Former Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) president Amaju Pinnick has broken his silence on the Super Eagles’ failure to qualify for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, insisting that the setback would not have occurred if he had remained in office for a third term.
Mr Pinnick, 55, led the NFF from October 2014 to October 2022, a period that delivered mixed fortunes for Nigeria on the global stage. During Mr Pinnick’s administration, the Super Eagles qualified for the 2018 World Cup in Russia under Gernot Rohr but missed out on Qatar 2022, losing out to Ghana on away goals in a dramatic playoff in Abuja.
Now, with Nigeria set to miss consecutive World Cups for the first time since 1994, the former CAF Vice President believes the outcome of the 2026 qualifiers exposed a deeper failure in leadership and structure.
“With ten African slots, Nigeria had no excuse”
Speaking on Sunday Oliseh’s Global Football Insights show, Pinnick expressed disbelief that Nigeria failed to take advantage of an expanded World Cup format that allows up to ten African nations to qualify for the tournament, which will be hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico.
While acknowledging current NFF president Ibrahim Gusau, Mr Pinnick maintained that the situation should never have deteriorated to this point.
“I didn’t see it coming because ten teams from Africa will qualify,” Mr Pinnick said.
“There’s no basis for Nigeria not to have qualified.”
He pointed to Nigeria’s history of navigating far more difficult qualification scenarios, particularly the 2018 World Cup campaign, which he described as one of the toughest groups ever assembled on the continent.
“In 2018, we had the toughest group ever; we had all the AFCON winners. Algeria hadn’t lost in over 20 games, Cameroon were defending champions, Zambia were champions, and Nigeria was the least considered,” he recalled.
“But guess what? We qualified with two games to spare, and we didn’t sleep.”
Lessons from 2018 and the Pain of 2022
Mr Pinnick also revisited the heartbreak of Qatar 2022, where Nigeria were eliminated by Ghana following a change in the qualification format to a head-to-head playoff.
“We did that in 2022, but because the format was changed to head-to-head, nobody gave Ghana a chance. But lo and behold, they came,” he said.
“We didn’t win, but we didn’t lose; we were knocked out by the away goal rule.”
The former NFF boss admitted that the failure still weighs heavily on him, stressing that accountability has always been part of his leadership philosophy.
“I took responsibility then, and I take responsibility now. Till today, it still haunts me that Nigeria didn’t qualify for the 2022 World Cup. I felt really bad. Nigeria should forgive us.”
“If I were there, Nigeria would have qualified”
Mr Pinnick concluded with his strongest assertion yet, that the current failure would not have happened under his stewardship.
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“For the 2026 World Cup, if I were there, definitely, Nigeria would have qualified,” he said.
“There’s no basis for Nigeria not to have qualified.”
A wider contrast in Nigerian football
Under Mr Gusau, Nigeria have enjoyed success in women’s football, with the Super Falcons winning the WAFCON title.
However, Mr Pinnick’s comments arrive amid growing concern over a broader decline across multiple tiers of Nigerian football, from youth development to the men’s senior national team.
For a country that prides itself on footballing heritage, depth of talent and continental pedigree, missing back-to-back World Cups is more than a sporting failure; it is a crisis of identity.
And in Amaju Pinnick’s view, it is one that should never have happened.
