IRKED by the alleged lacklustre handling of Nigeria’s campaign to qualify for the 2026 FIFA World Cup billed for the United States, Canada and Mexico, by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), aggrieved stakeholders want an immediate probe of the matter.
For starters, they are urging the government to specifically bring to book those whose action or inaction led to the dismal performance of the Super Eagles in Group C of the African qualifying series, and the playoff, last Sunday.
Urging President Bola Tinubu not to allow unpatriotic Nigerians sweep the alleged corruption that marred the country’s bid to qualify for the World Cup, two former national team stars, Harrison Jalla and Adegoke Adelabu, said that the country’s “football needs a total overhaul” as matters stand.
Nigeria failed to qualify for the 2022 World Cup held in Qatar, and on Sunday, the Super Eagles were made to look ordinary by DR Congo that ended the country’s journey in the race to the 2026 World Cup.
Jala, a former president of the National Association of Nigerian Players (NANF), told The Guardian, yesterday that it is time for swift presidential actions over the back-to-back failure.
“The president must order the dissolution of the NFF board now, and call for reforms to totally restructure Nigeria Football.”
On his part, Adelabu, now a sports scientist, said: “It is unfortunate that we failed to qualify for next year’s World Cup after missing the 2022 edition. The issue is, there are so many allegations against the NFF, which the government has not addressed.
“We are not transparent enough to enable proper investigations that will help us to identify the problems that we are contending with. The NFF is run like a cult. They are not accountable to anyone. If these issues are swept under the carpet again, there may be no redemption for our football.
The former Eko United (Asiwaju Babes) coach added: “The important thing in any serious-minded institution is to be able to evaluate performance with the hope of finding where it failed, and thereafter develop strategies to ameliorate the problem. I think the government should immediately set up a panel of investigation to know what went wrong and how to correct it for future purposes.”
Lamenting the damage Nigeria’s failure to qualify for the 2026 World Cup has done to the country’s image, former JIB Rocks and Vasco Dagama of Enugu star, Theodore Chukwuemeka said: “It is unbelievable that Nigeria, which was once the fifth best football playing country in the world, will not feature in the World Cup for the second consecutive time even when Africa’s slot has been increased from five to 10.
“The Federal Government said that it budgeted N1 billion for the African playoff, yet the players went on strike over unpaid allowances and nothing has happened to the officials responsible for that disgrace.
“When the World Cup kicks off in North America next June, the so-called Giant of Africa will be sitting at home watching the likes of Cape Verde, Cote d’Ivoire, Egypt, Ghana, Algeria, Senegal, Morocco, Tunisia and possibly DR Congo rubbing shoulders with the world’s best teams. The Super Eagles and their fans will be spectators. We cannot continue like this.”
