The delay to appoint a new coach for the Super Eagles by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) is lamentable. The dillydallying over the new coach does not bode well for the chances of the team to qualify for the 2026 FIFA World Cup and the 2025 AFCON. Since the resignation of the Portuguese handler, Jose Peseiro, the Super Eagles, which finished second at the 2024 AFCON in Cote d’Ivoire, has been struggling in its games. The team’s performance in the World Cup qualifiers has not been impressive.
The resignation of the Super Eagles coach, Finidi George, after the team found itself languishing in the fifth position out of six teams in Group C, has further worsened the situation. What the teams needs now is a coach, whether world-class or not, to salvage the situation. The nation cannot wait for a new coach indefinitely. We have lost much time in trying to appoint a new coach for the team. It is time to wrap up the deal. Therefore, let the Minister of Sports Development, Senator John Owan Enoh, and the NFF leadership show some seriousness in getting the team a new coach.
Apart from overseeing the fragile World Cup qualifying campaign, the new coach will be saddled with the responsibility of prosecuting the qualifying rounds of the 2025 AFCON. These are high stake tournaments that Nigeria can’t afford to miss. The AFCON qualifying campaign kicks off in the first week of September.
The Super Eagles has been drawn in Group D alongside Rwanda, Libya and Benin, whose victory over the Eagles recently in a World Cup qualifying match played in Abidjan, sparked a national outrage that partly led to the resignation of George as the Super Eagles coach. On paper, this is not a difficult group, and the Super Eagles are expected to sail through. But qualifying from any group these days in Africa takes a quality coach and a team with a fighting spirit, a far cry from what we saw in the ongoing World Cup campaign, where the team struggled against lowly rated teams.
There is a thin line between success and failure in contemporary football, but a good coach can make a difference. There are copious examples when minnows of African football have defeated soccer powerhouses that have better players based on strategies adopted by the coach and the unity of purpose demonstrated by the players, as we witnessed in Ivory Coast where Algeria, Egypt, Ghana, Tunisia, among others, were sent packing by supposedly weaker teams. The Super Eagles needs a coach with a sound technical knowhow and good knowledge of African and world football. It is appalling that among all the coaches touted to replace George, the NFF has not made any serious attempt to employ any despite the urgency of the moment.
The Super Eagles performance at the last AFCON in Cote d’Ivoire was commendable. It was the team’s best outing in a long while. But the momentum of that achievement was derailed under Finidi George, who took over from the Portuguese handler, Jose Pesiero, who steered the team to that podium finish when most pundits did not give it any chance of progressing to the final.
The decision of the NFF not to renew Peseiro’s appointment over wage matters was regrettable. Retaining Peseiro would have been better for the Super Eagles. Since Peseiro’s exit, the team has become a shadow of itself. From the competitive matches played under Finidi George, Nigeria’s star players had been reduced to pedestrian players. These are players who had previously excelled in the Super Eagles are still shining for their respective clubs.
We need a coach that will inspire the players and win laurels. The 1990s Super Eagles coach, Clemens Westerhof, regarded as the best Eagles manager ever, built a formidable team from the scratch and took the Super Eagles to its highest ranking in world football. His record has not been matched many years after he left the position. The politics in the NFF and the Ministry of Sports Development is gradually killing our football. It has even pervaded the nation’s sports with dire consequences. Let’s save our football by giving the Super Eagles a skilful and reputable coach now.