By Francis Ajuonuma
Super Eagles’ failure to pick one of the five African tickets for the Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup has been wholly blamed on the president of Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Amaju Pinnick’s obsession with the English Premier League.
The Super Eagles were booted out of the 2022 FIFA World Cup finals in Qatar by a less fancied Ghana team in a doubleheader playoff which ended 0-0 and 1-1 at the Baba Yara Stadium in Kumasi and at the MKO Abiola Stadium, Abuja respectively with the Ghanaians qualifying for the Mundial on away goal advantage.
Former Nigerian international, Sam Sodje, speaking in an interview from his base in London accused Pinnick of flooding the Super Eagles with mere average players from the English Premier League while snubbing quality players from other leagues.
According to Sodje, Pinnick’s obsession for EPL players ensured that the local league was neglected in the past seven years he has been in office as NFF president, noting that the Super Eagles were very poor against the Black Stars in the playoff because the players they paraded in the game were not good enough for the national team.
ThisNigeria recalls that under the seven years reign of Pinnick, local league players are not considered for invitation to the main Super Eagles team which was evident in the team that took on the Black Stars as they were all foreign-based players exempt goalkeeper John Noble of Enyimba, who was drafted into the team late due to the late withdrawal of goalkeeper Maduka Okoye of the Dutch side, Sparta Rotherham.
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“We just have to tell ourselves the truth. The Super Eagles were very poor against the Black Stars because the Ghanaians were technically better than them. They had a coach, who knew what to do unlike the Super Eagles coach, Augustine Eguavoen, who most of the time was bereft of ideas.
Also, most of the UK-based players in the Super Eagles are not tested and are not the best Nigerian players in Europe but because Pinnick is too obsessed with the EPL he influenced the invitation and we’ve paid for it. it’s painful and disappointing that Nigeria will not be at the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar,” he said.
