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Former Super Eagles utility ace Emeka Ezeugo says interim Nigeria coach Austin Eguavoen can’t qualify the team for the World Cup, describing the technical director of the Nigeria Football Federation as a backdoor giant and failure personified.
In a statement on his Facebook page on Friday, Ezeugo, a key member of the 1994 AFCON, 1994 World Cup team, and Atlanta Olympics gold-winning team, hinged his opinion on Eguavoen’s failure to secure a ticket to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar by failing to get the best of Ghana at Moshood Abiola National Stadium in Abuja.
Eguavon, the backdoor giants, is failure personified. Not that we are talking about your book but mine. Did Nigeria participate in the Qatar World Cup? Who was in charge of Nigeria’s national team then? Nigeria will not qualify for the next World Cup. Mark my words,” said the former Abia Warriors coach.
He continued, “There’s a deeper reason that’s alien to little minds here. There’s always a payback time in the culture of cutting corners. Wasn’t it one hundred percent certain for the Super Eagles to demolish the Ghana Black Stars in Abuja and qualify for the Qatar World Cup? Why didn’t we participate in that World Cup? NFF has been in the hands of clueless, unqualified, and crooked people for decades, and we’re so cool with it. We will definitely harvest exactly what we planted.”
Eguavoen was the interim coach when the Super Eagles failed to progress beyond the round of 16 at the 2020 AFCON staged in Cameroon in 2022.
The lot has again fallen on him as the technical director of the NFF after Bruno Labbadia sensationally turned down an offer to coach the team four days after being announced by the NFF. He is to lead the team in their 2025 AFCON qualifying fixtures against Benin Republic and Rwanda on September 7 and September 10, respectively.
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