The Minister of Sports Development, Senator John Owan Enoh has ordered the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to highlight plans that will help secure the Super Eagles’ 2026 World Cup qualification.
Mr. Enoh disclosed this in a meeting with the NFF and the coach of the team, Finidi George on Thursday.
“Yesterday the 13th of June, I met with @thenff and Coach Finidi. I directed the Nigeria Football Federation to urgently put in place the necessary framework to ensure Nigeria qualifies for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, in addition to addressing issues that have hindered high performances and growth of Nigerian football,” he stated on X, formerly Twitter on Friday.
The minister also directed the NFF to take proactive and progressive steps immediately, especially touching on various areas including the current coach of the national team, the competence of both the NFF Technical Committee and Technical Department as well as discipline of players in the national team camp.
“We further admonished the NFF on the introduction of new crop of Nigerian players wherever they can be found, to ensure the best legs represent the country at every given time,” he added.
Senator Enoh gave the NFF officials and its technical team a week to present its comprehensive position, indicating the positive progressive steps that have been taken to get the team ready for the next round of competitive matches, emphasising that “we honestly do not want excuses”.
Nigeria has managed to secure a point in the last two games of the qualification stage having played out a 1-1 draw against South Africa at the Godswill Akpabio International Stadium in Uyo – and lost 2-1 to Benin Republic, a side ‘managed’ by the former gaffer of the team, Gernot Rohr.
The Super Eagles currently sits fifth with 3 points after four games in Group C, while Zimbabwe is placed bottom of the group having amassed 2 points.
Rwanda leads the group with 7 points, tied on same tally with South Africa and Benin Republic in second and third respectively, while Lesotho have gathered 5 points in fourth place.
While nine (9) African teams are expected to participate at the 2026 World Cup in Canada, Mexico and United States, with a possiblity of one more in the ‘FIFA Play-off Tournament’, it looks delicately poised for Nigeria to be amongst the participants.
