Nigeria Would Have Qualified For World Cup If I Were In Charge-Pinnick

Former Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) president, Amaju Pinnick, has spoken on the Super Eagles’ failure to qualify for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, insisting the team would have secured a ticket to the finals if he were still in charge of Nigerian football.

Pinnick, who led the NFF from October 2014 to October 2022, guided Nigeria to qualification for the 2018 World Cup in Russia but also presided over the painful miss-out on the 2022 tournament in Qatar after a playoff defeat to Ghana.

Speaking on Sunday Oliseh’s Global Football Insights show, the former CAF vice president expressed shock that Nigeria failed to take advantage of the expanded World Cup format, which offers up to ten qualification slots to African teams for the tournament to be co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico.

“I didn’t see it coming because ten teams from Africa will qualify,” Pinnick said.

“In 2018, we had the toughest group ever; we had all the AFCON winners. If I were there, definitely, Nigeria would have qualified.”

The 55-year-old football administrator recalled how the Super Eagles defied the odds during the 2018 qualifiers, securing qualification with two matches to spare despite being drawn in a daunting group.

“Algeria hadn’t lost in over 20 games, Cameroon were defending champions, Zambia were champions, and Nigeria was the least considered,” he said. “But guess what? We qualified with two games to spare, and we didn’t sleep.”

Reflecting on Nigeria’s elimination by Ghana in the 2022 World Cup playoffs, Pinnick noted that the Super Eagles exited on the away goals rule after two tightly contested matches.

“We didn’t win, but we didn’t lose; we were knocked out by the away goals rule,” he said. “I took responsibility then, and I take responsibility now.”