Depending too much on foreign-based players denied Nigeria qualification to 2022 FIFA World Cup

A former Coordinator of the Super Eagles, Mr. Emmanuel Danjuma Attah says Nigeria failed to qualify for the 2022 FIFA World Cup because the national team depended too much on foreign-based players.

Drawn against Ghana in the playoff tie of the African qualifiers for the world cup, the Super Eagles were tagged as the clear favourites.

However, after two legs, Ghana qualified ahead of Nigeria thanks to the away goal rule.

Speaking in an interview, Mr. Emmanuel Danjuma Attah has insisted that sacking coaches is not the solution to address the failure of the national team.

According to him, there is a need to develop and use home-based players instead of relying on foreign players.

“The coaches have been asked to step aside but is that the solution? I don’t think so. We have to look inwards. We have to go back to the Late Clemence Westerhof and Late Stephen keshi era. There is the urgent need for us to develop our home-based players.

“Until we do that, we will continue to suffer in the hands of foreign-based players. Over-dependence on players abroad is what has denied us Qatar 2022 ticket. Most of these players are not committed because they don’t know much about this country,” Mr. Emmanuel Danjuma Attah shared.

He continued, “Keshi built his Super Eagles squad around home based players. Even foreign based players struggled to make the team. As a matter of fact, during the 2013 AFCON qualifiers, he executed 95% of his matches with mostly home-based players. It was only the final qualifying match against Liberia that the foreign based players dominated. Interestingly, he went on to win the 2013 AFCON in South Africa.”