WINGLESS SUPER EAGLES: What a shame! Let the clean-up begin now

By Dr David Olalekan Olanrewaju

Let me start by saying here that a lot of people have to be blamed, scolded, berated, chided and punished for the current precarious situation that the formerly redoubtable Super Eagles of Nigeria have found themselves in the 2026 FIFA World Cup African Qualifiers. Nigeria’s Super Eagles’ are currently on a shocking and incredibly awful 11 points after eight rounds of matches have been played out, remaining ONLY two more matches!

South Africa currently leads the group with 17 points (although with a possible 3 points and 3 goals deduction if found guilty of fielding an ineligible and suspended player, Midfielder Teboho Mokoena, against Lesotho in March 2025), followed by West African minnows, Benin Republic, with a total of 14 points, three points more than the mighty Super Eagles of Nigeria.

This is shocking and unacceptable to millions of Nigerians and Nigerian soccer fans all over the world. They argued: How can the Super Eagles of Nigeria, a self-styled ‘GIANT OF AFRICA’, struggle to qualify for the FIFA World Cup, despite having some of the best players on the continent and also despite being placed in perhaps one of the easiest groups in the African Qualifying Series? Well, this writer would love to inform and educate the readers of this piece that our problem did not actually start today! It started the day we ‘mistakenly’ sacked former Super Eagles’ Foreign Coach, German Gennart Rohr.

 Rudderless boat

 If you look back very well, you’ll accept and admit this because that’s the time and period that our football inevitably started losing its glory and direction and we started operating like a rudderless boat. It’s unfortunate!

Gennart Rohr might not have given us the beautiful, ‘free-flowing’ football we had wanted, but, he gave us ‘CONSISTENCY,’ ‘STABILITY,’ and ‘DETERMINATION.’ He gave us THE RESULTS we wanted! He spent a total of five years as Super Eagles Head Coach and for the five years, he ALWAYS gave us something to cheer! When Nigeria was placed in the same World Cup qualifying group with African Football Power Houses and Giants like Cameroun, Zambia and Algeria, most Nigerians lost the hope of a possible World Cup ticket. But, against all odds, Gerrart Rohr did the unthinkable and the unbelievable – he incredibly qualified Nigeria for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, with a game in hand, yet unplayed!

It was a remarkable feat from the German Soccer Tactician!

As if that was not enough, he took the Super Eagles of Nigeria to the 2019 African Cup of Nations (AFCON) in Egypt and came back with a bronze medal. That, to me, is a pass mark! Then came the 2022 FIFA World Cup ticket!

Gerrart Rohr had qualified Nigeria for the final lap of the 2022 FIFA World Cup African Qualifiers and had secured a play-off ticket against West African neighbours, Ghana, before an administrative blunder and disaster struck! Relying on wrong advice and counsel, in December 2021, the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), in its usual trademark way of making very hasty and wrong decisions, wielded the hammer on Gerrart Rohr and sacked the German Coach.

The NFF claimed then that they weren’t getting the results they wanted from the German Soccer Tactician! And there started our problems and woes!

Gerrart Rohr packed his bag and baggage and left!

What happened next? Nigeria could not QUALIFY for the Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup, having being edged out by West African neighbors, Ghana, at the last stage of the qualifiers.

It was a very painful experience for Nigerians and Nigerian soccer fans and lovers all over the world. And since Gerrart Rohr left, Nigeria have not been able to make it to the FIFA World Cup again, a competition we hardly missed before, since we made our debut at the USA ’94 FIFA World Cup.

Now, it’s almost certain that we could miss the next edition of the FIFA World Cup again, next year! If this happens, it will be a big blow to our Football, as things would never remain the same again!

Well, let’s come back to the current Coach and Leadership of the Super Eagles of Nigeria. Eric Chelle is the man in charge now and he has put millions of Nigerians in a very apprehensive and inconsolable situation since he took over as the Coach of the Super Eagles of Nigeria.

 Authority

 Since Eric Chelle took over as the Coach of the Super Eagles of Nigeria, he hasn’t been able to stamp his authority firmly on the team! He has not been able to win any important match convincingly for the Super Eagles of Nigeria. He has not been able to restore the hopes and confidence Nigerians and Supporters of Nigerian Football all over the world had on the team!

I quite know that all these my points and arguments may not go down well with some people, but I believe very strongly in my submissions here. Well, for those saying that Eric Chelle is a good Coach and has done well, that’s good and interesting to hear! To understand this narrative very well, please let us all go down memory lane again. When the then Super Eagles of Nigeria Head Coach, Johanness Bonfrere (aka Bonfrere Jo), was “wobbling and fumbling” in the World Cup Qualifiers for Korea/Japan 2002, the late Nigerian Talisman and Coach, Amodu Shuaibu, was appointed to salvage the situation for Nigeria and to make sure that Nigeria’s very slim hopes for qualification to the 2002 Korea/Japan FIFA World Cup were restored and achieved, with just three games left.

Three matches

 With Liberia leading the group with 12 points, Sudan 9 points and Nigeria 7 points, please read it very well again, Nigeria had just 7 points from 5 matches, with just 3 matches remaining! And Nigeria had a Foreign Coach then, in the person of Dutchman, Johanness Bonfrere (aka Bonfrere Jo).

