Gara-Gombe Absolves Gusau of Blames Over Eagles Failure to Qualify for  World Cup

President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Alhaji Ibrahim Musa Gusau, has been absolved of blame for why the Super Eagles did not qualify for the FIFA World Cup starting in North America on Thursday.

Sports Administrator, Ahmed  Shuaibu Gara-Gombe, insisted yesterday that Gusau should not be solely blamed for why the Super Eagles failed  to qualify for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

Gara-Gombe stressed further that enemies of Nigeria within the football ecosystem were the principal architects of why the Super Eagles could not make the cut to the World Cup, just as it happened  in 2022 for the edition hosted by Qatar.

Although he’s pained that Nigeria is missing the Mundial back-to-back, 

Gara-Gombe pointed accusing fingers at those who are calling for the head of Gusau right now over the failure. 

The fire-spitting Gara-Gombe said the same people that Gusau was shielding are the same individuals truly responsible for the Eagles’ qualification failure.

“The proponents of this argument fail to appreciate collective responsibility and the principle of division of labour,” he said. “Gusau is just one man within the entire establishment and machinery of Nigerian football. He may have played his role well, while those further down the delivery and performance chain simply failed to carry out their obligations.”

Gara-Gombe described the conduct of certain NFF officials during the qualifying campaign as deliberate sabotage, alleging that some characters within the federation were busy pursuing committee appointments at CAF while the Super Eagles’ playoff games were ongoing.

“These are the enemies within,” he said. “They sabotaged the Football House out of selfish interest, deliberately targeting Gusau. Since the buck stops on his desk, it becomes a simple matter of giving the dog a bad name in order to hang it.”

The football administrator also cited the burden of inherited problems, noting that the foundation Gusau met on assumption of office was faulty. 

He pointed to the FIFA mini-stadia projects in Warri and Kebbi — contracts awarded and funded before Gusau’s tenure — and backlogs of unpaid bonuses and allowances across the national team tiers as evidence that many of the federation’s problems predated the current leadership.

“Some policies he inherited were better described as landmines, deliberately or otherwise laid to consume his efforts,” Gara-Gombe said. “The frameworks for appointing coaches to the national teams, including the Super Eagles, had been set before Gusau assumed office.”

He further questioned the basis of the criticism, asking whether Gusau was in charge when the Super Eagles failed to qualify for the Qatar 2022 World Cup, and challenging critics to assess the records of the Flying Eagles and Golden Eaglets before the current NFF board emerged.

Gara-Gombe reserved particular criticism for NFF officials who, he said, granted media interviews to exonerate themselves from the qualification failure — the same officials, he noted, whom Gusau publicly credits when the team succeeds.

“Those calling him out are mischief-makers shielding the paymasters truly responsible for Nigeria’s absence,” he said.