Alhaji Ibrahim Musa Gusau, President of the Nigeria Football Federation, has assured supporters, administrators, and Nigerians in general that the football regulatory body will sufficiently prepare the various national teams to bring joy and glory to the country in the next year.
While reflecting on the previous year 2024 and projecting for the next year 2025, Gusau stated that the NFF’s priority is on ensuring that all National Teams are well prepared to compete for honours at major events, rather than simply showing up to make up the numbers.
“The era of Nigerian teams arriving at major championships just to participate is gone. 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 NFF president also pledged that the Super Falcons, who completed 2024 as Africa’s best-ranked team, will receive proper preparation to reclaim the Women Africa Cup of Nations title in Morocco next summer.
“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.”
Gusau stated that the National Teams performed admirably in the previous year, but he believes that the Super Eagles’ poor performance in the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers has caused concern among administrators, enthusiasts, and supporters.
“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 said; “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.”
