The Guild of Sports Editors in Nigeria has expressed deep concern over the Super Eagles’ dismal performance in the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers and called for implementation of drastic measures by the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF .
The body, which comprises all the managers of sports departments in the country’s major media organizations, said it viewed with dismay the poor performance of the Super Eagles in the ongoing qualifying series for the World Cup, adding that it is unacceptable that Nigeria is struggling in fifth position in a group that comprises Lesotho, Rwanda, Benin Republic, Zimbabwe and South Africa.
Rising from a meeting on Tuesday, the Guild said that although the situation in Group C looks irredeemable after four games, Nigeria could still qualify for the World Cup if the NFF puts its house in order.
Also Read – 2026 WCQ: Finidi Blames Super Eagles ‘Poor Defence’ For Benin Defeat
In a communiqué signed by its president, Mr Tony Ubani, the Guild said: “We are shocked by the manner Nigeria’s bid to return to the World Cup after missing the 2022 edition is being mismanaged by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) through wrong and belated decisions and inability to set the rules for the national team.
“The NFF waited until just a month to the resumption of the qualifiers before naming a coach through a process flawed by many stakeholders because it did not follow due process.
“They kept quiet when some of the members of the new technical crew rejected their appointments; they have not shown leadership even when some of the players rejected invitation to the national team.
“Now is not the time to apportion blames, but the NFF must know that Nigerians cannot tolerate failure to qualify for the World Cup, especially now that Africa’s slot has been increased to nine countries.”
The Guild called for a complete overhaul of the NFF’s technical department, saying that the committee should contain only football persons with sound technical knowledge of the game.
“The technical department is supposed to be the engine room of the federation, which should direct what happens at the national teams. It is not a place for politically correct individuals who know little or nothing about the game.”
The editors lamented that Nigeria could only secure three out of 12 available points after four matches to languish in fifth position in Group C, saying that such poor form could have been avoided if the relevant persons did their jobs properly.
To arrest the situation, the body urged the NFF to scout for more corporate support for the Super Eagles, saying that the federation should spread its net to generate the resources that would aid its preparations for the remaining matches in the qualifying series.
Also Read – 2026 WCQ: Rohr Relishes Cheetahs’ Win Over Former Team Super Eagles
It added: “The NFF must change its priority and take the national teams as the first among its responsibilities. The practice of packing the country’s delegation to matches with states’ FA chairmen and nebulous stakeholders, who add nothing to the Super Eagles, must be stopped. Monies saved from estacodes that are paid to these ‘stakeholders’ should be used to address issues in the national team, including remuneration for assistant coaches.”
The body also urged the NFF to check the way players are invited to the national team, saying that most of the players in the current Super Eagles squad have no place in the team.
“Some of the players are no longer relevant in the Super Eagles; their cycle is done. The entire Super Eagles system needs an overhaul and those officials, who have nothing more to add to the team, should go.
“The NFF should also investigate the players’ attitude to these qualifiers to find out if their output is a form of protest. We say this because some players can do anything to sack the coach if they don’t like him.
“So going forward, the NFF must ensure that only players willing to serve the country are invited to the national teams. It is embarrassing to see players pulling out of national assignments. It suggests that the NFF did not do its homework before inviting such players to camp.
“The NFF must also ensure that going forward players do not stroll into camp two days before any match. There must be a timeline for players to join the camp and appropriate sanction for anybody that flouts that timeline.”
On the technical crew, the editors said that Coach Finidi George has failed to galvanise his players to serve the country to the best of their ability, adding that Skipper William Troost-Ekong, who was left out of the last two games, should be brought back to offer leadership to the squad.
26 Comments
Thanks Mr. Sports minister. An action must be taken if we have to qualify for the world cup.
It is a shame the way NFF appointed Finidi George.
It is a shame that Finidi with the array of stars studded in the Super Eagles could not beat a weaker Benin team.
When we meet again, the whole world we see what I’m talking about Oga Rohr’s team.
Amunike would have won the match easily but NFF should be hold accordingly for this show of shame.
If one of the best NPL teams handle this Benin team, at least 3-0 is very guaranteed.
The only solution is to send the NFF board members parking.
From top to the end have to vacate their roles. They have over stayed.
If we can achieve this, replacing the current NFF with ex footballers is the best solution to the problem of our sports.
I’m happy the sports minister is not taking nonsense. He will show the NFF ajewomasan hot pepper soon.
This is so interesting. Sports minister vs NFF, who will win the battle between both of them? Well, fingers crossed. Ire o. God bless Nigeria!!!
hahahaha…body still dey pepper this one…..LMAOoo. He has been forced to eat his vomit…LMOAOoo
Rohr don humble am…..LMAooo
It is your best NPFL teams that crash out at the very 1st round of continental club competitions that will beat a national team 3-0…LMAooo.
