Heartbreak strikes Super Eagles fans as 2022 World Cup kicks off

Nigerian football supporters are currently watching the Mundial at home but their sadness at their country's failure to qualify for the World Cup, which began today in Qatar, has been expressed greatly.

At the six previous World Cups in which their beloved team has competed, the Super Eagles supporters have created wonderful scenes and pushed their players with songs in the stands.

After both sides drew scorelessly in Kumasi and then drew 1-1 in Abuja in the World Cup playoffs, Ghana eliminated Nigeria on the basis of away goals in March. Thomas Partey scored for Ghana while Troost Ekong scored for Nigeria in Abuja.

Some Nigerians spoke about watching the World Cup at home with the players.

“It’s now a reality, a bad dream, that we will not be at the World Cup,” lamented Segun Olayinka, a fan based in Lagos.

“Our best players like Victor Osimhen and Wilfred Ndidi have been doing great at their clubs in Europe, but now they can only watch the World Cup on television, just like me,"

“From what I have seen on television and the internet this will be a great World Cup, a spectacle, going by how far and how well Qatar has gone to make it so,”

“Qatar will make history as the first Asian country to host the World Cup and sadly the Super Eagles will not be there,” said Ayo Owolabi a journalist.

“I believe they will great host despite some of the apprehension being expressed by some people,"

“They have already gone out of their way to make it one World Cup to remember with the wonderful stadiums they have built and the technology they have employed,”

Former Super Eagles coach Gernot Rohr blamed former NFF boss Amaju Pinnick for Nigeria's inability to qualify for the global showpiece.

“(Amaju) Pinnick (then president of the Nigeria Football Federation) said my dismissal will avert a disaster, but in the end he created the disaster that cost Nigeria the ticket to the World Cup,” said Rohr.