Amid growing concerns over the poor performance of the Super Eagles at the ongoing World Cup qualifiers, the National Sports Commission (NSC) on Monday said that the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) will determine the fate of Super Eagles coach, Eric Chelle.
The Chairman of the NSC, Shehu Dikko, stated this on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief.
“Eric Chelle is the responsibility of the Nigeria Football Federation to decide. At the end of the day, after they finish, they’ll do the analysis, and then they will recommend to us, and then we look at it, we approve or disapprove, or we engage to do that,” said Dikko.
“As for the World Cup, we all know where we are. When we came on board, we only had three points out of 12, but now we have been able to, at least with Eric Chelle, the NFF, pull ourselves together. Now, we have eight points in another four games.
“If we had gotten these results before, probably, we could have been preparing to qualify for the World Cup,” he added.
Dikko explained that while the NSC has supported the team, the fate of Nigeria in the World Cup qualifiers was not in the hands of the sports commission.
“Based on the numbers, it’s out of our hands,” Dikko said on the breakfast show.
“So we just have to win our next two games and see what happens because it’s in football; somebody has to lose for you to qualify.
“So, we have to win our next two games and see where it takes us. But we are still hopeful. Anything can happen.
“As a commission, we did all we had to do to support. For the last game we played, the National Sports Commission chartered a flight, paid for hotels, and made the bonuses available.”
With two matches left to play in Group C, Nigeria are six points behind South Africa, who are topping the group with 17 points, and three points behind Benin.
The Super Eagles are on 11 points on the table.
The Eagles failed to secure maximum points away to South Africa in Bloemfontein on September 9, leaving Nigeria’s 2026 World Cup hopes hanging by a thread.
An own goal by captain William Troost-Ekong and an equaliser from Calvin Bassey saw Nigeria held to a 1-1 draw in the crucial qualifier against Bafana Bafana.
The situation has left Nigeria requiring a miracle to reach the tournament to be hosted by the US, Canada, and Mexico.
Irked by the performance, a former Super Eagles captain, Mikel Obi, called for the disbandment of the NFF if the country failed to qualify for the 2026 World Cup.
Mikel said the country’s struggles in the World Cup qualifiers were due to the football body’s inability to put its house in order.
“If Nigeria doesn’t qualify for the World Cup, the entire NFF board has to go… It’s unacceptable,” the former Chelsea star stated on the Obi One Podcast.
Nigeria’s next match will be against Lesotho on October 8.
Three days after, the Super Eagles will play their last game of the qualifiers against Benin on October 11.
Chelle, a Malian, was appointed as Head Coach of Nigeria’s Super Eagles in January 2025.