For Super Eagles To Fly Again 

Tuesday, March 29, 2022, will remain a spectre for most Nigerian soccer enthusiasts as that was the
day when their cherished Super Eagles failed to qualify for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. The Black Stars of Ghana thwarted the Eagles with a superior goal tally. Had the Eagles soared above the Ghanaian Black Stars to Qatar, it would have been their seventh FIFA World Cup appearance and their fourth in a row.
The second round of the match took place at the Moshood Abiola Stadium in Abuja. Nigeria played a scoreless draw with Ghana in the opening round of the playoffs at the Baba Yala Stadium in Kumasi. Unfortunately, the three-time African champions failed to improve their game when it mattered the most, leaving their fans in peril and despair. The Black Stars dictated the pace and depth of the proceedings and put together a dynamic game plan.
Indeed, the loss was so vitriolic that some indignant devotees  instantly voiced their outrage and dissatisfaction as they overran the MKO Abiola Stadium pitch and extirpated  property  when they could not get their  hands  on the  players who inflicted them with searing pain. Although hurtful, we condemn the fans’ infantile and irrational reaction to the disastrous defeat of the Nigerian team.
The  awful  event of March 29  saw Nigeria fail to qualify for the senior World Cup for the second time since 1994. The first mishap happened in 2006  when the Super Eagles lost a Germany 2006 ticket to Angola in Kano on the away goals rule. The loss by the Super Eagles rudely alarmed many Nigerians as in recent times, the team had  not relished the  kind of irresistible support it got  before the must-win clash with the Black Stars of Ghana.
Considering that the first leg of the CAF third round qualifiers in Kumasi had ended 0-0, and the Ghanaians going into the return leg in a more propitious position, the Federal Government and the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) mobilised Nigerians to come out en masse to upraise the Super Eagles in the second leg of the fixture. To draw fans to the stadium, the authorities had provided more than 100 buses to provide free rides for supporters in Abuja and neighbouring states.
Intriguingly, the technique exploited by the Sports Ministry and the NFF produced favourable results as for the second time since it was launched in 2003, the mainbowl of the MKO Abiola National Stadium was full. It was the right ambience for the team to glide to Qatar. Sadly, the national team reiterated similar blunders in Kumasi that robbed them of at least an away goal that would have made the second leg less unpredictable for them.
Painfully, Nigeria’s technical adviser, Austine Eguavoen, floundered to organise his team to attack and the Black Stars capitalised on this technical drawback to the utmost benefit. The Super Eagles stayed predictable, unable to surprise their rivals. However, Napoli youngster, Victor Osimhen, did his best to save the team’s World Cup yearning, but all his endeavours came to nought as the Black Stars shone to their fourth World Cup.
For Eguavoen, this is nothing more than a dismal record as he was a member of the technical team that failed to qualify Nigeria for the 2006 World Cup in Germany. Therefore, 2022 offered him a rare opportunity to make amends, but he was outsmarted by his opposite number in Ghana’s dugout, Otto Ado, whose tactical tweak at half-time completely confounded the former Super Eagles captain.
In addition to Ghana, other African representatives at the Qatar event scheduled to take place in November/December 2022 include Senegal, Cameroon, Morocco and Tunisia. The absence of the Super Eagles at the Qatar World Cup offers us an opportunity to rethink the state of Nigerian football and chart the best course for the future. This is the time to really assess the nation’s football fortune and the best way to stimulate it in the years ahead.
With the exit of the senior national team from the mundial football event, the NFF and the handlers of the team should commence preparations for the next competition. Our ordeals in AFCON 2021 in Cameroon and the World Cup qualification ties have amply confirmed that we cannot do much without sufficient planning and groundwork. No team can get far in a regional or global football tournament without preparatory work.
The board of directors of the NFF led by Amaju Pinnick should resign honourably and give Nigerian football a chance to breathe. Board members would be doing a great disservice to the nation if they continue to misdirect the country’s football after the latest misadventure. We welcome the decision to terminate the Super Eagles technical team as it will provide a clean break.
The inability of the Eguavoen coaching team to make the necessary impact in Cameroon and World Cup qualification ties has boldly underlined the imperative of rejigging the technical crew to make it more effective and decisive in reading games and preparing the team for tournaments. For all his faults, however, Eguavoen is only a symptom, a manifestation of a broader cultural malaise in Nigerian football.
It is depressing that the NFF has killed the local league to such an extent that no player from the domestic game is deemed capable of playing for the Super Eagles. Nigeria’s football league is a pathetic state. There is no regularity in the league. It is inconsistent and has become a patronage system. Junior national teams no longer produce quality youth because of corruption that has killed age teams. These trends should be reversed immediately.
The government has to take its hands out of football entirely to avoid indiscretion and interference in the administration of the game. The national teams and professional clubs should find their means to be financially stable. It is not good enough for teams to always run to the government, begging for grants. The NFF, the national football teams and professional clubs must attract investors and sponsors to stay alive.