Nigeria Aim To Win AFCON, WAFCON Next Year – NFF

Ibrahim Musa Gusau, President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), has announced that the football governing body will seek for the Super Eagles to win the AFCON in Cote d’Ivoire and the Super Falcons to recapture the WAFCON championship next year.

All hands are on deck, according to Gusau, to ensure that all National Teams perform significantly better in their respective tournaments during the next year.

He made the vow on Tuesday, October 3, when reviewing the NFF and team operations during his Board’s first year in office and defining objectives for the next year.

“One of our priorities on coming into office was to ensure that the football environment was cleansed of so much toxicity that had threatened the health of the game and made some persons feel unwelcome in the system. We have tried our best to give everyone a sense of belonging with a policy of inclusiveness.

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“Off the pitch, we are proud of the work of the Interim Management Committee that we constituted to organize the last NPFL League Season, which was commended by all stakeholders, and we also feel fulfilled about the constitution of the Boards of the NNL, NWFL and NLO with vibrant, knowledgeable and competent individuals who are capable of taking the leagues to the next level. Elections into the State FAs have also been largely peaceful and successful.”

Gusau stated that his board will work tirelessly with the secretariat and the Federal Ministry of Sports Development to get the Super Eagles off to a strong start in the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifying series and to win the 34th Africa Cup of Nations in Cote d’Ivoire early next year.

“We also want to see the Super Falcons reclaim their African title and return to the Women’s Olympic Football Tournament. Our expectations include making good progress in our plan for hostel accommodation and some playing pitches for the National Teams, through the FIFA Forward 3.0 program, and also seeing that the U17 and U20 Women’s National Teams achieve their best-ever outings at their different World Cups next year.

“We are working already with the new NPFL Board to grow the NPFL into the product that all administrators and stakeholders desire, and also with the boards of the other Leagues to improve the state of our domestic football. To achieve all these, we need money, so we are also looking to work even harder to grow our revenue base through an aggressive marketing drive.” stated the NFF supremo.

The NFF president also stated that his organization will not allow any FIFA window for friendly matches to go unused.

“As you can see, we have arranged two matches for the Super Eagles in this month’s window, against Saudi Arabia and Mozambique. Mozambique is in southern Africa where three of our opponents in the World Cup qualifiers, namely Lesotho, Zimbabwe and South Africa also are. Playing Mozambique is a good opportunity for the team to have a sneak preview of what to expect against these three teams.”