The Super Eagles were the odds-on favourites to win their 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifying group. Indeed, they were expected to breeze through a group that included Benin Republic, Rwanda, Zimbabwe and Lesotho — all low-hanging fruit in African football — with only South Africa tipped to provide any real opposition.
And the projections were not outrageous. The Super Eagles were the only team in the group to have reached the knockout rounds of the World Cup and won multiple Africa Cup of Nations titles.
Given Nigeria’s pedigree, the Super Eagles’ FIFA ranking and the quality of players available for the country, it was nailed on.
No team could stop the Super Eagles, almost everybody involved in football predicted.
They could stop themselves, though. And they are on the verge of doing just that through a cocktail of self-destructive steps.
The 1-1 draw the Super Eagles played against South Africa in Bloemfontein on Tuesday, September 9, all but sealed Nigeria’s fate for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
But the foundations of that failed bid were laid almost four years ago, when Gernot Rohr was sacked.
The German had overseen the team’s successful campaigns to qualify for the 2018 World Cup as well as the 2019 and 2021 Africa Cup of Nations, after the Super Eagles had missed the 2015 and 2017 AFCON editions under previous coaches.
Rohr had proven himself to be an expert at navigating the sometimes tricky terrain of qualifying for major tournaments.
The road to Russia 2018 was predicted to be rough and bumpy, with the Super Eagles up against Cameroon, Algeria and Zambia, but Rohr’s side had a relatively smooth ride despite the heavyweight obstacles.
However, Rohr was sacked by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) in December 2021, two years after leading the Super Eagles to bronze at the AFCON in Egypt. That was the first misstep.
Rohr had his limitations and was by no means a world-class coach, but he was best in class for the coaches within Nigeria’s financial reach. Since his sacking, the Super Eagles have gone through four coaches (Austin Eguavoen, Jose Peseiro, Finidi George and Eric Chelle) but have not improved.
Indeed, they have regressed, failing to qualify for the 2022 World Cup and on the brink of another failed attempt.
Rohr had led the team to qualify for the 2021 AFCON (which was held in 2022 due to the disruption to the calendar by the Covid pandemic) and the final play-off round of the Qatar 2022 World Cup. But after falling out with the Amaju Pinnick-led NFF following a pay dispute, he was fired, with apparently no clear succession plans in place.
Eguavoen, the NFF’s technical director whose last major coaching job was over a decade before that time, stepped in at short notice. Unsurprisingly, Eguavoen’s short-lived tenure was disastrous.
Under the former Super Eagles captain’s guidance, the team only reached the round of 16 at the 2021 AFCON – their worst performance in the tournament since 1982. In addition, Eguavoen could not get the Super Eagles past Ghana in the play-offs, and they failed to reach the World Cup for the first time since 2006, after qualifying for three, back-to-back – 2010, 2014 and 2018.
The consequences of Rohr’s ill-timed sacking and Eguavoen’s ill-advised appointment were stark, but the NFF apparently did not learn its lesson. Again, they made a hasty, irrational call, sacking Peseiro weeks after he led the Super Eagles to silver at the 2023 AFCON (held in early 2024), their best finish since the 2013 title.
Admittedly, the start of the 2026 World Cup qualifiers under the Portuguese coach was not ideal: two draws against Lesotho at home and Zimbabwe away, dropping four points. However, there were still eight matches left in the series and enough time to turn things around.
Instead of retaining or replacing Peseiro, who had managed Saudi Arabia, Porto and Venezuela among other teams before his Nigeria stint, with a coach with a similar or better resume, the NFF opted for a coaching greenhorn in Finidi George. Finidi’s only previous job as a head coach was with Enyimba, where he had worked for less than three years before one of the biggest roles in African football was thrust upon him.
Finidi, who was one of the finest Super Eagles players in his heyday in the 1990s, was apparently out of his depth as a coach of the Nigerian national team.
The former Ajax and Real Betis winger led the Super Eagles to a draw at home with South Africa and a shock defeat to Benin Republic away (they played in Cote d’Ivoire due to inadequate facilities in their country) in June 2024, stretching the winless streak to four.
Finidi honourably resigned after the Benin game as another NFF gamble backfired. It was almost halfway through the qualifying series and it was looking bleak; it appeared as if the Super Eagles were chasing a lost cause, with three other teams above them in the qualifying group and only one guaranteed World Cup ticket available.
The Super Eagles have had decent results under Chelle — another questionable NFF appointment whose only previous major job was with Mali — but decent is not enough.
Chelle’s task was an uphill one right from the take-off, as the Super Eagles had no margin for error due to previous results. Nigeria needed to win all the remaining six fixtures to upstage South Africa, and Chelle’s first World Cup qualifier was an impressive away victory over Rwanda in March 2025.
Sadly, it was followed by a home draw with lowly Zimbabwe a few days later, and the enthusiasm was punctured. With two more points dropped in South Africa, the 2026 World Cup is increasingly looking like mission impossible for the Super Eagles.
It is still possible mathematically, but realistically, it is all but over.
As things stand, the Super Eagles are third in the qualifying group with a paltry 11 points from eight matches, six points behind leaders South Africa.
Ironically, Rohr the rejected stone is punching above his weight with Benin Republic, with the underdogs second on 14 points.
There is a sliver of hope for the Super Eagles that South Africa could be punished with a three-point deduction by FIFA for fielding an ineligible player against Lesotho in March.
Even if South Africa are penalised as expected, they would still be three points above Nigeria with only two rounds of games left in the campaign (six points to play for).
Indeed, Rohr’s Benin Republic stand to benefit more than the Super Eagles if those points are deducted from South Africa, as the Squirrels would be level on points with Bafana Bafana.
It would still be in South Africa’s hands though, with their two remaining games on home soil – they face Zimbabwe in an away fixture (but the Warriors play their home matches in South Africa) and welcome Lesotho, both in October.
The damage to the Super Eagles’ qualifying campaign was done in the early days, and they need more than a miracle to avoid a second consecutive World Cup absence.
This would be the first time the Super Eagles would be missing two World Cups in a row since their debut in the United States in 1994.
As a matter of fact, prior to Qatar 2022 the Super Eagles had failed to qualify for the World Cup only once since USA ’94 (Germany 2006).
While the Ibrahim Gusau-led NFF hierarchy are not solely responsible for this embarrassing failure and unwanted record, they take a huge chunk of the blame.
Obviously, the players, who form probably the best talent pool in Africa, could and should have done better and played with more dedication and commitment to the cause.
However, no matter how talented and determined a group of players are, they need a competent coach backed by a well-run structure to succeed. The NFF made poor choices in the appointment of coaches and has a technical department that is barely functioning, a poisonous concoction that can only lead to failure.
Calling for the NFF board members to resign after this looming disaster, as Mikel Obi has done, is definitely not an unreasonable opinion.They should pay the price for their actions, which have led to heartbreak for millions of Nigerians, who were looking forward to seeing their darling national team play in the first-ever 48-team World Cup in the United States of America, Mexico and Canada next year.
Even when Africa had only three slots and then five at the World Cup, the Super Eagles qualified regularly.Now that the continent has nine guaranteed tickets and a possible 10th from the play-offs, the ‘giants of Africa’ will not be at the global fiesta in North America.
Gusau and his NFF board members should do what honourable men and women would do in this situation. Just resign!