AFCON Qualifying: Nigeria Fight To Restore Pride In Their Nation’s Football Amid Uncertainty

AFCON Qualifying: Nigeria Fight To Restore Pride In Their Nation’s Football Amid Uncertainty By Ben McFadyean. Nigeria begin their qualifying campaign for what many independents regard as one of the most engaging and authentic football tournaments, the African Cup of Nations , with a tricky away tie against Madagascar at the Godswill Akpabio International Stadium in Uyo on Friday, but a lot more than just participation at next year’s tournament, which will be the 36th since its inception in 1957, is at stake; qualification, for many, feels like the last chance to salvage the pride of a nation’s football. Earlier last month, Nigerian football celebrated the thirtieth anniversary of the absolute high point for African football to date, the West African country’s win of the Gold medal in the football tournament, beating none other than Argentina, 3-2, in the final, at the Atlanta 1996 games. The anniversary, however, comes at a painful time for the game in Nigeria; over the past 12 months, both the men’s and the women’s senior teams have failed to qualify for their respective FIFA World Cups ; what made it even worse was that the Women’s team were the reigning World Champions, very humbling failures for a proud football nation. Beyond the failure of the senior national teams, Nigeria has also endured disappointing results at age-group level and in African club competitions; reaching the quarter-finals of the Under-20 Women’s World Cup in Poland in June was a minor inspiration in what feels like a very dark era for those who love the Green & Whites. The 12-time Nigeria international defender Efe Sodje, who won promotion both with Huddersfield and Southend, expressed the national sentiment perfectly: “I can’t say how disappointing the failings have been with the quality of players we have; we should have been there this summer.” Whilst some observers of the game in the West African country blame the current generation of players, for the London-born player, who later returned to football as assistant manager at Macclesfield, the underlying issues that led to the failure are much deeper. With reference to the Nigerian federation, he said : “We have to also look at the people upstairs because decisions and structure play a big role in why we didn’t qualify; this is what needs addressing at this time.” A third-place finish at the 2025 African Cup in Morocco did, especially the performances of Ademola Lookman and Fulham’s Calvin Bassey, and the goals of Victor Osimhen, all of whom were named in the team of the tournament, lift the spirits somewhat; it is hard to put into words how deep the sense of despair there is among many in Nigerian football. The halcyon days between 1994 and 2018, when the West African nation was a major force in the game, at once admired and loved around the world, feel long gone. The failure to reach the 2026 event in Canada, the USA, and Mexico was the third in a row – Failure to qualify for the 2027 African Cup is literally unthinkable. The shortcomings are starting to have widespread consequences across an already embattled national federation, NFF, and for TV analyst and former 23-time Nigeria international centre forward Segun Olegbami, change cannot come soon enough: “It has never been this bad in our entire history with the failure to qualify; what’s more, even the Premier League clubs are not making money, we need change”. That call, however, has met the expected resistance in the corridors of power. For the past four months since that ill-fated play-off against DR Congo in May, the federation’s top brass have, in spite of the outcry, been unwilling to take responsibility for the corrosion; it took intervention from the very top to force change. At the behest of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu last month, NFA General Secretary Mohamed Sanusi and other members of the board resigned – with change comes renewed optimism. For Odegbami, who won the Super Eagles’ first-ever AFCON at the home tournament in 1980, the change is grounds for renewed optimism: “Everybody wanted them out, to the extent that the President of the country himself made the pronouncement that he wanted reforms; everything has come together like a jigsaw puzzle and is working now for us to produce a blueprint that will cover every aspect of our football development.” As to whether that renewal can inspire the changing room remains to be seen. Eric Chelle’s team are drawn in group C along with Madagascar, hosts Tanzania, and Guinea-Bissau, with the quality of the players, including Fulham’s Alex Iwobi and Wilfrid Ndidi of Besiktas, reaching the tri-nation tournament, which will be played in June and July 2027, at least on paper, appears to be, if all goes well at least which is not a given, realistic. A further failure would almost certainly force further change, however. Current manager of the side is former Lens and Valenciennes centre-back Eric Chelle, who has been in post since January 2025, largely thanks to the good performance, a win rate of 59%, and his popularity among players and fans alike; the job of the Ivorian looks safe, for now at least. The issues of mismanagement in African football are not new. However, as Morocco, which won the 2025 FIFA U20 World Cup and reached the quarter-finals at the 2026 World Cup, has shown, years of failure can be turned around. The fruits of an investment of over $20m into developing what is now Africa’s best football academy, the King Mohammed VI Academy in Salé near the nation’s capital, Rabat, are starting to pay off, and the FIFA World Cup on home soil alongside Spain and Portugal, only the second after South Africa 2010 for the continent, is next. African football has produced some of the best players in the game; now it needs to find the confidence and resources to channel that potential into trophies. For German coach Winfried Schäfer, who coached Cameroon to the 2002 AFCON title and most recently was technical director of Ghana, a lot more is possible: “An All-African World Cup final will come; and it can happen sooner than you think”. The agenda is set for the Nigerian FA and Eric Chelle to bring about the stability and self-belief to get the side across the line in next summer’s big showdown, which this time takes place in Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya. On match day 2 of qualification, Nigeria travel to the Stade de la Réunification in Garoua to face Guinea-Bissau on Tuesday, a game when they will have to make do without the goals of Osimhen. The bookmakers meanwhile rank Senegal, Egypt, Morocco and Algeria as favourites for the 2027 title, with the Super Eagles well behind as fourth favourites. The task now is for Eric Chelle to prove the doubters wrong – and keep his job in the process.