Mikel Insists: NFF Must Quit Over Super Eagles World Cup Failure
Mikel Obi has branded Nigeria’s failure to qualify for the 2026 World Cup a ‘disaster’ and demanded sweeping changes at the top of the Nigerian Football Federation.
The former Chelsea midfielder, who won 89 caps for the Super Eagles and featured at both the 2014 and 2018 tournaments, was left furious after Nigeria’s penalty shootout defeat to DR Congo in November ended hopes of reaching North America.
‘It’s a hammer blow and I’ve said it so many times again, when you have a country as big as we do, over 300 million people, the biggest country in Africa and we’re not going to the World Cup (for a) second time in a row,’ Obi said.
‘I’ve said it so many times that the FA, the people that are running the FA, they should all resign. They have to resign because it’s the second time it’s happened.’
Obi stressed that Nigeria’s talent pool makes the failure unacceptable.
‘We have one of the best teams in Africa and we’re not going to be in the World Cup. It’s a disaster. It’s a disaster. So the people running the FA, the president [Ibrahim Musa Gusau] of the FA, the organisation people, they have to resign because African football is growing so much and we are being left behind. Nigeria’s been left behind.’
He pointed to Morocco as an example of progress.
‘We should be leading the way. Look at what Morocco is doing with their team, with their country. They’re growing, they’re developing and we keep going backwards time after time.’
