By Tony Ubani, Jacob Ajom and Solomon Nwoke Nigeria has suffered another embarrassing setback in football following Super Falcons’ narrow 1-0 defeat to the Indomitable Lionesses of Cameroon. Like the Super Eagles, the Super Falcons will now chart the course of an African World Cup playoff to determine their fate of playing in the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Brazil as CAF’s tournament schedule gives the losing quarter-finalists another route, with two classification play-off matches scheduled for Thursday, August 13, in Casablanca. It will be unimaginable if, for the first time since the beginning of FIFA Women’s World Cup in 1991, the country’s green-white-green flag fails to flutter among those of best women football playing nations in Brazil next year when the 2027 edition kicks off. Regrettably, the Super Falcons’ 1-0 defeat is a true reflection of how ill-prepared the team was for the continental tournament, which the NFF knew would also serve as World Cup qualifiers. The fall of the Super Falcons shows how low Nigerian football has declined under the present leadership of the Nigeria Football Federation headed by Alhaji Ibrahim Gusau. In other climes, heads would have rolled. But not in Nigeria. In Italy, when the national football team, the Azzurri failed to qualify for the 2026 FIFA World Cup the government of Italy responded to the national team’s playoff elimination by demanding a total overhaul of the country’s football federation. Sports Minister, Andrea Abodi, explicitly called for the resignation of Italian Football Federation, FIGC, President, Gabriele Gravina, while lawmakers demanded structural reforms and stricter limits on non-European Union, EU, players to help nurture domestic talent. Abodi publicly stated that the FIGC President, Gabriele Gravina, should step down. Multiple lawmakers echoed this demand, stating that the leadership needed to be held accountable for the decline of Italian football. Gravina resigned. He did not leave alone. He was joined by Italian national team delegation chief, Gianluigi Buffon and head coach, Gennaro Gattuso, both of whom stepped down. Gravin’s predecessor, Carlo Tavecchio had also resigned in 2017 when the Azurri failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup. Multiple national football association (FA) presidents also resigned in the immediate aftermath of their national teams failing to qualify for or exiting early from the World Cup. Yasser Al-Misehal resigned as President of the Saudi Arabian Football Federation after the Green Falcons suffered a group-stage exit at the 2026 World Cup. South Korea’s Chung Mong-gyu stepped down as President of the Korea Football Association following South Korea’s group-stage elimination at the 2026 World Cup. Libyan Football Federation (LFF), President, Abdelhakim Al-Shalmani also resigned from his post for failure to qualify for the World Cup. While heavily linked to team disputes and travel controversies, the decision was announced during an assembly where he stated he did not want to be associated with the failure of Libyan sports . Scotland also joined the list of countries that made managerial changes after Steve Clarke resigned following the nation’s group-stage elimination. During his tenure, Clarke guided Scotland back to major international tournaments and ended the country’s 28-year absence from the FIFA World Cup. The Scottish Football Association paid tribute to the 62-year-old, acknowledged his contribution to rebuilding the national team despite the disappointment of the World Cup campaign. The scale of resignations continued, especially during the last World Cup in the Americas. From Europe to Africa and Asia, coaches who arrived at the tournament with lofty ambitions, saw their tenures come to an abrupt end after failing to meet the expectations of their football-loving nations. But nothing like that happened in Nigeria. The very officials who presided over the Super Eagles failure to qualify for two consecutive World Cups are currently campaigning vigorously for re-election into the board of the NFF. Former captain of the Green Eagles and 1980 AFCON winner Chief Segun Odegbami has called on government to act fast and halt the forthcoming NFF elections because, “We must rid NFF of scavengers who have nothing to offer.” He insisted, it was nothing personal. “It’s not an Odegbami project, it’s a national call to save our football from the stranglehold of scavengers who have nothing to offer other than what they grab in the process. If people decide to peep from the window, I’ll go all the way,” Odegbami said. In sports, result is the only yardstick for measurement of failure or success. The question being asked by Nigerians is should the the present leadership of the NFF return based on the results on ground?” Tana Ayejina, the Deputy Editor of Punch Newspapers
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