Super Eagles (Credit: NFF Media)
For the next six weeks, millions of football fans across the globe would be glued to their television sets at home and in sports bars, etc., and to streaming devices to watch another quadrennial contest of the beautiful game, organised by FIFA. The present spectacle kicked off in Mexico last Thursday, which co-hosts the tournament with the United States of America (USA) and Canada. In the opening game, Mexico thrashed South Africa 2-0.
This Mundial is the first of its kind in terms of organisation, representation and scale. From its usual 32-team format, this year’s tournament has been expanded to 48 teams, which would result in 104 matches from 11 June to 19 July. The final match for the diadem will be played in the US. Argentina is the defending champion and one of the tournament’s favourites.
Apparently, missing in the competition and sadly so is the Super Eagles of Nigeria. It could not qualify from the Africa Group C, which comprised five other national teams from South Africa, Benin, Lesotho, Rwanda and Zimbabwe. South Africa picked the group’s ticket with 18 points, just a point above Nigeria’s 17. Nine other African countries in the Mundial are Egypt, Ghana, Senegal, Cape Verde, Morocco, Ivory Coast, Algeria, Tunisia and the Democratic Republic of Congo, which qualified through the intercontinental play-offs.
