S/Eagles: NFF to employ foreign manager to rescue World Cup bid

The Super Eagles will soon get a new technical adviser to reinvigorate the country’s floundering 2026 World Cup qualification campaign, the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has said.

Nigeria is in the fifth position in a six-team World Cup qualifying group also comprising Rwanda, Lesotho, Benin Republic, Zimbabwe and South Africa.

The country’s campaign in the series suffered a major setback on Sunday when Benin Republic defeated the Super Eagles in a matchday four game in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire.

Following the defeat, Sports Ministry’s top officials and Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) top officers met in a closed-door meeting, yesterday, to deliberate on the way forward in the World Cup campaign.

Although there was no official statement on the outcome of the meeting, The Guardian learnt from reliable sources that Sports Minister, John Enoh, expressed the Federal Government’s displeasure with the Super Eagles situation in a group that was expected to be easy for the country.

He directed the NFF to look for ways to remedy the situation or face the wrath of the government.

Later last night, the NFF in a communiqué, confirmed that it would, among other things, employ a technical adviser for the national team.

The NFF also pledged to work assiduously and put necessary measures in place to ensure a better-prepared squad ahead of the forthcoming AFCON 2025 qualifiers in September this year and the resumption of the World Cup qualifiers in March 2025.

It said: “The executive committee has resolved to employ an expatriate technical adviser for the Super Eagles in the coming weeks, ahead of the AFCON qualifiers and the remaining FIFA World Cup qualifying matches.

“The committee also resolved to beef up the NFF technical department with more qualitative hands. Equally, the technical and development sub-committee will be re-jigged with immediate effect.”

The federation also expressed displeasure with the attitude of some of the players to the national assignment, saying that it has “unanimously decided in favour of a more robust scouting programme of outstanding Nigeria-eligible players from across the four corners of the universe, who can add tremendous value to the nation’s flagship team.”

According to the statement, the NFF would soon convene a stakeholders’ forum to deliberate on amendments to the current NFF statutes, in conjunction with world football-governing body, FIFA.

Earlier, NFF President, Ibrahim Gusau, told reporters in Abuja after the meeting with ministry officials that the qualification for the World Cup is still realistic, saying that the federation in conjunction with the sports ministry will put everything in place to realize that dream.

“Very soon, you are going to see the measures that NFF will come out with, and by the grace of God, those measures that we are going to take will lead us to qualify for the next World Cup,” he added.