2022 World Cup without Nigeria
The absence of Nigeria from the 2022 World Cup will continue to hunt administrators and lovers of the Super Eagle. It’s the wish of every nation to be at the World Cup. The tournament is loaded with a lot of mouth watering benefits for the players, participating nations, corporate organizations and host nation.
A former secretary of the Nigerian football governing body, Dr. Tijani Yusuf, once poured out his mind on the losses which the country is bound to suffer as a result of missing out of the World Cup.
Nigeria Super Eagles had the opportunity to go for the tournament that is being hosted in Qatar, even up to the last match of the qualifiers to be played in Abuja, in front of their own fans. One would have expected home advantage to play out. It was never to be so, no thanks to the resilience of the Black Stars of Ghana. We played out a tame 1-1 aggregate draw with Ghana over two legs to hand Ghana the ticket to Qatar. The Super Eagles failed to get a precious away goal in Kumasi in the first leg, leaving it all to chance which Ghana took by scoring first in the tie and holding on for a draw to qualify on away goal rule.
Fans and football figures in and outside the country are still expressing their displeasure months after the match, even though the Super Eagles and the Nigerian Football Federation have apologised for the disappointment.
The technical team of the Super Eagles was dismissed from duty almost immediately, but the leadership of the NFF was retained till election took place, to the chagrin of many fans who continued to call for an overhaul of Nigeria’s football leadership. In any case, the election has come and gone, having new officers on board.
Dr. Yusuf also spoke about the cost of the qualifiers campaign and the losses the federation acquired on behalf of the sports ministry of the country due to their failure to get Nigeria to the World Cup. He also insisted that every stakeholder involved has something to lose from the failed qualification bid. “The loss is enormous”, he said.
“To start with, the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) itself has lost billions of naira that would have come to it from FIFA. Secondly, Nigeria’s ranking by FIFA would have gone up.
“Thirdly, the players themselves are the biggest losers because apart from missing the World Cup showpiece, their individual ranking won’t improve. Then we talk about Nigerians who were warming up to hit Qatar for the World Cup. It is a huge loss.”
He further expressed disappointment at the reluctance of the NFF leadership to step aside after failing on two very important fronts in 2022 alone: the African Cup of Nations and the World Cup qualifiers.
“Like Distinguished Senator Orji Uzor Kalu said, they should all resign,” the former NFA secretary added. All that are history now, though the pains linger on.
In search of its seventh World Cup appearance ticket, the Super Eagles were knocked out by bitter rivals Black Stars of Ghana in the final African qualifiers for the Mundial.
An early goal from Thomas Partey in Abuja was enough to secure the Ghanaians’ place in Qatar, as they beat Nigeria 1-1 on aggregate on the away goal rule.
William Troost-Ekong’s penalty was not enough to stop the Black Stars from recording a famous result on “enemy’s” territory, with aggrieved fans and supporters going berserk and wreaking havoc on facilities at the newly renovated Moshood Abiola National Stadium. To fix those facilities would require a huge some, not to talk of the fine slammed on the nation by FIFA.
The failure is still very fresh in the hearts of millions of football loving Nigerian fans even as the tournament kick starts.
And while Nigerians continue to lament, without remedy, their non-qualification, there will be plenty of money on the line at the World Cup in Qatar.
While the focus for a lot of teams will be on lifting the iconic trophy and representing their nations well, there is definitely a tangible benefit for success on the pitch.
FIFA hasn’t held back when it comes to prize money for World Cups in recent years, and 2022 can’t be different — with huge sums up for grabs.
The world football body has allocated $440m in prize money for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.This is an increase of $40m compared to the 2018 tournament, while just $358m in prize money was on offer at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.
FIFA has a revenue budget of $4.6bn in 2022, with broadcasting rights set to contribute $2.6bn alone in income. With so much prize money on offer, every side is expected to walk away from Qatar significantly richer.
With the country’s failure to qualify for the World Cup, the players and the Nigeria Football Federation will regrettably be missing out on FIFA’s largesse, which would have run into billions of naira.
As the key part of any successful team, players also benefit financially from featuring at a World Cup. Failure to qualify for the 2022 World Cup will cost Nigeria at least $12 million. Of course, it could be more.
According to ESPN, the figure comprises a $2 million preparation grant from FIFA and $10 million base participation fee.
The former president of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Amaju Pinnick, also spoke about the plans made by the official kit sponsors of the Super Eagles, Nike.
The former NFF boss revealed that Nike was planning to make special shirts for the World Cup and would have sold “a minimum of 10 million shirts.”
He said, “I can tell you the loss is monumental. It is unquantifiable. We have been working with our partners to make great plans for the World Cup. For instance, if you had seen what Nike was bringing out for the World Cup, they would have sold a minimum of 10 million shirts.
“The players too would have received $3.5 million from the FIFA money. But since this dream of going to the World Cup was shattered, it has been so tough for us in the federation, especially me. You cannot imagine what we have been going through.
“We did not leave any stone unturned as a federation. After our exit from the Africa Cup of Nations Cup (AFCON), we met immediately to start strategising. We went to London to hold meetings with the players and they were very enthusiastic and excited.
“They raised issues that they wanted us to take care of, from jerseys to playing pitch, to hotel to the aircraft that they would fly to Ghana with and we addressed every issue they raised.
“We did everything we needed to do. We are bewildered. It was a monumental loss, not just to the federation, but to the Nigerian people.
“Nigerians should forgive us and I will take responsibility as the head of the federation and apologise. We did everything humanly and materially possible to make sure that they qualify,” he lamented.
As we all know, the only unifying factor in Nigeria is sports. When the Super Eagles are playing, all Nigerians become one. Then, we set aside our ethnic and religious differences. We rally round them for victory. We see their success as our success, and share in their failures as well.
Now that they are out of the competition, where is our source of excitement? There is no sense of belonging for Nigerians. At best, we shift attention to supporting other participating African nations.
Again, both print and broadcast media would have benefited greatly through advert placement. Sponsors would have approached the broadcast media houses for live transmission of the matches. So also, viewing centres would have been jam packed with viewers for recreation and amusement. By so doing, businesses around those centres would have thrived owing to massive patronage.
The World Cup is a four-year thing. How time flies, in no time, another four years will be here. We can start our preparations for 2026 now. By so doing, we can double our gains then, thereby writing off the pains of Qatar 2022.
