By Ben Efe 19.11.2025
Heads ought to be rolling at the Nigeria Football Federation following Nigeria’s ouster from the FIFA World Cup for a second consecutive time, but sorry is the word coming from the officials of the nation’s football governing body.
The NFF a government pampered sporting federation let the country once down again as they failed to deliver an effortless qualification for the World Cup. The NFF has become a distributor of sad and gloomy realities for Nigerian football fans.
What hasn’t the football body received? Funding from government, grants from FIFA and sponsorship endorsements deals running into millions of dollars, support from football fans who kept wishing, praying and betting on the Super Eagles to deliver, Nigerian sports officials making late night calls to fix problems… but it has all come down to a waste of time and money.
“Sunday’s loss to DR Congo in the Africa Play-off Final in Rabat remains a moment of profound sadness for Nigerian football. For a nation where the Super Eagles serve as a symbol of unity, hope, and collective pride, missing out on the World Cup for a second consecutive time is a disappointment of great weight and emotional depth.
” We understand the expectations Nigerians rightly hold. We understand the passion and sacrifice of a country that has always stood firmly behind its team, through triumphs and trials. And we recognise that our collective effort did not deliver the outcome this nation deserved,” the NFF said in a statement.
“Throughout the long journey of this qualification campaign, we were privileged to receive enormous support from the Federal Government through the National Sports Commission, the National Assembly, key Ministries, Departments and Agencies, our diplomatic missions, the media, and, above all, the passionate fans whose devotion remains unmatched anywhere in the world.”
Dishing out halfhearted statements and apologising to the President and the people of Nigeria will not make up for the quantum loss of opportunities for all football stakeholders in Nigeria.
The NFF board under the leadership of Ibrahim Gusau has failed abysmally to steer Nigerian football in the right direction and it can be seen crumbling before our very eyes.
From the Golden Eaglets, Flying Eagles to the Super Eagles there are no results to behold, and things are not likely to change with the set up at the NFF. The reign of incompetence in Nigeria football administration has to be purged, otherwise come 2030 Nigeria will still not qualify for the World Cup.
The leadership of the NFF right from the regime of smooth-talking Amaju Pinnick to these days of Ibrahim Gusau, has consistently proved to Nigerians they are incapable of understanding that Nigeria has a rich football tradition steep in history. They cannot comprehend Nigeria practically speaking, is the Brazil of Africa when it comes to football talents.
It’s baffling that Lesotho, Zimbabwe now rub shoulders with Nigeria despite the seemingly rich vein of talents in the Super Eagles squad. It is also appalling that despite all the money pouring in the NFF in 2025, it could still be owing players outstanding allowances.
To have a talented team is easy, but the real work there is to do, is the ability to motivate the players, teach them to have the right attitude and mentality towards every game they play. But how can they in the Nigeria set up be motivated, when they are grudgingly lacing their boots as they think about outstanding allowances owed them?
How can they be motivated when the NFF president doesn’t speak a football language the players understand, just like Amaju Pinnick, Gusau is not a die in the wool football technocrat, being a diehard fan of Arsenal or Barca does not qualify one to sit on the highest pinnacle of football administration.
The board of the NFF is packful of people with little pedigree in football, all they care is their own pocket, players haven’t been paid their entitle yet officials have been settled their travelling allowances in advance.
When it comes to the players including the Super Falcons who are still waiting to be paid their President Bola Tinubu promised largess for the winning the Women Africa Cup of Nations, NFF officials continue to give the old worn-out excuse of “We are operating TSA account, it’s the Central Bank that is holding things.”
Agreed Nigeria generally, is a country in distress, things have become crooked, and it is like take what you see. But like the NFF stated Football is one thing that brings Nigerians together, the only thing that makes them forget their religious and tribal difference.
But why can’t those at the NFF do the right things like their counterparts in Senegal, Morocco, Egypt are doing, Nigeria was once the top team in Africa and was in the top five of world football rankings, but not anymore.
Nigerian football is comatose because the structures that made it strong has been dismantled. The grassroots football like the Principals Cup, the Academicals which produced the likes of Stepehn Keshi, Henry Nwosu, Sylvanus “Quick Silva Okpara, Samson Sisia, Rashidi Yekini, Daniel Amokachi and many others is no longer in existence.
The Principal’s Cup couldn’t be restarted because a former Sports Minister wanted 40 percent of the sponsorship fee, NFF officials wanted a slice and what is left for the organisers to run the competition? The Nigeria Premier Football League is just a joke, because most of the clubs participating in it are not professionally run, they are just a siphoning tool for government officials.
How many of the clubs have their own ground, feeder teams, women teams, medical crew and most importantly a sound technical crew on the bench and in the office? And they want to compete with Asante Kotoko who even in their own small world have put everything right. When was the last time a Nigerian club side entered the group state of the CAF Champions League?
The league is the bedrock of the national team, if the league is not producing talents, then the national team is doomed. It is in the national league rock steady and ready players are scouted and not in England where those who cannot get invitation into the Three Lions are begged to come and play for Nigeria.
The NFF presently is not working towards repositioning football, and it is about time, individuals who are professionally committed are allowed to mount the saddle of affairs. But if those in the highest sporting authority in Nigeria decide to encourage the corruptly enthroned NFF board of administration, then Nigerians had better not hope for any good result.
“As we look forward, our immediate attention turns to the Africa Cup of Nations Morocco 2025, which begins shortly. This tournament presents an opportunity for healing, for renewal, and for demonstrating the resilience that has always defined Nigerian football.
“Nigeria is a nation of resilience, of spirit, of unyielding hope. Just as our people rise from every challenge, so too will the Super Eagles,” the NFF statement concluded.
It’s roughly a month to the AFCON so we wait and wonder.