The president of the Nigeria Football Federation Alhaji Ibrahim Musa Gusau has revealed the reason why they decided that the Super Eagles should play Mozambique in their second friendly game in October.
Nigeria will begin the preparation for the 2026 World Cup qualifiers with a game against Saudi Arabia on the 13th of October in Portugal before taking on Mozambique three days later. The choice of the South African nation didn’t go down well with many Nigerians considering their low pedigree in African football.
While highlighting the achievements of the past year, which included a first-ever podium finish at the FIFA U17 Women’s World Cup, quarter-final performance of the Flying Eagles at the FIFA U20 World Cup, qualification of the Super Eagles to the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations and best-ever outing by the Super Falcons at the FIFA Women’s World Cup, Gusau asserverated that the Board and Secretariat have worked in tandem to remove toxicity from the system and enable a more conducive environment for the game in the country.
“One of our priorities on coming into office was to ensure that the football environment was cleansed of so much toxicity that had threatened the health of the game and made some persons feel unwelcome in the system. We have tried our best to give everyone a sense of belonging with a policy of inclusiveness.
The NFF boss said his team will also not allow any FIFA window for friendly matches to go unutilized, further explain that Mozambique was picked as the next team after the game against Saudi Arabia, because they are from the same region as three of the Super Eagles opponents in the World Cup qualifiers.
“As you can see, we have arranged two matches for the Super Eagles in this month’s window, against Saudi Arabia and Mozambique. Mozambique is in southern Africa where three of our opponents in the World Cup qualifiers, namely Lesotho, Zimbabwe and South Africa also are. Playing Mozambique is a good opportunity for the team to have a sneak preview of what to expect against these three teams.”
Mohammed Mowiz Suleiman
