Former Super Eagles winger Tijani Babangida has blamed Nigeria’s failed 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifying campaign on “self-inflicted” issues, insisting that former head coach Finidi George had the competence and experience to guide the team to qualification.

Speaking in a recent interview, Babangida expressed deep frustration over the circumstances that led to Nigeria missing out on a direct ticket, stressing that internal problems rather than lack of talent or technical know-how derailed the campaign.

According to him, Finidi’s track record with Enyimba and his understanding of the national team setup were more than sufficient to steer the Super Eagles through the qualifiers.

“I believe if Finidi didn’t have that problem with the team, with the experience he has with Enyimba and the coaching he’s doing, I’m sure he would have cleared all those matches,” Babangida told Brila Fm.“Because of that issue alone, we lost two matches and those two matches cost us our World Cup.”

He noted that once the internal tensions settled, particularly after the controversy involving striker Victor Osimhen, the team looked more organised and began to win again. However, by then the damage had already been done.

“When I saw them come back, the whole team became settled and we started winning again. But it was too late for us at that time,” he lamented.

Babangida criticised the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) for allowing the conflict between Osimhen and the coaching crew to escalate, arguing that the situation should have been handled swiftly to prevent it from affecting results.

“The NFF should not have allowed that problem with Osimhen to escalate. They were supposed to do what needed to be done, but they didn’t. It was very unfortunate,” he said.

Despite the disappointing campaign, the former Ajax star urged the NFF not to lose faith in Nigerian coaches. He argued that domestic managers should continue to be given opportunities, but supported the idea of pairing them with highly experienced European technical advisers.

“NFF should not be discouraged from giving our coaches a chance again. They can always bring in a very experienced European coach to assist them, but the opportunity must remain,” he added.