National Teams
NFF President Ibrahim Gusau predicts joyful 2025 for national teams
By Oyediji Oluwaseun Babaatunde
The President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Alhaji Ibrahim Gusau has assured football fans and stakeholders of better preparation for various national teams to have good performances which will bring smiles to the faces of Nigerians in 2025.
2025 is filled with tournaments and qualifiers for Nigeria starting with Nigeria’s men’s national Team B campaign at the Championship of Africa Nations (CHAN) in February.
Super Eagles will also continue their quest to qualify for the 2026 FIFA World Cup while their women’s counterparts will face Algeria, Tunisia, and Botswana in the group stage of the 2024 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations in the middle of 2025.
Gusau said the focus of the NFF is on ensuring the adequate preparation of all National Teams to credibly compete for honours at major tournaments, and not simply turn up to make up the number.
“The era of Nigerian teams arriving at major championships just to participate is gone,” Gusau stated in a release by the NFF Communications Department.
“Our objective now is to ensure that our teams can strongly contend for honours anywhere, and that can only be done by preparing the teams well ahead of qualifiers and competitions. I personally insisted that the Super Eagles B start their camping early enough and the result is what we can see in their display against Ghana.
“The team has just one month to go before the CHAN tournament. That means they must go into camp immediately, and we will ensure that.”
The Super Eagles will also participate at the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) in Morocco.
Gusau remarked that the outgoing year saw some impressive outings by the National Teams, though he is of the view that the Super Eagles’ under-par run in the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers has been a source of worry to administrators, enthusiasts and fans alike.
“Our commitment is to see how we can cobble back that Super Eagles squad that did the nation proud at the AFCON in Cote d’Ivoire, coming within 23 minutes of lifting the trophy. If we can find a way to do that, we can be sure that the target of winning the six remaining matches in the qualifiers to gain automatic qualification to the World Cup is achievable.
“Getting that FIFA World Cup ticket will set the momentum for a sterling outing at the AFCON in Morocco later in the year.”
The NFF supremo also assured that the Super Falcons, who finished the year 2024 as Africa’s best-ranked team, will be afforded adequate preparation to reclaim the Women Africa Cup of Nations title in Morocco next summer.
“We are in the process of organizing more friendly games for the team, in order to properly blend the old and new players to a formidable squad that will conquer Africa in style.”
While praising the junior women national teams (Falconets and Flamingos) for their qualifications and participations at their different FIFA World Cup competitions this year, Gusau charged the girls to see the coming year as a period of consolidation, with the FIFA U17 Women’s World Cup finals becoming an annual event.
“The Flamingos, no doubt, have the ability to conquer the world. I have watched their matches and seen some real great talents who can even hold their own in the Super Falcons. However, we want to see them conquer the world in Morocco and bring home the U17 Women’s World Cup for the first time. The Falconets also have qualification matches to the 2026 FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup to deal with.
“For sure, it is a very busy year for us and for world football. The NFF is committed to working closely with the National Sports Commission to realize our goals and objectives, and also seek greater corporate support for our activities, programs and events. Our attention will remain on developing the game from the grassroots while ensuring that the production channels for players coming through to the National Teams are not disrupted.”
Flamingos and Falconets will play the Qualifiers for the next U-17 and U-20 Women’s World Cups in 2025 while the national U-20 men’s team will play at the 2025 U-20 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) with the chance of qualifying for the next FIFA U-20 World Cup after winning the West Africa Zone B (WAFU) U-20 title.
