A former Chairman of the Gombe Football Association Ahmed Gara-Gombe does not believe in the capabilities of Super Eagles Head Coach Jose Peseiro, describing his appointment as one of the greatest mistakes in Nigerian football.
“Since the time of Clemens Westerhof, we never had a transition, a championship without confusion, without uncertainty, turning Nigerians into prayer warriors, praying for somebody to lose before we win; even from the qualification to where we are, I do not have confidence in the system,” he said on Thursday’s edition of Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily.
“In the first place, hiring Peseiro for the Super Eagles was one of the greatest mistakes we have ever made in the history of our football,” he said.
Peseiro has been heavily criticised for the Super Eagles’ poor showings in recent times and for lacking a playing style.
Nigeria began the 2026 World Cup qualification on a shaky note, drawing their first two games against lowly Lesotho and Zimbabwe.
While there were calls for his sack ahead of the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON), the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) stuck with the Portuguese.
But Gara-Gombe maintains that since the arrival of the former Venezuela coach, the Super Eagles have not improved.
“Being with them [the team], what was the outcome? There was never a time this guy managed this team from the sidelines that we were confident,” he said on the show.
“You and I know. Those days you can sit down and count a team, 11 players for the national team that you can say, ‘Yes, these are good to go’.
“You can sit down and say as soon as we line up before any team in Africa, ‘Yes, Nigeria will overrun them with ease’. You can sit down and say, ‘Okay, this is the tactics that the Super Eagles are playing.
“But today, no. Anybody who does that is just doing that for pleasure but not a reality, a reality.”
‘Intervention of God’
With three titles already, the Super Eagles gaffer is optimistic Nigeria can rule Africa again when the AFCON starts in Cote d’Ivoire in about two weeks.
However, Gara-Gombe has ruled out the Super Eagles from winning the competition. That can only take a miracle to happen, he said.
“The reality of the situation is that the Super Eagles are not just ready for this championship. Let us go and keep on trying our cut and paste strategy, our wobble and fumble strategy,” the football chief said.
“Let’s go ahead with that. If anything happens, then it’s the intervention of God, not because we are ready or we are prepared for that.” (Channels)