Nigeria’s next games were as follows:

  (1.) Versus Liberia (Home)

 (2.) Versus Sudan (Away)

  (3.) Versus Ghana (Home).

 Guess what happened? Shuaibu won all the three very dicey, ‘make-or-mar’ and ‘do-or-die’ matches, scoring 9 goals without conceding any. It was incredible! It was a big shocker! Before the Sudan-Nigeria match in Khartoum, Sudan took Nigeria to their worst pitch, under temperatures that could roast corn! Despite all these intimidation and frustration from Sudan, Nigeria defeated them 4 – 0, and somebody today is saying that the South African Stadium in Bloemfontein where the Super Eagles of Nigeria held the Bafana Bafana of South Africa to a 1-1 epic draw was bad and that was why the Super Eagles couldn’t play well. This is a very lame excuse!

This writer asks this pertinent question:’ Where was the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) Technical Department when that South African Bloemfontein pitch was approved by the Federation of International Football Association (FIFA) for the match?

 Excuses

 These excuses for Eric Chelle by the NFF is lugubrious, shameful and a disgrace to Nigerian football. Why would Eric Chelle now not come out and say that he was satisfied with the draw in South Africa? Why? This is because the NFF is made up those who can’t read between the lines! Imagine the NFF Secretary saying that they are okay and satisfied with the Super Eagles’ team performance so far in the World Cup Qualifying matches, a team that plays like amateurs! What a shame! Both the Coach, Eric Chelle, and the NFF who ought to be apologetic to Nigerians are a big disgrace.

Well, we won’t blame Eric Chelle for where he has put and placed us today, it’s the NFF President, Ibrahim Musa Gusau, who approved his appointment after he was fired by little Mali FA for poor performance. Eric Chelle was brought to Nigeria for a simple reason – come and salvage a difficult situation for the Super Eagles. But, what has Eric Chelle achieved? 4 games, 2 draws, 2 wins. Is this the result the NFF is wasting tax payers’ money on?

Mind you, Eric Chelle played a weak team in the group, Rwanda, to get those two wins.

If he had played South Africa and Benin Republic, he would never have gotten those wins! And again, why we say that the NFF Technical Department is made up of incompetent individuals, look at the contract they signed with this average coach called Eric Chelle, whose Curriculum Vitae (CV) can’t even match any Nigerian top Coach. Can you believe that? Why not give him a six months contract or add a clause to his contract for termination if he fails to secure the World Cup ticket for Nigeria? 

Now, if we sack him, we’ll pay him millions! That’s the unfortunate reality! The NFF lawyers who drafted that contract ought to be fired! Just look at where Eric Chelle left Mali and where he has kept Nigeria! These are all the faults, blunders and errors of the NFF who do not understand that this World Cup Qualifiers was a mini League. Nigeria was never out as so many people were made to believe. If Eric Chelle had won all 4 matches as expected of him by those who brought him to Nigeria, claiming he knows African Football very well, the Super Eagles of Nigeria would have been among the two best placed finishers! But, what do we have right now? A precarious situation where the Super Eagles of Nigeria could miss a second consecutive FIFA World Cup Finals participation! This shouldn’t be happening to Nigeria right now!

 I said it all

 In one of my past articles, I exposed Eric Chelle’s CV and told Nigerians that he can’t deliver, but some persons boldly and publicly abused me and called me unprintable names. Hope you guys are happy now? That’s why we are all heartbroken right now! We are sounding another warning! We are saying to the NFF again NOW! For the sake of Nigerian Football and lovers of Nigerian Football all over the world, don’t allow Eric Chelle to take Nigeria to the next AFCON in Morocco this December! He’s not good enough! What happened in CHAN will repeat itself again! NFF, please go to the records of the last interviews you did for those coaches who applied. Pick two out of them, to start the rebuilding processes. Please note here that they must be Nigerians. Let them start now and continue to build from here and there.

Lesson

The job of the Super Eagles’ Head Coach is far bigger than Eric Chelle. How did the NFF arrive at the choice if Eric Chelle self? Unless you want to be training him as you have done with other average Foreign Coaches who used Nigeria to develop their CVs and improve themselves. Do the NFF ever learn in Nigeria? If the NFF had listened to this writer to allow Augustin Eguaveon to see out the entire process, perhaps, we might have gotten better results.

How can a whole Nigeria with ‘back-to-back’ Africa’s best players, not be in the World Cup? We can’t beat Zimbabwe at home or South Africa away and we want to qualify for the World Cup? You are really joking, and someone is impressed with this messy performance?

Honestly, we don’t like to remember that unfortunate treatment the NFF gave to the Amodu Shuaibu, despite qualifying Nigeria from a mathematically-impossible and hopeless situation and position, the NFF didn’t allow him lead the team to that World Cup (Korea/Japan 2002) because they thought and believed that his achievements were a fluke! Shuaibu repeated and replicated it in 2010, by again qualifying Nigeria for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa and the NFF still made the same mistakes! What a shame! What a Country! My own candid advice is this – all those in the ‘Glass House’ (the NFF operational Head Office in Abuja) need to be forced to resign immediately! This madness must stop!

•Olanrewaju writes from Lagos. He is the Editor, Our Moment Newspaper and can be reached via: Tel: 08034366056, 08052638433, email: ourmomentnewspaper@gmail.com

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