Former Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) president Amaju Pinnick has said the Super Eagles would have secured qualification for the 2026 FIFA World Cup if he were still leading Nigerian football.
Pinnick made the claim during an appearance on Sunday Oliseh’s Global Football Insights programme, where he voiced frustration over Nigeria’s failure to take advantage of the expanded World Cup format, which allows up to ten African teams to qualify for the tournament to be co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico.
“I honestly didn’t see this coming,” Pinnick said. “With ten African teams qualifying, there is really no basis for Nigeria not to be among them.”
He recalled Nigeria’s qualification for the 2018 World Cup, noting that the team progressed from what was widely regarded as one of the most difficult groups in African qualifying history.
“In 2018, we had the toughest group ever; we had all the AFCON winners. If I were there, definitely, Nigeria would have qualified.”
“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.”
Pinnick also reflected on the Super Eagles’ 2022 World Cup qualifying campaign, where Nigeria narrowly missed out after losing to Ghana on the away-goals rule during the playoffs.
“We did the same work in 2022, but the format changed to head-to-head. Nobody gave Ghana a chance, but they came through. We didn’t lose that tie; we were eliminated on away goals.”