On Monday, the President of the Nigeria Football Federation, Ibrahim Gusau, assured ball fans, administrators and Nigerians in general that the football governing body will adequately prepare the various National Teams to bring joy and glory to the nation in the coming year.
While reflecting on the outgoing year 2024 and projecting for the coming year 2025, Gusau, still delighted with the Super Eagles’ nonchalant dismantling of Ghana’s Black Galaxies to qualify for the 8th African Nations Championship, disclosed that the focus of the NFF is on ensuring the adequate preparation of all National Teams to credibly compete for honours at major tournaments, and not simply turn up to make up the number.
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“The era of Nigerian teams arriving at major championships just to participate is gone. Our objective now is to ensure that our teams can strongly contend for honours anywhere, and that can only be done by preparing the teams well ahead of qualifiers and competitions. I personally insisted that the Super Eagles B start their camping early enough, and the result is what we can see in their display against Ghana.
“The team has just one month to go before the CHAN tournament. That means they must go into camp immediately, and we will ensure that.”
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Gusau remarked that the outgoing year saw some impressive outings by the National Teams. However, he believes that the Super Eagles’ under-par run in the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers has been a source of worry to administrators, enthusiasts and fans alike.
“Our commitment is to see how we can cobble back that Super Eagles squad that did the nation proud at the AFCON in Cote d’Ivoire, coming within 23 minutes of lifting the trophy. If we can find a way to do that, we can be sure that the target of winning the six remaining matches in the qualifiers to gain automatic qualification to the World Cup is achievable.
“Getting that FIFA World Cup ticket will set the momentum for a sterling outing at the AFCON in Morocco later in the year.”
The NFF supremo also assured that the Super Falcons, who finished 2024 as Africa’s best-ranked team, will be afforded adequate preparation to reclaim the Women Africa Cup of Nations title in Morocco next summer.
“We are in the process of organising more friendly games for the team, in order to properly blend the old and new players to a formidable squad that will conquer Africa in style.”
READ ALSO: Nigeria’s Super Eagles B team thrash Ghana, qualify for 2025 CHAN
While praising the junior women’s national teams (Falconets and Flamingos) for their qualifications and participation at their different FIFA World Cup competitions this year, Gusau charged the girls to see the coming year as a period of consolidation, with the FIFA U17 Women’s World Cup finals becoming an annual event.
“The Flamingos, no doubt, have the ability to conquer the world. I have watched their matches and seen some real great talents who can even hold their own in the Super Falcons. However, we want to see them conquer the world in Morocco and bring home the U17 Women’s World Cup for the first time. The Falconets also have qualification matches for the 2026 FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup.
“For sure, it is a very busy year for us and for world football. The NFF is committed to working closely with the National Sports Commission to realise our goals and objectives and seek greater corporate support for our activities, programs and events. Our attention will remain on developing the game from the grassroots while ensuring that the production channels for players coming through to the National Teams are not disrupted.”
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