World Cup
2026 FIFA WORLD Cup: Guild of Sports Editors calls for NFF Board, Finidi resignation
Following the poor run of the Super Eagles in the 2026 World Cup qualifying series, the Guild of Sports Editors in Nigeria has asked the board of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to be ready to resign Nigeria fail to make it to the finals.
It will be the first back-to-back miss of the World Cup by the Super Eagles since 1994.
Should the board also heed the call for resignation, it will be the second time ever that all members of the Nigerian football governing body will leave enmass. On 27 November 1964, all members of the then NFA resigned.
In a media release issued by the head of the guild, Tony Ubani, the body viewed with dismay the poor performance of the Super Eagles.
It added that it is unacceptable that Nigeria is struggling in fifth position in a group that comprises Lesotho, Rwanda, Benin Republic, Zimbabwe and South Africa.
According to the media release from the body which comprises all the managers of sports departments in the country’s major media organizations, the resolution was the product of its meeting on Tuesday.
The Guild said that although the situation in Group C looks irredeemable after four games, Nigeria could still qualify for the World Cup if the NFF puts its house in order.
In a communiqué signed by its president, Mr Tony Ubani, the Guild said: “We are shocked by the manner Nigeria’s bid to return to the World Cup after missing the 2022 edition is being mismanaged by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) through wrong and belated decisions and inability to set the rules for the national team.
“The NFF waited until just a month to the resumption of the qualifiers before naming a coach through a process flawed by many stakeholders because it did not follow due process.
“They kept quiet when some of the members of the new technical crew rejected their appointments; they have not shown leadership even when some of the players rejected invitation to the national team.
“Now is not the time to apportion blames, but the NFF must know that Nigerians cannot tolerate failure to qualify for the World Cup, especially now that Africa’s slot has been increased to nine countries.”
The Guild called for a complete overhaul of the NFF’s technical department, saying that the committee should contain only football persons with sound technical knowledge of the game.
“The technical department is supposed to be the engine room of the federation, which should direct what happens at the national teams. It is not a place for politically-correct individuals who know little or nothing about the game.”
The editors lamented that Nigeria could only secure three out of 12 available points after four matches to languish in fifth position in Group C, saying that such poor form could have been avoided if the relevant persons did their jobs properly.
To arrest the situation, the body urged the NFF to scout for more corporate support for the Super Eagles, saying that the federation should spread its net to generate the resources that would aid its preparations for the remaining matches in the qualifying series.
It added: “The NFF must change its priority and take the national teams as the first among its responsibilities. The practice of packing the country’s delegation to matches with states’ FA chairmen and nebulous stakeholders, who add nothing to the Super Eagles, must be stopped. Monies saved from estacodes that are paid to these ‘stakeholders’ should be used to address issues in the national team, including remuneration for assistant coaches.”
The body also urged the NFF to check the way players are invited to the national team, saying that most of the players in the current Super Eagles’ squad have no place in the team.
“Some of the players are no longer relevant in the Super Eagles; their cycle is done. The entire Super Eagles system needs an overhaul and those officials, who have nothing more to add to the team, should go.
“The NFF should also investigate the players’ attitude to these qualifiers to find out if their output is a form of protest. We say this because some players can do anything to sack the coach if they don’t like him.
“So going forward, the NFF must ensure that only players willing to serve the country are invited to the national teams. It is embarrassing to see players pulling out of national assignments. It suggests that the NFF did not do its homework before inviting such players to camp.
“The NFF must also ensure that going forward players do not stroll into camp two days before any match. There must be a timeline for players to join the camp and appropriate sanction for anybody that flouts that timeline.”
On the technical crew, the editors said that Coach Finidi George has failed to galvanise his players to serve the country to the best of their ability, adding that Skipper William Troost-Ekong, who was left out of the last two games, should be brought back to offer leadership to the squad.
Thousands of people, led by mothers of those who have disappeared during decades of drug violence, marched in Mexico’s capital on Sunday, protesting the violence and impunity plaguing the country as it prepares to co-host the FIFA World Cup.
Collectives of mothers of the missing, who march every Mother’s Day, called on soccer fans to join them, saying in a statement that “there is nothing to celebrate, because the mothers of Mexico are playing the most difficult match: the one for justice.”
“Mexico, champion in disappearances,” protesters chanted as they marched down Paseo de la Reforma, the signature boulevard in Mexico City, holding banners and signs emblazoned with pictures of missing people. They passed a roundabout surrounded by metal barriers that are permanently covered with pictures of the disappeared.
“We had to start fighting, because no one wanted to take charge of the disappearance (case),” said Graciela Perez Rodriguez, whose daughter and four other relatives disappeared in 2012 in the northern state of Tamaulipas as they travelled on a highway after a trip to the U.S.
