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By Joe Apu
Football stakeholder Harrison Jalla has described the Super Eagles performance at the ongoing AFCON 2025 as outstanding despite their semi-final loss to Morocco, which he said “could have gone either way after 120 minutes.”
Speaking ahead of the team’s third place game against Egypt, Jalla noted that the squad is “gradually regaining its confidence and playing like the Super Eagles the world used to know,” adding that “Nigeria can build on this performance moving forward.”
“The four teams that qualified for the Semi-finals are all very good sides but Nigeria cannot afford to come home empty handed. Nigerians need the bronze as a consolation prize especially since we are out of the World Cup. I urge Super Eagles to go for bronze.”
On the controversy over delayed player allowances, Jalla stressed that it “did not affect the performance of the players,” explaining that the alert was intended “to put the NFF on their toes.”
He highlighted a long-standing breach of trust between the national team players and the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) over players entitlements, noting that “the players have learned the hard lesson not to let legitimate demands affect their performance.
, and that was evident in Morocco.”
Jalla was also highly critical of the NFF, saying it has been “the problem of Nigerian football” and calling for a “serious house cleaning before the next election in September 2026, in line with NFF statutes.”
He added that reforms must be “total,” with “everything tied to the old order that puts FA chairmen in charge of football administration in Nigeria” discarded.
He further urged that “other stakeholders, including the private sector, must take their place on the NFF Board in the next dispensation,” citing “the last 12 years [as] a clear demonstration of gross incompetence.”
