Former secretary-general of Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Ambassador Fanny Ikhayere Amun has ruled out the possibility of boardroom antics and political manoeuvres emerging from South Africa to knock the Super Eagles out of contention for their group’s loan ticket to the 2026 World Cup.
This follows Bafana Bafana’s surge to the group’s leadership with a 2-0 victory over Lesotho on Friday, while Nigeria’s victory of the same margin away to Rwanda a few minutes later moved them minimally up to fourth spot.
Alarmingly, though, speculation has emerged in the wake of both results that the presence of South African mining billionaire, Patrice Motsepe as the president of Confederation of African Football (CAF) could give Bafana Bafana an undue advantage in the crucial moments of the qualifiers, when football politics could be decisive in motivating off the pitch results.
However, in contrast with those speculations and permutations, Ambassador Amun insists all teams will have a level playing field, and stressed that all it would take are standout efforts from the players to determine which of the nations qualifies for the first FIFA World Cup to be co-hosted by three countries.
Amun argued that the presence of Lesotho and Zimbabwe as members of the Southern African football zone (COSAFA) rules out the possibility of anyone favouring Bafana Bafana, as he reckoned that regional rivalry among the trio would make them each want to bring the other down, rather than support them illicitly.
He opined, “Where does politics come in? Where does it come in, when we have three of the countries in the group coming from the same region in Africa? Each match will be seen in the course of 90 minutes, and it’s the players that will determine who qualifies. We can give them all the media coverage and hype, but it’s what they do on the pitch that matters most.”
The outspoken football tactician-turned-administrator, now a newspaper publisher, who won the FIFA U17 World Cup for Nigeria in 1993 and was Super Eagles’ assistant coach to Bora Milutinovic at the senior Mundial of France ’98, then charged the players to put in more effort to seal the group’s lone ticket, as he believes the NFF have done enough to motivate them.
“The federation will play their role and provide all the money needed. They are even ready to say, ‘Here is the allowance, come and take.’ But the players must not allow something to happen again, as it did in Uyo, when we could not win.
“However, I am very, very positive that we will make it from the group. To do that, we don’t have to draw any more; and let’s expect that something will happen to the top three teams,” Amun, who is fondly called Transformer of Talents, theorised.
As it were, Sports247 checks revealed that Nigeria might drop to fourth spot on the group table after matchday six, as Rwanda could amass 10 points from their next game, which is also at home against Lesotho.
At that same point, Nigeria would be on nine points if they defeat Zimbabwe on Tuesday, while Benin Republic would go top of the log with 11 points should they beat visiting South Africa, who will then drop to second place and stay on 10 points.
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