"Remove Him, Eguavoen Can't Qualify Nigeria To World Cup" - Primate Ayodele Tells NFF

"Remove Him, Eguavoen Can't Qualify Nigeria To World Cup" - Primate Ayodele Tells NFF

By Niyi Busari

The leader of INRI Evangelical Spiritual Church, Primate Elijah Ayodele has advised the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to replace the Super Eagles interim coach, Austin Eguavoen with a foreign coach if they want Nigeria to qualify to the world cup, BSNSports.com.ng reports.

Austin Eguavoen who doubled as the Technical Director of the NFF was appointed on temporary basis to lead Eagles in the 2025 African Nations Cup qualifier. Cerezo as his is fondly called by his admirers successfully qualified the three times African champions to the 2025 AFCON. Nigeria topped Group D with 11 points, while Benin Republic who also qualified from the group had 8 points. Third placed, Rwanda and bottom placed Libya garnered eight and five points respectively.

Placed (5th) second to the last in Group C of CAF 2026 World Cup qualifier, Nigeria possibility of picking the group ticket is slim. With six matches to end the qualification serie, Rwanda, South Africa and Benin Republic garnered 7 points each and are placed first, second and third respectively. Fourth placed Lesotho have five points with Zimbabwe languishing at the bottom of the table with two points.

However, primate Ayodele still believe Nigeria can still qualify to the world cup if a good foreign coach is hired to replace Austin Eguavoen. He also challenged the players to be committed to qualifying the country to 2026 FIFA World Cup.

His words, "Eguavoen will not help us (Nigeria) qualify to world cup. Let him be removed, take a foreign coach who can help. Ayodele said in a viral video made available to www.bsnsports.com.ng

 "Let them (NFF) bring like three or four names who can also come and advise NFF that this is the best among the coaches that can help us qualify.

"We must go to the world cup. The NFF President has done so much more than his predecessor. He's the best NFF President we have ever had. Now, we must qualify to the world cup and the only way to do so is to have a coach who can help us to qualify and the players must b committed.