2026 World Cup: Sunday Oliseh predicts doom for Nigeria football

Former Nigeria captain Sunday Oliseh has said that Nigerian football might head towards death if the team fails to qualify for the next FIFA World Cup in 2026

The West African heavyweights didn’t qualify for the just concluded FIFA World Cup in Qatar as the Black Stars qualified in place of Super Eagles on away goal rule at the end of the World Cup play-off.

Since missing out on Germany 2006 FIFA World Cup, Nigeria has qualified for the following three tournaments in South Africa (2010), Brazil (2014), and Russia (2018) and the former Super Eagles coach shares his worries.

“Nigeria football will be all but dead if we failed to qualify for the next World Cup,” Oliseh said in an interview on ARISE TV on Monday.

“We’re already behind many countries because we didn’t qualify (for Qatar 2022) and we’re farther behind because we didn’t participate in this World Cup.

“Football is a religion in this country, but when you don’t have a solid league, you cannot have a good national team.”

The next edition will be co-hosted by USA, Mexico, and Canada in 2026  and the three-time African champions will be eyeing their sixth appearance in history, having missed the Qatar 2022 edition.