10 African teams for the 2026 World Cup and the Super Eagles will not be one of them

Today is April Fool’s Day or as we popularly call it in Nigeria, April Fool’s Day.

But it is no April Fool’s joke that there will now be 10 countries representing Africa in the 2026 World Cup starting in June and the great Super Eagles will not be one of those teams.

That is the sad reality.

The pain of this missed opportunity in life is much deeper than four years ago, when the Super Eagles fell at the last hurdle to their arch-rivals the Black Stars of Ghana for a place in the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

Qatar 2022 offered just five qualifying tickets for Africa, while the upcoming World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico has now produced double that number for the continent.

Who is to blame for the latest disaster to hit Nigeria?

The NFF will undoubtedly be the most popular scapegoat, and there are many reasons why this is so.

The football federation was not decisive in appointing a coach for the Super Eagles, even when it was abundantly clear that Portuguese coach Jose Peseiro will not remain in the role, even after having guided the country to the final of the postponed 2023 AFCON.

Almost a year and a half passed before Finidi George finally succeeded Peseiro.

The NFF must also take some of the blame for not addressing the monetary issues affecting the team even as President Bola Tinubu graciously approved N17 billion to offset unpaid bonuses and allowances accruing over several years.

Instead, the team had to embark on a pay strike on the eve of the CAF 2026 World Cup final qualifiers in Rabat, Morocco, in November.

In the end, the Super Eagles couldn’t even take advantage of an improbable second chance to qualify for the World Cup through the Playoffs.

What about the phantom protest against the DRC led by the NFF?

It may have given the football federation a break and given millions some false hope, but incompetence led to such mishandling of the petition that FIFA’s disciplinary committee did not even address it.

Unfortunately, the talks about “we have a difficult case”, “the ruling will be in our favor” were mere tricks to justify the astronomical cost of staging this farce.

This was the same NFF that received a vote of confidence at its extraordinary congress in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State.

The players themselves must tell themselves the local truth that they failed the nation after registering just three points in their first four World Cup qualifying matches, even in a group that included the likes of Lesotho and Botswana.

That terrible start to the qualifying series dealt a body blow to the country’s World Cup hopes, which was something of a miracle they even made the playoffs.

The sad reality is that this same generation of players, who have distinguished themselves in their various clubs abroad, for the second time in a row will fail to deliver for an expectant nation.

And now, like their fans, they will once again follow this World Cup on television.

This cannot help their careers and transfer market valuations.

The big joke is on Nigerian football and the government, which has invested heavily in the national sport with very little to show for it.

Football in Nigeria urgently needs fundamental reforms, from the size and composition of the NFF Congress, to transparency and accountability in the football federation, as well as a determined and competent secretariat.

President Tinubu’s Government is in the best position to ensure that it is no longer the same for those who are supposed to run our football but decided to ruin it.

If we, as a people, again fail to do what is necessary, this vicious cycle of failure will be what we will discuss in four years.

Let it not be another day for fools.