Mexico has more than 130,000 missing people, with disappearances surging after 2006, when the country launched its war on drug cartels.
Police and other government officials are often implicated in the crimes. Mothers who search for their missing children themselves when authorities fail to act are sometimes also targeted by criminal groups and killed.
In March, Mexican authorities said they had potentially identified more than 40,000 people listed as disappeared who may be alive, after a review of the national registry of missing persons showed some activity across other government records.
But the public policy group Mexico Evalua found there has been a 200% increase in disappearances over the last decade, due to the growing power of organised crime groups.
Rodriguez said she worries that the case of her missing family members is no longer a priority since almost 14 years have passed.
-Reuters
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Players making their first appearance at the 2026 FIFA World Cup will wear special debut patches on their jerseys in a groundbreaking initiative aimed at creating unique football collectables for fans around the world.
The innovation, introduced as part of a new licensing agreement between FIFA and sports merchandise giant Fanatics, will see the commemorative patches removed after each player’s World Cup debut and transformed into collectable trading cards by Topps.
The initiative means several global stars, including Erling Haaland and Lamine Yamal, are expected to receive debut patches when they make their first appearances at football’s biggest tournament this summer.
According to reports, every member of the Scotland squad will also qualify for the commemorative badge as the country returns to the World Cup after a lengthy absence.
The design of the debut patch has yet to be unveiled, but the concept mirrors a system already used in American sports and recently introduced into Major League Soccer in 2024.
Under the proposed arrangement, each participating team will receive a stock of debut patches, which will be attached to the upper-right chest area of a player’s shirt before his first World Cup match.
Once the game is completed, the patch will be removed and embedded into a one-of-a-kind trading card that will later be distributed randomly in collectable hobby boxes produced by Topps.
Although FIFA has not confirmed whether players will autograph the cards, the MLS version of the programme includes signed editions that have become highly sought-after among collectors.
The Fanatics licensing agreement with FIFA officially begins in 2031, meaning the debut cards from both the 2026 and 2030 FIFA World Cups will only become commercially available after that date.
The 2026 tournament is expected to generate more than 600 debut cards, especially with several nations preparing for their maiden World Cup appearances.
Among the debutant countries are Cape Verde, Curacao, Jordan and Uzbekistan.
Several nations are also returning to the tournament after long absences, including Scotland, Norway, Paraguay, Turkey and New Zealand.
African representatives Algeria and Côte d’Ivoire, alongside Bosnia and Herzegovina, are also returning to the World Cup for the first time in 12 years and are expected to have squads filled with tournament debutants.
The initiative is expected to add a fresh commercial and historical dimension to the FIFA World Cup, turning players’ first moments on football’s grandest stage into permanent memorabilia for future generations.
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Set-piece prowess may be reshaping club football, but FIFA’s Technical Study Group said on Monday that dead-ball dominance is unlikely to define this year’s World Cup, largely due to limited preparation time for international teams.
Speaking at a FIFA media roundtable a month before the expanded 48-team tournament in the United States, Canada and Mexico, TSG members discussed emerging trends, including Arsenal-style set-piece specialisation.
Premier League leaders Arsenal – dubbed the “set-piece kings” – last month smashed the record for most goals scored from corners in a single Premier League season.
“I’d be interested to see how the other teams approach this,” said Gilberto Silva, a 2002 World Cup winner with Brazil and former Arsenal midfielder.
“We have seen this season, especially in the Premier League with Arsenal. In the last few years, corner kicks and long balls have not been used as much compared to when I played, when they were more common. In the last few years, the game has developed, with teams building from the goalkeeper.
“But I’m not so sure the World Cup will be the same, because you don’t have much time to prepare a team for these tournaments. Of course, it can be a weapon and teams will use it, but not as the main one.
“I expect tight games, with a lot of practical aspects and teams looking to exploit transitions to break through.”
Last year’s Club World Cup in the U.S., which served as a dress rehearsal for the showpiece tournament, also highlighted the potential impact of scorching heat.
“In general, the Club World Cup showed a very similar level of intensity in the matches compared to the 2022 World Cup when we looked at some of the key games,” said Tom Gardner, Lead of Football Performance Insights.
“So I’m sure heat may be a factor in how teams manage that. But we don’t expect to see on a physical level very similar outputs to 2022, as we did at the 2025 Club World Cup.”
The TSG will provide analysis of all matches at the World Cup. Guided by FIFA Chief of Global Football Development Arsene Wenger, the group includes figures such as Silva, Juergen Klinsmann and Pablo Zabaleta, and is supported by a team of analysts and data specialists.
-Reuters
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