Nigeria Missing Out In AFCON, ‘Suicidal’- NFF

Nigeria Football Federa
tion (NFF) President Amaju Pinnick has said it will be “suicidal” should the country fail to qualify for a second straight AFCON.
Three-time African champions Nigeria failed to qualify for the 2015 AFCON in Equatorial Guinea after they were upstaged by South Africa and Congo in the qualifiers.
Nigeria are now second behind Egypt in the qualifying tournament for the 2017 AFCON in Gabon after two rounds of matches.
Both teams clash in a double header in March that is most likely to go a long way in determining who wins the qualifying group to automatically qualify for Gabon 2017.
“It will be suicidal to miss out on the AFCON,” admitted Pinnick on a television programme on Thursday.
“That is why we have to be in Gabon (2017 AFCON) and the World Cup in Russia in 2018.”
Pinnick, elected NFF president September 2014, also admitted that it has been tough managing football in Nigeria because “we have 150 million coaches”, but at the same time maintained “we’re equal to the task”.