Even your CHAN team cannot defeat Benin Rep CHAN team by 3-0.
E be like say you still dey suffer brain heamorraghe from the upper cut wey Rorh use shut your gutters yesterday….LMAOoo
Am telling you bro
But Omo9ja, is Finidi not YOUR OWN again?
Why have you denied him now, just because he failed?
Is Finidi not your man again?
I wonder ooh
You are an embarassment to this forum…. You are still talking Amunike here….how is he differnt from Finidi….I am sorry to say and I don’t know how old you are but you come accross as an elderly person, if that is true, you should be ashamed of yourself mentioning Amunike at this time. Agba iya ni yin sir….
@Omo9ja,
Most of us knew that Finidi appointment was a big mistake but some still believed that someone good might came out of it because of numbers ot talented players. NFF is the major problem of Nigeria football we all know. But the problem is before anybody knows you see NFF run to FIFA and hear that FIFA treating to ban Nigeria if federal government try to intervene in NFF affairs. It has happened before.
Before the appointment of Finidi as Super Eagles coach majority of Eagles players were clamoring for foreign coach. I hope the results we are getting from this qualifier are not deliberate response from players to get the coach sack.
Not carried away by sweet words as it won’t be a surprise if thus is another scripted move by picnic and the nff.
They have bought over almost all the agencies connected with the nation’s soccer. They have their men supplanted everywhere including journalists.
Expect more of this till the next match in september to allow them put up another banger!!
Fingers crossed
I heard the next match is March next year. I stand to be corrected.
A lot can still be done to put our house in order before then to get the desired result.
Afcon qualifier
WHy didn’t you complain when the previous coach had 2 draws against lesser teams. But because na local man you demanding for explanation. Go and ask the yeye players who were to deliver the win for us and causing schoolboy errors.
Who invited the so called Yeye players….?…. who fielded about 4 rookies/first timers in a match of this magnitude?
Hahahaha….the “yeye players” that almost became African Champions just 4 months ago.
That is to show you that fraud called Finishit is not a coach.
He doesn’t even qualify to be a PE teacher….or even a mechanic….LMAOooo
Complain about what ? The same management team Finidi was part of and proud to transition the team from drawing games to reaching AFCON, achieving the best performance and FIFA ranking in a decade..
Pesseiro was able to develop a tactic to solve the problem but the one that was supposed to make progress is not intelligent enough.
Finishi is just too dumb to understand you don’t reinvent the wheel!!
Sports Editors, you need to take a firmer stance on this issue.
You guys are talking of reform, when removal of the NFF president and dissolution of the board is the way forward. Let the NFF president and the board get lost with their useless technical director. I don’t know what nonsense technical directing he is doing there. And his mumu technical department. Yeye unlimited.
You’re trying to hire a software engineer, but the candidate can’t even turn the computer on. What kind of reform do you want to reform in this circumstance? Is the solution not to show the candidate the door?
Nigeria fans have suffered so much with these goons at the helm of affairs. Enough is enough.
Sports Editors, you should be petitioning the presidency to have these guys jettisoned from office. The sports minister needs to start cracking the whip.
These NFF chaps don’t have a clue! GET RID OF THEM!
Sport Minister the number one person to be sacked is that unlettered fellow known as Eguavon. He is the reason why Nigeria is the way it is,he kept quite all these while, added nothing to the national teams technically. Replace him with someone that has sound knowledge of the game
I didn’t hear anybody mention that Finidi must also be among the first batch to get the sack? Abi did I miss something from the above article detailing the contents of the editors letter ni?
Please if it is rough play, stop it! – Finidi must be among the first ones to go him alongside his whole technical crew and then the goons in NFF, every last one must be gone!
There are many people even from us members here on CSN that are able and willing to start steering this ship in the right direction – it’s not as easy as just saying get ex footballers into the NFF etc, yes that is the goal but it must be done mindfully by people like a few of us on this forum who have been following Nigerian football as far back and even beyond the Kickoff Nigeria days – Please where is Cambiaso? If you are still here under a different name then let me know.
Anyway back to the matter at hand, it is people like us who can truly be entrusted with identifying the correct personnel for each of the departments and the various functions to draw up a list that will incorporate natural and organic fail-safe’s built in, then from the generated pool, we can select the right people for the right areas and draw up a manifesto to lay down the blueprint to follow to build the skeletal framework – This blueprint will HAVE to be followed to a T!
