How mediocre system, faulty selections clip Eagles’ wings

Of late, Nigeria has struggled to qualify for the FIFA World Cup, with the Super Eagles missing the Qatar 2022 edition due to negligence. CHRISTIAN OKPARA writes that unless the country takes drastic measures to arrest the country’s campaign for the 2026 edition of the Mundial, the Super Eagles may, once again, miss the football extravaganza scheduled to hold in the USA, Canada, and Mexico.

When the late King of Football, Edson Arantes de Nascimento, better known as Pele, proclaimed in 1989, that Nigeria would win the World Cup before the year 2000, not many followers of the game argued with the three-time winner of the biggest trophy in the world football. The reason was that at the Scotland 1989 U-17 World Cup, where the late Brazilian idol commented, Nigeria displayed a brand of football usually associated with more developed soccer nations of the world.

Although the team, comprising Victor Ikpeba and Godwin Okpara, among others, was beaten in the quarterfinals by Saudi Arabia, Nigeria left the competition hailed as one of the best youth teams in the world.

Nigeria came close to fulfilling Pele’s prophecy five years later, when a team led by Dutchman, Clemens Westerhof, wowed the world and came within two minutes of causing the biggest upset in World Cup history by beating Italy in the second round of the 1994 World Cup. But a combination of inexperience and disorganised management put paid to the country’s ambition at the championship.

Although Nigeria exited the World Cup as the most entertaining team of the championship, as well as, the fifth-best side in the world, the general belief was that the Super Eagles would have reached the final if they managed to hold on and defeat Italy in the second round.

Italy went to