The 2026 World Cup held in Mexico, Canada and the United States of America was exciting, very exciting. The referees issued 277 yellow cards and 15 red cards during the 104 games while the players put 308 goals in the net, giving pain to the goalkeepers and pleasure to the spectators. Politics also reared its horrid head in the tournament. Iran participated in the tournament despite its war with America and the tantrums displayed by both countries; the Cameroon-Frenchman Kylian Mbappe had a face-off with a Paraguayan politician over racist remarks; Argentine spectators raised the controversial Falklands war issue when Argentina faced England’s squad; there was political grumbling by spectators when a red card issued to Folarin Balogun, a Nigerian-American player was suspended by FIFA based on a complaint by President Donald Trump; South Africa’s Bafana Bafana was jeered at various pitches by some Africans who were offended by the xenophobic war against fellow Africans in South Africa.
Despite all these political intrusions into the beautiful game, the game remained beautiful, beautiful beyond beautiful. Mbappe became the highest goal scorer with a haul of 10 goals, which makes him the all-time highest goal scorer with 22 goals. Lionel Messi became the oldest player to score a hat-trick in a world cup tournament. Another legend, Cristiano Ronaldo had the distinction of scoring goals in six consecutive world cups. The tournament lasted for 39 days, a record, with 48 teams from six federations whose players had to do battle in 16 cities in the three hosting countries. In all, about 680 million people watched the matches, another record.
Africa had 10 teams in the tournament. Nine of them went through to the first knock-out round, leaving Tunisia behind. Africa failed to improve on its 2022 record where Morocco got to the semi-final in Qatar. However, Cape Verde, a debutant from Africa, provided the Cinderella story of the tournament by losing narrowly to the cup holders, Argentina in a thrilling 3-2 encounter that dragged into extra time. This is evidence that the yawning gap that existed between the teams from various federations is gradually closing.
But Nigeria’s Super Eagles were not on the field of play in Mexico, or Canada or United States. They did not feature because they did not qualify for the second session in a row. The last time that the Super Eagles played in the world cup was in 2018 in Russia. In Qatar in 2022, Nigeria was marked absent. Nigerians, great lovers of the game, were very unhappy by the absence of their beloved Super Eagles. This year, again, there was weeping and gnashing of teeth on account of Nigeria’s absence again from the biggest sporting show on earth.
The president of the Confederation of African Football (CAF), Patrick Motsepe said recently that: “a world cup without Nigeria’s Super Eagles and the Indomitable Lions of Cameroon is incomplete.” Is this flattery or words of consolation for the two countries? The world cup was played excitingly for 39 days without the two African countries. The World Cup did not miss either Nigeria or Cameroon. It was these two countries that missed the world cup.
I am particularly worried about Nigeria’s regular absence at such tournaments. Look at the recent FIFA statistics. Nigeria is ranked 26th in the world and 4th in Africa. The questions are these: If we are 26th in the world and 48 teams had to play at the 2026 World Cup, why were we not there? If we are number four in Africa and 10 teams had to play from Africa why were we not there?
Nigeria has abundant talent in football. They are there, playing good football abroad. At this world cup we saw some of them, people like Folarin Balogun, Saka, Oliseh and 12 others playing for other countries. But there are many others not yet captured by foreign countries. Several years ago, Newswatch published a weekly series that focused on Nigerian footballers abroad. Today, there are not less than 200 Nigerians playing professional football abroad. At home, there are also thousands of talented players who have not had the privilege of playing at the global level for Nigeria. So we have the talent.
What then is the problem? Football management; that is the answer. Before every tournament the problem of poor management always rears its ugly head. No friendly matches. No call-up in time. No payment of monies owed to the players and handlers. No suitable accommodation. No discipline in camp or during tournament. The complaints are many and have been there for years without being permanently tackled. Now, the Super Falcons are in Morocco to defend the Women’s African Cup of Nations crown they won in Morocco two years ago. When they won the trophy President Bola Tinubu received them with fanfare in Abuja. He promised them money, houses and national honours. As the girls are going to defend their crown now, the story is that those promises publicly made by the president to the players have not yet been redeemed. What tardiness! If the president made a promise to Nigerians who had made the country proud, those whose responsibility it is to redeem the promise ought to do it diligently and speedily so as to show that the president is a promise keeper. It is also a manifest way of encouraging other Nigerians to do their best for Nigeria in their various vocations. Are we waiting for the girls to refuse to play at the tournament before we pay them?
During the last men’s African Cup of Nations, we had a similar problem. The Super Eagles threatened to boycott the games because of the non-payment of their allowances. The captain of the team, Ndidi promised to pay the players from his pocket so that the players do not boycott the games. Wasn’t that disgraceful? The thing to note here is that this nonsense has been repeating itself again and again and again. You want to ask the question: How do other countries manage their football without this kind of crisis that occurs in Nigeria regularly?
The Super Eagles have won the African Cup of Nations three times. Our girls, the Super Falcons have won it 10 times out of 13. They are gunning for the 11th title at the current tournament. This record of the two teams is an indication that the players have done well for Nigeria but the football managers have not. In 2013, when the Super Eagles won the AFCON for the third time under the leadership of Coach Stephen Keshi, they did not get the backing of the football managers. On the day the Super Eagles won the trophy, Keshi announced his resignation. Reason? Non-support by the football authority in Nigeria.
The 2030 World Cup will be jointly hosted by Spain, Portugal and Morocco with a 64-team format to mark the centenary of the World Cup which was hosted by Uruguay with 13 teams playing in 1930. If Nigeria hopes to appear at the 2030 World Cup, it must begin now to prepare for it. The fact that there will be an additional 16 teams does not guarantee that Nigeria will be among them except we work hard to achieve that goal.
The 2030 World Cup just as the 2026 version promises to be exciting, very exciting. The game has made the transition from the gentle chasing of the round object into something like an exciting brawl that includes wrestling, dangerous tackles, head butts and fierce combat. It has become excitingly brutal and brutally exciting in its dramatic moments, moments of macho-ness and even madness. The mellow moments were few and far between because every ball was contested for with verve, every referee’s decision was disputed either by a player or a coach or both, thus making the referee’s job more difficult than it ought to be. But many soccer aficionados in Nigeria were ready to surrender their sleep to the sweet science of soccer owing to the time difference. They did so because football has since ceased to be just a sport; it has become a religion; a god that is worshipped by millions, old and young, in countries big and small, developed and developing. Its charisma, its hypnotism, its pull, its push, have all added a high dose of razzmatazz to the frenzy that the game ordinarily produces.
Football is a game like no other. Nigerians know it, love it, live it. The Super Eagles have made six appearances at the World Cup: USA 1994. France 1998, Korea/Japan 2002, South Africa 2010, Brazil 2014 and Russia 2018. We have also reached the round of 16 three times (1994, 1998 and 2014). We can score more if we put our acts together properly at the management level. We need a comprehensive review of how we manage the game in Nigeria. We have to put round pegs in round holes and square pegs in square holes. That is the only way to achieve the results that can make Nigeria’s football lovers happy. Nothing less.
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