Football stakeholders have called for the immediate sack of Super Eagles coach Jose Peseiro following the team’s second consecutive draw in the FIFA 2026 World Cup qualifier.
The Super Eagles on Sunday recorded a second consecutive draw after struggling to hold the Warriors of Zimbabwe to a 1-1 draw in Rwanda.
The crucial matchday 2 Group C encounter of their 10-match qualification series for the 2026 FIFA World Cup was played at the Huye Stadium in Butare.
Nigeria had also laboured to a 1-1 draw against the Crocodiles of Lesotho on home soil on Day 1 at the Godswill Akpabio International Stadium in Uyo on Thursday.
Meanwhile, South Africa’s 2-1 defeat of Benin Republic’s Cheetahs on Saturday means the Bafana Bafana are top of Group C, even before they take on Rwanda in a Day 2 encounter on Tuesday.
Some football stakeholders, who spoke to journalists on Monday in Abuja said the poor performances recorded by the Super Eagles were unacceptable.
They argued that Peseiro was not the kind of coach for the Super Eagles, adding that it was high time he was relieved of his duties.
Godfrey Gaiya, a former chairman of the House of Representatives, lamented that Nigeria should have been a sure bet by public ratings in their group.
Gaiya said many Nigerians had celebrated the 2026 World Cup qualifying group comprising Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Benin Republic, Lesotho, and South Africa as easy, going by previous antecedents.
“How can a star-studded Super Eagles fight so desperately to secure a draw with Lesotho in Uyo?
“What went wrong that a number 153 FIFA ranked team can stroll into the nest of champions and arrogantly walk away with a point?
“Then, to add insult to injury, we fought so hard to hold on to another disappointing draw with 125th-ranked Zimbabwe,” he lamented.
Gaiya said the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), under Ibrahim Gusau, had been doing its best so far, but there was a need for a push and competent guidance from a well-coordinated secretariat.
He said that the Super Eagles current squad was star-studded but far from being a team, adding that virtually every department was leaking, with the goalkeeping almost always a disaster.
“No wonder some fans are already asking for the return of 39-year-old Vincent Onyeama to return to the team,“ he added.
Mukhtar Mohammed, the chairman of the FCT Football Association, said the recent poor performances recorded by the Super Eagles call for deep soul searching.
“We have a lot of work to do to get near-perfect results from June 2024 when the qualifications resume, “ he said.
Mohammed added, “We need to look deeper into the problems of why our Super Eagles are not tops in Africa. A lot of questions need to be answered. “
The 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers resume in June 2024, with Nigeria hosting South Africa, current leaders of Group C, before travelling to an away game against Benin Republic.
With the 2026 FIFA World Cup having an increased 48 teams in the running, the Confederation of African Football (CAF), which previously had only five slots, now have nine direct slots.
There is also a provision for one additional slot for the 10th team, which will play in the inter-confederation play-offs.
Fifty-three teams will be competing for the 10 slots from Africa. They are divided into nine groups of six teams each, with one group only having five teams.