2018 World Cup: Nigerians write off Eagles chances

’Tana Aiyejina

Top Nigerian football stakeholders have expressed pessimism over the Super Eagles’ chances of qualifying for the 2018 World Cup in Russia after the African draw for the qualifiers was conducted in Cairo, Egypt, on Friday.

The Eagles are drawn in Group B alongside Africa’s highest ranked team Algeria, perennial rivals Cameroon and 2012 African champions Zambia, in a pool analysts have described as the group of death. Twenty teams were drawn into five groups of four teams each, with the group winners qualifying for the World Cup.

Football administrator Shuaib Gara-Gombe dismissed Nigeria’s chances of qualifying immediately after the draw.

“You can call me names but Nigeria will not be at Russia 2018 World Cup. Any country willing to be at the World Cup should have a coach by now and should have also qualified for the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations to further reinforce its team tactically and technically,” Gara-Gombe stated.

He added, “Nigeria should seize this opportunity of our unofficial ouster from the World Cup to reorganise our football administration completely. With the latest draw, which has Nigeria facing Algeria, Cameroon and Zambia, it is clear that Nigeria is out of the World Cup.”

Former Eagles winger Ndubuisi Okosieme said the national team would find it difficult qualifying since they’ve not had a coach since the exit of Sunday Oliseh in February. Samson Siasia and lately Salisu Yusuf have managed the side on a caretaker basis.

The 1988 AFCON silver medallist said, “We have a very big problem at hand because we are in a tight group. Zambia is okay but our major threat is Algeria and Cameroon.  Things are really bad with Nigerian football at the moment and it’s going to be very difficult for us to qualify considering that we don’t have a coach few months to the beginning of the qualifiers. It’s going to be a big task; we need the grace of God to qualify for the World Cup from that group.”

Football analyst Adeniran Ogunsanya said the Eagles should forget the trip to Russia in 2018 if they hired the services of a local coach.

“We need a foreign coach to go past those teams. I will put my bet on it; with a local coach, we are not going to the next World Cup. We need a coach who can bring the best out of the boys and a local coach doesn’t have it. We are just wasting our time. Our best local coaches are no longer around,” Ogunsanya said.

“Cameroon is tough but Algeria is tougher. I was expecting something like that; both countries are better rated than us, so how are we going to go past them? Both nations qualified for the Nations Cup but we didn’t and this group is even tougher than our AFCON group. It’s time we have to know what we are doing. We have good players but it’s going to be either Cameroon or Algeria.”

A football fan Fred Oboh wrote off the Eagles chances completely.

“We don’t have the quality to beat the other teams and the players are not committed like it used to be in the past,” he said.

And former Eagles coach Adegboye Onigbinde said he was more concerned about how the team prepared ahead of the qualifiers.

“In my coaching career, I’ve never bothered about who I’m playing; I’ve never believed in the group of death. We all qualified to be there to play at that level. What we should concentrate on is building a strong team. This should include appointing a substantive coach for the team; this idea of an acting coach should stop if we want to be serious. All I care for is to ensure that the team is adequately prepared for the qualifiers,” he said.

But President of the Nigeria Football Federation Pinnick Amaju said the football body would appoint a substantive coach as they hope to begin preparations immediately for the qualifiers.

He stated, “You can never afford to underrate any team these days. Now we must quickly sort out the issue of head coach and his assistants and put every other thing in place in good time.

“It is a tough draw, but then I have always said that you have to beat the best to get to the World Cup. Now we have the draw, we know how to prepare. The preparation has to start right now and we must make good use of every single day leading to the kick-off of the series. We will prepare well and take it one match at a time.”

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