Former Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) president Amaju Pinnick has asserted that the Super Eagles would have qualified for the 2026 FIFA World Cup if he were still in charge of Nigerian football.
Pinnick, who managed the NFF from October 2014 to October 2022, led Nigeria to the 2018 World Cup in Russia but was also responsible for the country’s inability to qualify for the 2022 tournament in Qatar following a playoff loss to Ghana.
On Sunday’s Global Football Insights show, he expressed surprise that Nigeria did not take advantage of the expanded World Cup format, which allows African teams to compete for up to ten qualification berths.
“I didn’t see it coming because 10 teams from Africa will qualify,” Pinnick said.
“In 2018, we had the toughest group ever; we had all the AFCON winners. If I were there, definitely, Nigeria would have qualified.”
The 55-year-old football executive recounted how the Super Eagles qualified for the 2018 finals with two matches remaining despite being drawn in a difficult group.
“Algeria hadn’t lost in over 20 games, Cameroon were defending champions, Zambia were champions, and Nigeria was the least considered,” he said. “But guess what? We qualified with two games to spare, and we didn’t sleep.”
“We didn’t win, but we didn’t lose; we were knocked out by the away goals rule,” he said. “I took responsibility then, and I take responsibility now.”
