Senate to probe Super Eagles’ failure to qualify for 2022 World Cup

Nigerian Senate has mandated its Committee on Sports to investigate why the Super Eagles failed to qualify for the 2022 World Cup slated to take place later in the year in Qatar.

Last week, Nigeria failed to pick one of the five slots allotted to Africa for the global football tournament organised by FIFA after a 1-1 draw at the MKO Abiola Stadium in Abuja.

The Super Eagles lost the ticket to Ghana on an away-goal rule after playing a goalless draw on March 25, 2022, in Kumasi, Ghana.

At the plenary today, the red chamber of the National Assembly said the panel must probe why the nation could not be Qatar despite the “huge fund by government, individual and corporate bodies.”

The Senate said the committee should uncover the “remote and immediate cause” of the loss of the ticket to Nigeria’s arch-rival, Ghana.

In addition, the team was mandated to look into the destruction of “facilities at the MKO Abiola National Stadium, Abuja, in the aftermath of the Super Eagles of Nigeria’s fail bid to qualify for the FIFA 2022 World Cup bid.”

Furthermore, the committee must “invite the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) and the Ministry of Youths and Sports and relevant agencies and entities directly or indirectly involved with the maintenance of the MKO Abiola National Stadium, Abuja for the purpose of ascertaining the extent of the vandalisation, and generally arrive at constructive findings on the subject matter of this motion.”