SUPER EAGLES MUST FLY IN KIGALI
A win will ease the way to the World Cup in USA
Following a shaky start to the 2026 FIFA World Cup campaign, Nigeria will tomorrow take on Rwanda in Match-day five of the qualifying series. After playing home and away in four matches, the three-time African champions are languishing in the fifth position in Group C with Rwanda, South Africa and Benin Republic leading the pack on seven points each. Zimbabwe’s Warriors are last in the six-team format where only the group winner will take the automatic ticket to the World Cup to be jointly hosted by USA, Mexico and Canada. Nigeria must therefore win in Kigali tomorrow to stand a realistic chance of qualifying for the World Cup next year.
Although there is another window for one extra team to qualify, it is a tough route that the four best runners-up of all the nine African groups will play to determine which team will advance to the inter-confederation playoffs. This is the dilemma facing the Super Eagles as they get ready to play Rwanda inside the Amahoro Stadium in Kigali this Friday. But pertinent questions remain. After missing the last Mundial in Qatar in 2022, why is Nigeria again enmeshed in this situation despite having the best crop of players in the continent? How come that Nigeria that has produced African Player of the Year back-to-back in Victor Osimhen (2023) and Ademola Lookman (2024) is struggling in a group that has Rwanda, South Africa, Benin Republic, Lesotho and Zimbabwe?
The answers are glaring enough. The country’s football governing body has been less than efficient in managing the Super Eagles. It is an endemic systemic failure that has defied solutions from the men and women running the federation. It is unimaginable that Nigeria that got to be rated the fifth best football playing nation in 1994 when it debuted at USA’94 and won the Olympic football gold medal two years later at Atlanta ‘96, could descend so low as failing in a group that have minnows of African football. Any sensible federation leadership would have guarded against having thunder strike twice.
After missing Qatar 2022 following a nail-biting experience in Abuja as Ghana’s Black Stars snatched the ticket via an away goal rule, the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) ought to have planned to ensure that there will be no need to resort to using calculators once more to determine whether we will make it to the 2026 edition of the tournament. But unfortunately, that’s the situation that we have found ourselves at the moment. Instead of getting a competent coach to wipe away the mess created by Franco-German Gernot Rohr and his successor, Jose Peseiro, the NFF waited for the contract of the Portuguese to expire and were now stuck with him when the qualifying round kicked off.
Peseiro oversaw two draws, against minnows Lesotho and Zimbabwe, and his successor, our own Finidi George departed last June after a defeat by Benin Republic in Abidjan followed a home stalemate against South Africa. These poor results in the first four matches of the qualifying series effectively set Super Eagles on the road to perfidy. Unless William Troost-Ekong and his colleagues can turnaround the situation, starting with a win in Kigali, and consolidating with another win against Zimbabwe in Uyo, the country’s ball fans may well kiss 2026 World Cup goodbye!
The Super Eagles now have a new coach in the Franco-Malian Eric Sekou Chelle, plus an opportunity to start afresh, correct their mistakes and begin the race against time with victory against Rwanda and then, Zimbabwe. This is a rallying cry to Chelle and all the players from a football-loving nation. The Super Eagles must fly in Kigali tomorrow.
