Former Super Eagles Captain, Sylvanus Okpalla, has raised the alarm that the country would lose over $100 million if the national team failed to qualify for the 2026 World Cup, billed to hold in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Nigeria failed to qualify for the last edition of the Mundial held in Qatar in 2022, and by their current standing in Group C of the African qualifying series, the Super Eagles need a miracle to make the championship in North America.
Okpalla, who said that the country is too talented to miss another edition of the global fiesta, told The Guardian, yesterday, that apart from the joy that participating in the World Cup would bring to Nigerians, the country stands to get $1.5 million for qualifying for the championship and an additional $9 million for getting to the group stage.
But beyond the money from FIFA, Okpalla said that the many businesses around the World Cup are too rewarding for the country to miss again.
“We lost the right to be at the Qatar 2022 edition out of carelessness because we had no business losing to that Ghanaian team.
“I warned the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) that Austin Eguavoen was doing well, but he needed to add just a little thing to the team to qualify for the World Cup.
“I wrote and volunteered to assist Eguavoen, assuring them that we’ll qualify. But they ignored me and we failed to make it,” he said.
Okpalla said that removing Eguavoen and bringing in Eric Chelle was a mistake because the NFF technical director “had stabilised the team and was doing well, including qualifying for the African Cup of Nations.”
The former Enyimba coach said that before the NFF employed Chelle, he wrote to the federation’s president, Ibrahim Gusau and some other top officials, volunteering to team up with Eguavoen to rescue the ticket with six games to go.
“I mentioned that if they felt that I was coming to collect money, they should not pay me any salary. I was ready to settle for the camp allowances they paid other staff, but with an agreement that they would pay me a certain amount when we qualified for the World Cup.
“Then we had six games and our destiny was in our hands because all we needed to do was to win those six matches, and that’s it. But today, as it stands, we can still qualify; it’s not impossible, but our destiny is no longer in our hands.”
Okpalla said that he was alarmed when he heard Chelle complain that he did not know that Zimbabwe would adopt a defensive approach at the last World Cup qualifier in Uyo.
“In war, you prepare for whatever your opponent throws at you. His complaint came after all the teams had played over three games, and their match tapes were available all over the place. Anyway, that is by the way; we can still qualify, but it will not be easy.”
The 1980 Africa Cup of Nations winner dismissed the notion that Nigeria failed to go beyond the first round of the ongoing African Nations Championship because of the poor quality of the country’s league.
He said: “I have read so many people saying that we failed because the Nigerian Premier Football League’s (NPFL) is of low quality compared to other countries. But that is not true.
“Senegal won this championship last time. Now, are you trying to tell me that the Senegalese league is better than Nigeria’s or more recognised in Africa than the NPFL? The answer is no.
“It’s not about the Nigerian league. It’s about the selection of the players. Did we select the best to represent us in that championship? I don’t know because I don’t know the players. But let’s assume that we picked our best for the championship. They had about six weeks or more to train before CHAN. That is where you need to teach them what they need to do.
“The failure has nothing to do with anybody’s league. The English league has been one of the best leagues in Europe for a long time, even before I went to Europe in 1980. But how many times have they won the World Cup? They did not even qualify for the 1974, 1978 and 1994 World Cups. But they have one of the best leagues in the world.
“Even some of the teams, like Morocco and Algeria, are not playing with their best league players, those who are also in their main national teams. We should look at how we trained the team and how to ensure that this type of thing does not happen again.”
Okpalla said that after spending over three months with the home-based players, he would be surprised if Chelle failed to invite at least three players to his team of 23 for the next World Cup qualifiers.
“If no home-based player is in that World Cup squad, then Chelle’s over three months stay with the local lads was a waste. Period,” he said.
By Christian Okpara
