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Former Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) president Amaju Pinnick has stated that the Super Eagles would have secured qualification for the 2026 FIFA World Cup if he were still in charge of Nigerian football.
Pinnick made the assertion during an appearance on Sunday Oliseh’s Global Football Insights show, where he expressed disappointment over Nigeria’s failure to capitalise on the expanded World Cup format. The 2026 tournament, which will be hosted by the United States, Canada, and Mexico, allows up to ten African teams to qualify.
According to Pinnick, Nigeria’s absence from the qualification picture is inexcusable given the increased number of available slots.
“I honestly didn’t see this coming,” he said. “With ten African teams qualifying, there is really no basis for Nigeria not to be among them.”
Reflecting on his tenure, Pinnick recalled Nigeria’s successful qualification for the 2018 World Cup, despite being placed in what was widely regarded as one of the toughest qualifying groups in Africa.
“In 2018, we had the toughest group ever; all the AFCON winners were there,” he said. “If I were there, definitely Nigeria would have qualified.”
He went on to highlight the quality of Nigeria’s opponents at the time, noting that Algeria were on a long unbeaten run, Cameroon were defending champions, and Zambia were also continental champions—yet Nigeria still emerged on top.
“Nigeria was the least fancied, but we qualified with two games to spare. We worked tirelessly,” Pinnick added.
Pinnick also referenced the 2022 World Cup qualifiers, where Nigeria narrowly missed out after a playoff loss to Ghana due to the away-goals rule.
“We put in the same effort in 2022, but the format changed to head-to-head,” he explained. “Nobody gave Ghana a chance, but they made it through. We didn’t lose the tie outright; we were eliminated on away goals.”
