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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