A former president of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) Amaju Pinnick is confident of the Super Eagles’ chances of reaching the 2026 World Cup even though he admits it would be a “tough” road for the 2013 African champions.
The Super Eagles who missed out on the 2022 World Cup in Qatar are fifth in Group C of the qualification race to the competition, four points behind leaders Rwanda after four rounds of matches.
Despite this, Pinnick a member of the FIFA Executive Committee is optimistic of Nigeria’s chances of making it to the USA, Mexico, and Canada next year.
“We believe we would still qualify by God’s grace,” he said on Friday’s edition of Channels Television’s Sports Tonight.
“I speak to the president [of the NFF] every other day and I know he is very religious about qualifying Nigeria for the World Cup. It is going to be a tough call. I don’t want to raise the hopes of any Nigerian that we would qualify. But we would try our human extreme. When I say human extreme, on a scale of 1-10, we would get to that 10 and see if we can make it happen. We believe it is divine.”
Pinnick called for support for the NFF who he says are doing their best to make the federation work.
“Trust me, they do not want to be where they are now. They want to succeed, move beyond it, and put smiles on the faces of Nigerians,” the former Delta Football Association chief said on the sports show.
“So, let’s just wait and see, and let’s not be thinking negatively. Let’s look at the positive picture and see how we can qualify,” Pinnick said.
According to him, the NFF will soon announce a substantive coach for the Super Eagles.
“Any moment from now, I am sure they would be announcing a coach, an enterprising coach at that,” he said.