Anyway, as they say in yorubaland – Oro po ninu iwe kobo – if anyone with the determination and the gumption is here reading this then by all mean feel free to indicate and maybe we can make contact to start moving things forward – don’t get me wrong o! – I realise how this may come across to some people and I wouldn’t even blame anyone who thinks this is funny but it has gotten to that stage now – and abnormal situations may only be solvable through abnormal interventions, and this matter is highly irregular and abnormal, we are supposed to be repairing Nigeria, not breaking down even her las vestiges of normality, pride and joy (even if that has only been very intermittent of late) it is still better than abject sadness and depression for the people of that football mad nation.
Enough with all this old soldiers who do not/cannot work for the good and betterment of our dear country – lets get radical and start doing things right again – It won’t take long and WE WILL ALL SEE THE BENEFITS.
E SE O!
We should stop foolimg ourselves this promblem has been there for a long time now. This NFF is si bad that non of the mens football grupo have even had a fair participation in any tournament even some can’t qualify form arican grupos like u17,u20,u23,home eagles and so on. As it stands we don’t think we will qualify to the world cup b_cos all is very bad
Story oga abeg pack.when Rohr was there are we struggling to qualify? Answer me.don’t you see his team beat the hell out of Cameroun and others.tell me any Nigerian coach that can beat that teams.
Finidi must continue is too early to judge him with two matches. Pesciro started this journey with two draws am beging nigerians to calm down lets be patients with finidi.
A failure is a failure. Both the NFF chairman, Finidi and all those involved in this dismal performance must be fired, just like Eguavoen and those they succeeded. Nigeria is bigger than any individual. Benin outplayed and beat Eagles in a neutral ground in Abidjan after a draw with S.Africa, is a proof they are going backwards rather than forward. We still have the confusionists including ex-footballers who should never be involved or say anything concerning our football. They aleady started praising Finidi as ‘baptism of Finidi’ for his poor team selection and woeful performance in his first horrendous attempt. They then came back to be interfering with his plans and warning him to dump the former manager’s tactics. When we lost, they all shut their mouths and abandoned Finidi. They were in forefront chasing out foreign coaches when it’s obvious they don’t have a suitably qualified head coach. The Sports sector couldn’t send some of our talented ex-footballers abroad to learn the trade to such a scale that they will turn out to manage teams in Europe, Africa and Asia just like our footballers are excelling in all top football teams across the world. NFF told the world they cannot afford a foreign coach as an excuse for not recruiting suitably qualified men. They are incompetent to raise funds and build a standard national team with a well experienced and tested managers, whereas a single individual in Nigeria boats of buying a football club in England. Nigerians are awaiting for the response from the responsible people for breaking the hearts of football loving Nigerians and explanation for losing a crucial match in the hands of the minnows and crayfish, and a manager they dumped in the bin. We wait and see.
Fa.
No mind them, we all know because they enjoy the being slaves thats why they want another white coach. They not blind to read what was being demanded for. I bet if finidi had taken a drastic action against those players that came in late, you would have heard all kinds of excuses if he had fielded other players.
All of them at the helm of NFF are all clueless… Having passion for the game dosen’t make you an administrator of the game…. There should be standards to elect presidents and technical directors…. Enough of this mediocrity
Kenneth, you say we enjoy being slaves?
Slavery to a white man versus slavery to our fellow black man.
What is the difference?
Have NFF not enslaved us enough? A group of individuals recklessly taking decisions that affect the happiness of hundreds of millions?
Who exactly is a slave? A slave is someone who serves another.
An employee is a slave to his employer.
A business owner is a slave to his customers and clients.
NFF should be serving us, the fans. But as it is, we are serving them. They lord it over us, and to add insult to injury, PLUNDER OUR RESOURCES to satisfy their interests. Nigeria fans have become slaves to NFF ONIGBESE. Whether you like it or not, this is the fact!
We need an NFF that will be a worthy custodian of our football, an NFF that is ready and able to SERVE NIGERIAN FOOTBALL FANS. An NFF that is committed to PROTECTING OUR FOOTBALL INTERESTS.
In this context, the terms SLAVE and SERVANT can be used interchangeably.
That is why government officials are sometimes called PUBLIC SERVANTS.
To use the expression PUBLIC SLAVE is also acceptable.
NFF are servants or slaves to Nigerian football fans. They are there to serve us, promote and protect our football interests.
Ideally, individuals who have been entrusted with authority are supposed to use their office to SERVE THE PUBLIC. Not the other way around.
Sport Editors, you guys are part of the problems in regards to the dwindling fortunes of our sports generally and football in particular. You guys have failed over the years to elevate the issue of total abandonment of grassroot development of our sports by those saddled with the responsibility to grow our sports from bottom up and not and not specialize in competitions.