*Says ‘preparation for 2030 Mundial must start now’
A former Super Eagles coach and captain, Sunday Oliseh, has warned that Nigeria cannot afford to miss out of the 2030 FIFA World Cup finals.
Oliseh said if such happen, the Super Eagles could be erased from the global football relevance after a 12-year break from the major football showpiece.
He stressed that sponsorship will be lost while dreams of generation of players will be shattered if such happen.
The former Juventus player said: “If we do not act today, we will become the next Italy of world football. Believe me, that will happen. A third consecutive failure to qualify for the World Cup will not just be a setback, it will derail Nigerian football definitely. It’s a mathematical truth.
“A 12-year absence from the World Cup will destroy sponsorship, kill the dreams of the next generation and erases the nation from the global scouting map immediately. It will be the end of our relevance on the global stage.”
On the way forward to avoid another failure, Oliseh enumerated a road map.
“To save our 2030 hopes here is the road map; we need to do a ruthless team inventory, we need to do a cold hard man check on our squad. Take every player trending right now and add four years to their age, that is their age for 2030.
“If that number is over 32 we need a substitute understudy in camp today. We cannot go into war in 2030 with soldiers whose legs are already gone. We need transition now before it’s too late.
“We have world-class dominants from Victor Osimhen, Akpor Adams and Ademola Lookman. These guys are dismantling European defences. They have fuel at the moment but even the best fuel is useless if the engine is broken. The world respected the green white green because we had a plan but let’s be honest that success made us lazy, we started believing talent was enough, we thought we didn’t need a system.” said Sunday
