Qatar 2022 World Cup: Lessons For Nigeria

The 2022 Fédération internationale de Football Association (FIFA)  World Cup hosted by Qatar has  come and gone with Argentina, inspired by the mercurial Lionel Messi,winning the trophy for the first time in36 years. It was described by many football fans around the world as one of the best-ever World Cup finals.

Also, despite the controversies that trailed the hosting of the tournament by Qatar, it turned out to be a Mundial to remember. Initially, politics tended to overshadow football but it was stepped aside as Qatar, the host, delivered a masterclass  of football, drama, suspense, upsets, and indeed a World Cup to remember. 

It is instructive to note that FIFA has disclosed that it earned a record revenue of $7.5 billion in the four years of commercial deals tied to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. Also, the football governing body said it is $1 billion more than income from the previous commercial cycle linked to the 2018 World Cup in Russia.

For the first time in the history of the World Cup, an African team,Morrocco got to the semi final and finished fourth. They defeated Belgium, the second-ranked team in the World, Spain, and Portugal en route to the semi-finals. They also put up a spirited performance in the semi-finals against the 2018 champions, France. Suffice it to say, Morrocco won the hearts of many football lovers across the World.

Also African champions, Senegal made it to the second round before being knocked out by England.

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It important to observe that all the African teams at the World Cup were coached by local coaches and there are lessons to be learned from this.

Many Nigerians were sad at the beginning of the World Cup when the country was not represented. For some years now, many Nigerians see qualification to the World Cup as a birthright and the reasons are not far-fetched.

No doubt, Nigeria has among the best football talents in Africa but that has not translated to success on the football pitch for some years now no thanks to poor management and bad leadership at the football federation.

Sadly, in our opinion, for some years now, the country’s football has been slowly declining. Nigeria’s men’s and female football teams didn’t qualify for the Tokyo Olympics which is considered abnormal by Nigerian fans. At the last Nations Cup, the country was knocked out in the second round by Tunisia.

Indeed, the performance of Morocco has inspired many Nigerians that the country can perform better at the World Cup next time round.

First, we need to clean the Augean stables. The corruption at the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) must be stopped. Super Eagles head coach, Jose Peseiro recently disclosed that he has not received his salary for the past six months.

The salary owed to the Portuguese is $420,000 in total.The former Saudi Arabia and Venezuela coach was appointed in May 2022 on a monthly payment of $70,000.

Minister of sports, Sunday Dare, stated that the government would take full responsibility for the payment of the coach’s salary when he took charge of the Super Eagles.

Many Nigerians were not surprised by this revelation because that has been the stock in trade of the football federation for some years now.

We recall that the NFF is currently paying off the backlog of outstanding salaries of former Super Eagles coach, Gernot Rohr after unilaterally terminating his contract last December.

We also recall that the late Super Eagles Coach, Stephen Keshi in 2013 said he is being owed about  N35 million in salary arrears.

Indeed, payment of half salaries and in some cases kickbacks have defined the Nigeria football federation. This has to stop.

In the considered opinion of this newspaper, that has been one of the major reasons the nation has not been able to attract grade-A quality coaches. The country always ends up with Grade C coaches and we simply cannot continue like this.

We strongly believe that a Nigerian coach can do wonders if given the time, space, and free hand to perform. Since Peseiro took over as Super Eagles coach, the national team’s performance has gone from bad to worse. 

In our view, it is time to let him go and bring in a good local coach.  The time to prepare for the 2026 FIFA World Cup is now. 

We insist that the football federation should appoint a Nigerian coach, an ex-international, and should be given a long-term contract and a free hand to perform.

To be sure, the current World Cup champions, Argentina,is managed by Lionel Scaloni an ex-Argentine International, and the assistant coaches are all recent ex-internationals.

We can replicate the same style in Nigeria with the Super Eagles being managed by a team of ex-internationals.

As we have previously stated, Nigeria has some of the best talents in Africa and if properly harnessed and managed, we have the potential of being the first African team to play in the World Cup finals. This is doable and the time to start making this come true is now.