What next for Nigeria after missing Qatar 2022 World Cup?

Ghana’s national team, the Black Stars, missed the last World Cup in Russia but has bounced back after edging Nigeria to the ticket.

Nigeria’s Super Eagles, on the other hand, failed to qualify for the World Cup for the first time since 2006.

The Super Eagles failed to pick a ticket, after drawing 1-1 with Ghana in Abuja, losing out on an away goal.

FIFA World Cup is in every 4 years, four years is enough for Nigeria’s National team to buckle up and make the necessary moves in performing much better in the next World Cup in 2026 which will be jointly hosted by Canada, the United States, and Mexico.

The Super Eagles have lost it this year to The Black Stars obviously and there is no reward for the competition stage they dropped from.

Nigeria can pick up the pieces

However, Super Eagles can pick up their pieces and work on how to make it a whole in the next World Cup as the team have lost the legacy and prestige including the prize attached to the competition this year.

All the 32 countries that qualified for the 2022 World Cup, will receive $1.5m each to prepare for the tournament. The eventual winner of the trophy will take home $42m, while the runners-up and third-place teams pocket $30m and $27m respectively.

The fourth-place nations will go home with $25m, fifth to eighth places will receive $17m, while $13m will go to ninth to the 16th placed teams.
Interestingly, the 17th to 32nd placed countries will not go empty-handed as they will get $9m.

Nigeria, who have missed out on a seventh World cup appearance, will not be part of this largesse. Ghana is back in the World Cup after three consecutive appearances in 2006, 2010 and 2014.

All Nigeria needs to do is to send a strong message starting from their next set of games. The Super Eagles must as unit as a team tell the continent and the world that it is no longer business as usual on the field of play.

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Enough of the talking, let’s see action.

The workload on the new Super Eagles coach

Moreover, the incoming coach after Austin Eguavoen’s sack has a lot on his hands. The sack of Gernot Rohr had been expected due to the ongoing wrangling. But the German would have done the business as he had never failed to qualify Nigeria for a single tournament since the beginning of his tenure,. This would be a discussion for another day.

The incoming coach will have to get the right formation and the right set of starting eleven to get us going. No doubt, Nigeria has talent all-round the field while some are still looking for a chance on the national team.

With the vast array of talents at our disposal, Nigeria has what it take to take the continent and the world by storm with the next African Cup of Nationa as a testrun for that and their eventual qualification for the tournament.

But do we have the right calibre of people in the federation to appoint a capable manager that they won’t be controlling? That is what Nigerians will be watching in the next few months as we all recover from this nightmare.