches in a group like that? It is barbaric and should be equated with treason.
The Super Eagles have one of the best football stars in Africa. The reigning African Best Player Ademola Lookman is a Nigerian, Osimhen won the previous one, we have Alex Iwobi, Calvin Bassey, Chukwueze and the likes. These are top players in the world but have failed to put up a decent showing in Africa.
We risk missing the world cup for the second time consecutively, although history shows that we are yet to miss any two consecutive world cup tournaments since we first qualified in 1994.
Yet, it doesn’t sound like we will qualify. Even if we made the playoff, we would play a semifinal in Africa before going for the intercontinental playoff.
The odds are not with us in this.
What went wrong?
Nigeria played these qualifiers with 3 different coaches. We had Jose Peseiro, Finidi George and now Eric Chelle. NFF appointing 3 different coaches for 10 match qualifiers show that all is wrong with the Nigeria Football Federation.
The fire brigade approach should stop now. We need to have a 10-year blueprint to follow. Get a good forward-thinking coach and set milestones to be achieved for the next 10 years.
It is not hard to implement but the corruption in the governing body won’t let them do anything.
They prefer bringing in stooges as coach then sacking them every time. Nigerians were overjoyed when the news of Bruno Labbadia appointment hit the airwaves. We finally have a decent coach, we thought. Unfortunately, due to disagreement with assistant coach salaries, the appointment was cancelled, and we went for Eric Chelle
There are rumors of Eric Chelle impending sack if we fail to qualify for the world cup.
This must stop now. The NFF must put its house in order if they truly care about Nigerians. National team coaches must be given autonomy to call-up or drop players without interference.
We need players who are enthusiastic about playing for the badge.
It is until these things are put in place before we can have a solid national football team for Nigeria.
How do you now see the results as Nigeria hope is still alive to qualify?
I believe we can go all the way and make the world cup. It is feasible. We have a strong squad that can be the best if they buckled down and do the right thing.