Qatar 2022: Ibrahim Sunday, Amusa Gbadamosi and Guinness Stout

Austin Eguavoen failed to qualify Nigeria for Qatar 2022

You may not know both names above, but read this to the end. The 2022 FIFA World Cup starts in a week’s time. I am not going to Qatar.

The reality of missing out on my four-year football pilgrimage is just settling in. The pain is deep. Apart from the thrill of attending the greatest single sports event in the world, I also make a good living from reporting the Green Eagles of Nigeria when they are part of the global party. I will miss both this time.

The present situation truncates what has become a ritual for me. As I was making plans to go to Qatar 2022, the Nigerian Super Eagles were converting to Super Chickens, stumbled over the last hurdle and fell, yakata.

I had experienced similar stumbles in my life, twice during my own footballing career and can tell that the pains from such failures remain and haunt players throughout their lives. My 1977 and 1981 experiences remain the worst parts of my, otherwise, incredible football career. Both times, our ‘plane’ to the World Cup taxied to the runway but could not lift off the ground.

So, I know the pain that most Nigerians are going through on the eve of Qatar 2022. The picture will not leave my head about how a very ordinary Black Stars team, one of the weakest that I have seen in their great history, clipped the wings of the Super Eagles on home ground in what most football analysts had predicted would be a walk-over for the Nigerians.

So, here I am, still dazed, lamenting the huge loss I am suffering by sitting out the World Cup in Wasimi, and not Qatar. Then, one Sepp Blatter, comes and adds insult to our injury. The former FIFA President is reported to have said, last week, that ‘Qatar 2022 is a mistake’. A