Super Eagles enter peril

NIGERIA’S football is sailing into perilous waters, and the Super Eagles are caught in the storm. Their back-breaking 3-0 defeat to Guinea-Bissau in the 2027 AFCON qualifiers in Bissau has put Nigeria’s hopes of reaching next year’s tournament in East Africa in serious jeopardy.

For a country once regarded as a continental football powerhouse, this is almost unthinkable. Nigeria won their first AFCON title on home soil in 1980 and followed it with triumphs in 1994 and 2013. The Eagles have been runners-up on five occasions and third-place winners nine times.

But those glory days are increasingly looking like distant memories.

Guinea-Bissau have already seized the initiative in the group, winning their opening two matches against Tanzania and Nigeria. And the peculiarities of Group L make Nigeria’s predicament even more precarious. Only one team will qualify from the four-team group because co-hosts Tanzania’s results will not count in the final standings.

With the Eagles struggling so badly in their opening two matches, even a home victory over Guinea-Bissau can no longer be taken for granted.

The Eagles, coached by Malian-Frenchman Eric Chelle, began their campaign with a 2-1 home victory over Madagascar in Uyo. What followed in Bissau, however, was not merely a defeat but a humiliation that exposed the depth of Nigeria’s footballing malaise.

And it did not come out of nowhere.

For years, the Eagles have been sliding down the continental pecking order, while administrators have acted as though Nigeria’s football pedigree alone guarantees success.

The warning signs were glaring at the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia. Nigeria lost to Croatia and Argentina and defeated Iceland 2-0, finishing third in Group D. That should have triggered a serious overhaul. It did not.

Four years later, Ghana eliminated Nigeria from the Qatar 2022 World Cup after a goalless draw in Kumasi and a 1-1 draw in Abuja. It was a humiliating setback. Yet, instead of rebuilding systematically, the familiar boasting about the next World Cup resumed.

No lesson was learned.

The Nigeria Football Federation compounded the crisis with questionable coaching appointments and an unhealthy mix of politics and football administration. Players and coaches have repeatedly complained about unpaid bonuses and other entitlements. Mismanagement became institutionalised.

Even the expanded 2026 World Cup offered Nigeria a lifeline. FIFA increased the tournament from 32 to 48 teams, giving Africa more slots. Ten African countries eventually made it to the finals in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Nigeria were not among them.

Worse still, the Eagles squandered another chance through the African playoff route, losing to the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The warning could hardly have been louder.

The AFCON is Africa’s biggest football tournament, yet Nigeria now face the possibility of watching the continent’s premier competition from the sidelines.

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The rot is not confined to the pitch. The players appear to have lost some of the hunger and urgency that once defined the Eagles. Administrators are distracted by politics and power struggles, while governments keep meddling in football appointments, often rewarding loyalty over competence.

What a shame.

Until the 2026 World Cup, Nigeria had missed only one World Cup since making their debut at USA ’94 — Germany 2006. That record has now been shattered.

The country has also endured several AFCON absences. Following the execution of the Ogoni Nine in 1995, the Sani Abacha regime controversially withdrew Nigeria from the 1996 tournament, where the Eagles were expected to defend their 1994 title. CAF subsequently banned Nigeria from the 1998 edition.

Nigeria later failed to qualify for the 2012, 2015 and 2017 AFCON tournaments.

The latest crisis, however, is particularly worrying because it points beyond the immediate AFCON campaign. If Nigeria does not urgently reverse the decline, the consequences could extend into the qualification race for the 2030 World Cup.

Italy provides a sobering lesson. The four-time world champions have missed three successive World Cups — Russia 2018, Qatar 2022 and the 2026 tournament in the United States, Canada and Mexico. If footballing giants can collapse so spectacularly, Nigeria has no divine right to qualification.

So, what is the way out?

Nigeria must stop chasing quick fixes and recalibrate its entire football system.

Politics and football do not mix. The government must end its interference and stop imposing political loyalists and incompetent stooges on the NFF and sports administration. Football administration must be driven by competence, accountability and results.

The obsession with moving international matches around the country must also end. Nigeria needs a properly maintained national stadium. The National Stadiums in Lagos and Abuja should be comprehensively renovated and professionally managed rather than allowed to decay.

More importantly, Nigeria must invest in a sustainable football development system. Academies should be established and properly funded to identify and develop talent while creating a recognisable Nigerian football philosophy. Morocco and Spain offer useful lessons.

State governments should abandon the outdated practice of funding football clubs indefinitely. They should privatise majority stakes in their clubs, allowing serious investors to build professional clubs, academies and commercially viable football institutions.

The basic rule must be that coaches and players must be paid when they are due.

Nigeria cannot demand commitment from players while treating their contracts and entitlements as optional. It cannot demand excellence from coaches while hiring and firing them according to political convenience.

The Super Eagles do not need another slogan, another emergency committee or another political appointment. They need a functioning football system.