By Tony Ubani
Former Super Eagles captain, Chief Segun Odegbami, has insisted that the only way for Nigerian football to breathe is for the current board led by Ibrahim Gusau to step aside.
Odegbami, a one-man soldier for the good of the game is demanding a total systemic clear-out and consequences at every tier of Nigerian football.
“If you fail to take your team to the World Cup, you find out that more often than not they vote you out or sack you,” he said.
“That’s the measure. If you have a coach that doesn’t do well, they sack him, if you have a player who is doing badly you remove him.
“These guys have not succeeded. They’re our friends, that’s the painful thing. We know ourselves. We are all in the business and when we champion the fact that they should go, they make you an enemy. It’s not a personal thing. They have failed, if we go back to that route we are going to fail as we have failed before”, he said.
The Super Eagles failed to make it to another World Cup this year after losing the playoff to Congo DR. The team had earlier failed to qualify for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
The Super Falcons on the other hand are on the verge of missing out of the 2027 FIFA Women World Cup after losing their quarterfinal game against Cameroon at the ongoing Women Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco. Missing out of defending their crown at the same time.
The Flying Eagles suffered a 4-1 defeat to Burkina Faso’s Young Stallions in the final of the 2026 WAFU Zone B U-20 Championship at the Stade Charles Konan Banny in Yamoussoukro, Ivory Coast.
Odegbami
The defeat means Nigeria will miss the 2027 Africa U-20 Cup of Nations and, consequently, the 2027 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Azerbaijan.
