Football is a global sport that is becoming a big deal in countries that did not consider that kicking the round object was important. China is building stadiums almost everywhere and paying humongous sums of money to bring football stars, men and women, to spice up their teams. Saudi Arabia is beckoning to football’s super stars to come and play in their beautiful playgrounds in exchange for their abundant oil-generated dollars.

FIFA is clearly the richest global sporting body in the world, amassing stupendous wealth from its various competitions that cover several age grades and men and women who troop out to the pitches in search of fame and fortune.

Most Nigerians are crazy about football but those who manage our football are not. They are approaching their jobs within the football industry with unparalleled lackadaisicalness.

That lackadaisicalness has infected our players. They think that playing football is a joke, like children playing games in the sand. It is not. It is a very serious matter today in countries where their leaders understand the impact of football nationally and internationally, that the game is a glue that binds people together, that heals wounds without the aid of a doctor, that generates happiness among unhappy people.

If those who manage our football and those who play the game understand the depth of feeling generated countrywide when any of our teams is playing, they would give the game their all anytime they don the green-white-green jersey and step into the pitch for battle.

The Super Eagles have played two games recently in the qualifying series for the 2026 FIFA World Cup in Canada and Mexico. Against the Crocodiles of Lesotho, certified minnows, we struggled to have a draw on home soil at the Godswill Akpabio Stadium in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State. Against the team from Zimbabwe, also certified minnows we struggled for a draw on a neutral venue in Kigali, Rwanda.

Now with the games played so far, we are in third place behind Rwanda and South Africa. With two points from two games played so far, Nigeria is in a delicate position and the prospect of the Super Eagles failing to kick the ball in Canada in 2026 is scary, scary because we failed to appear in Qatar in the 2022 World Cup. The final was won by Argentina under the incomparable leadership of Lionel Messi, its moving spirit.

The qualifiers will resume in June next year, with Nigeria welcoming South Africa to Uyo before we travel to nearby Benin Republic, to face a team that is being coached by Nigeria’s former Coach, Gernot Rohr. At the end of all the matches, the winner of the group will secure an automatic spot at the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

Nigerians are now scratching their heads and wondering whether or not our Super Eagles will be in Canada in 2026. But before the resumption of the World Cup qualifiers, we have to worry about Nigeria’s participation in the African Cup of Nations, which begins on January 13 next year. Nigeria has won AFCON three times, the last one being in 2013 which was won by Stephen Keshi aka Big Boss. He is the only indigenous Coach to have won the tournament at that level.

For many football analysts, the performance of the Coach of the Super Eagles, Jose Peseiro, is disturbingly low. Since taking over from Austin Eguavoen in 2022,Peseiro has won six and lost six matches out of 15. The Super Eagles under Peseiro have scored 31 goals (10 against Sao Tome and Principe) and conceded 21.

This is an abysmally poor record considering the high quality of players in the team, such as Victor Osimhen, Taiwo Awoniyi, Moses Simon, Alex Iwobi, Kelechi Iheanachor, Ademola Lookman, etc.

Some Nigerians out of frustration have suggested that the coach should be kicked out of the team now. That is not possible considering that the AFCON is just a little over a month away. But if the team is to make any serious impact in the competition, all hands must be on deck to remedy what can be remedied in the team.

Each time the team performs poorly, there is always a litany of excuses. The coach and the players blame everything under the sun, except themselves. When they played a 1-1 draw against Zimbabwe, they blamed it on fatigue occasioned by the long trip from Nigeria. But the Zimbabwe team also undertook a long journey to get to Kigali.

Besides, even with the long journey, we still managed to score a goal. Fatigue or no fatigue, we should have scored more against such a lowly-rated team.

When they lose, they blame the pitch as if the other team did not play on the same pitch. Or they blame the weather, saying that since most of them play in Europe, their bodies have adjusted to the European weather.

But in all countries of the world, there are wet and warm seasons, so people in all professions make appropriate adjustments to these changes in weather, whether they are footballers or farmers. Or they blame the absence of the big boys due to injury as if the opposing team never gets injury cases.

Of course, there are always injuries in football. That is why FIFA has now approved that each team can have five substitutes, so a team can assemble twenty something players, which gives it the latitude to make changes when injuries occur. With the quality of players in the Super Eagles who play in Europe’s big leagues, every player is almost as good as the other. Therefore, the loss of one or two players through injury should not amount to a funeral.

It is obvious that one of the team’s most serious problems is goal-keeping. Vincent Enyeama was for many years the team’s safe hands, who stood between the sticks like the Rock of Gibraltar. Then he fell out with the Coach, Sunday Oliseh, when he returned late from the burial of his mother. Oliseh got angry and stripped him of the captaincy of the Super Eagles. He stormed out of the team and there was a noticeable lacuna.

Enyeama, only 5 feet 11 inches, could deal with crosses and high balls, was good in one-versus-one confrontations, was excellent in ball distribution. His major defect was anger, which was inflated by his inexplicable arrogance. When, he left the team, the managers found a man called Carl Ikeme, who seemed to fill the gap admirably. Then he was diagnosed with cancer, which brought his goalkeeping career to an abrupt end.

Since then, the coaches have been experimenting with Maduka Okoye and Francis Uzoho who have both performed poorly. So, there is definitely a goalkeeping problem in the Super Eagles. And that problem must be tackled frontally before the first ball is kicked at AFCON. Maybe we can find a diligent and smart goalkeeper from the domestic league who is hungry for fame and success. That hunger can be a motivating factor for excellence, if all other things are equal.

The team seems to have a leadership problem too. We have had such leaders as Vincent Enyeama, Mikel Obi and Ahmed Musa, who have had a commanding presence that built a strong esprit de corps. In the past one year, we have had something like four stand-in captains.

This does not make for stability or proper team-building. It does not inspire commitment to success, or discipline, which is the key to success. So far, the players seem to play half-heartedly as if there is nothing at stake. Of course, the name of Nigeria is at stake.
Their names are also at stake. The name of the coach is at stake and if the players and the coach bother about their names, we expect them to give to the game much more than they are giving now.

If they do that, we all will have cause to smile.

There is nothing we can do about this coach until his contract expires. I don’t think he has the skill to coach a big team like the Super Eagles. I think it was a big mistake to employ a man who was even fired by a non-footballing nation like Venezuela. And his handling of the Super Eagles has shown that he doesn’t have it. How can he give to Nigeria what he doesn’t have? He can only give us mediocrity.

That is why he has not been able to inspire a higher performance from the Super Eagles loaded with stars who are performing magic in their clubs. Or is it that the players are afraid of being wounded so that they do not lose their places in their clubs? But the truth is that if they willingly accept to be invited to the national team, they should willingly accept to give the team their all for the glory of their fatherland.

The NFF leader, Mr. Ibrahim Musa Gusau, has a huge responsibility to take Nigerian football to a higher height. He can only do so by marching on people’s toes, by kicking people’s asses, by reading to people the riot act, by doing things in an unusual fashion, by thinking outside the box. If he wants to do his job routinely, he will not get a different and better result than what we have now.

The AFCON in 2023 is the first real test that his administration will face. All football lovers are watching to see if he will pass the test or not.