Former Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) president, Amaju Pinnick, has expressed confidence that he would have guided the Super Eagles to qualification for the 2026 FIFA World Cup if he were still in charge.
Speaking on Sunday Oliseh’s Global Football Insights show, Pinnick expressed disappointment that Nigeria failed to capitalize on the expanded World Cup format, which now allows up to ten African nations to qualify for the tournament in the United States, Canada, and Mexico.
“I honestly didn’t see this coming,” Pinnick said. “With ten African teams qualifying, there is really no basis for Nigeria not to be among them.”
He recalled Nigeria’s impressive run to the 2018 World Cup, despite being drawn in what was considered one of the toughest groups in African qualifying history.
“In 2018, we had the toughest group ever; we had all the AFCON winners. If I were there, definitely, Nigeria would have qualified,” he noted.
Pinnick added, “Algeria hadn’t lost in over 20 games, Cameroon were defending champions, Zambia were champions, and Nigeria was the least considered. But guess what? We qualified with two games to spare, and we didn’t sleep.”
He also referenced the 2022 World Cup qualifiers, where Nigeria narrowly missed out after a playoff defeat to Ghana on away goals.
“We did the same work in 2022, but the format changed to head-to-head. Nobody gave Ghana a chance, but they came through. We didn’t lose that tie; we were eliminated on away goals.”
