Mikel Obi calls for removal of NFF board as Nigeria struggles for 2026 World Cup qualification

Former Nigeria senior men’s national team captain, John Mikel Obi has called for the removal of all members of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) after the Super Eagles 2026 World cup qualification hit another road block on Tuesday.

Super Eagles who sit third in group C of the qualifiers drew 1-1 with the Bafana Bafana of South Africa in the Toyota Stadium in Bloemfontein, leaving their chance for qualification slom to none.

Reacting to the journey of the three-time African champions, Mikel Obi who represented Nigeria in the 2014 and 2018 World Cups shared his opinion on his podcast (The Obi One Podcast), he claims that for the heritage of football in the country it is not acceptable to miss two consecutive world cups.

“If we don’t make it to the world cup, if we don’t qualify. I just think the whole board of the NFF they need to go, sorry they have to go.

Because it’s not acceptable, twice in a row we are not going to qualify for the world. We are the biggest team footballing country in Africa. Nigeria is the biggest.”

He also admitted that the players have apart to play in the current state the team finds themselves but still retained his ideology of the problem coming from the top of the football federation.

“Yes the players have to take responsibility but the biggest problem is from the top.

You have to make those players motivated, find a conducive way, when they come back home to play for Nigeria they have to feel comfortable and write now nobody is making that comfortable and right now nobody is making that comfortable for them.”

The former Chelsea midfielder went further to say that football loving Nigerians are devastated and called for the government to get involved for a change.

“Now I feel for the people of my country, I feel for the people of Nigeria, because they are going to be devastated again.

Right now for the second time running we’re not going to qualify for the world cup.

Twice in the role if we don’t qualify something is wrong, a drastic change has to be done, if the government wants to get involved, they have to get involved because it’s not acceptable.”

However, Mikel Obi called for the fans to keep supporting the team as all hope is not lost for the super Eagles two qualify for the 2026 World Cup in USA, Canada and Mexico.

“It’s not dead so we have to still support the players, we have two games left.

We have to still support the players, we have to still support the team.”

Nigeria currently sits 3rd of group C with 11 points which rules out any possibility of automatic qualification as they are six points behind the group leaders South Africa with only two matches remaining.

They will have to finish as one of the four best second-placed teams across the nine groups, which would earn them a spot in the inter-confederation playoffs. To have any chance of this, they must secure maximum points in their last two games and hope for favorable results in other groups.

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