Chairman of the National Sports Commission (NSC), Mallam Shehu Dikko has disclosed that he and other top shots in the administrative sector are staying hopeful that the Super Eagles can still qualify for next year’s FIFA World Cup.
Sports247 reports that, although Dikko admitted that the Eagles are in a tight spot, the former chairman of Nigerian Professional Football League (NPFL) stressed that anything can still happen across the last two qualification matches next month.
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He also parried suggestions that Eagles’ technical adviser, Eric Chelle should be sacked for failing to beat South Africa, stressing that any decision in that regard lies with officials of Nigeria Football Federation (NFF).
Dikko affirmed, “It’s a responsibility of the Nigeria Football Federation to decide at the end of the day. After they finish their analysis, they will recommend it to us. We’ll then look at it and approve or disapprove.”
He also gave Chelle some positives regarding the gaffer’s scorecard from four matches in the World Cup qualifiers, pointing out that the Franco-Malian tactician has added eight points to the Eagles’ original pool of just three slots.
The NSC’s supremo stated, “As for the World Cup, we all know where we are. When we came on board, we only had three points out of 12, but now, with Eric Chelle, we’ve got 11.
“While we and the NFF pulled ourselves together, we ensured that we got eight points from the last four games. If we had got those results earlier, we could probably by now be close to qualifying for the World Cup.”
He then concluded with a down-to-earth observation that, though he remains optimistic, only victory in the last two matches next month – away to Lesotho and home versus Benin Republic – would give the Super Eagles any realistic chance of still making it to the 2026 Mundial to be co-hosted by USA, Canada and Mexico.
“At this moment, we have to be fair and factual about it, based on the number of points we’ve got. It’s out of hands.
“So, we just have to win our last two games and see where that would take us. But, despite everything, we are still hopeful, because anything can happen in football. We just have to keep winning,” Dikko conceded.
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