World Cup 2026: We wait on FIFA — Dikko

By Taiwo Amodu

Nigeria’s chances of appearing in the 2026 World Cup depend on the FIFA pronouncement on the petition before it.

Chairman of the National Sports Commission (NSC), Shehu Dikko, made the clarification on Thursday while speaking with State House correspondents.

The Chairman of the NSC has visited President Bola Tinubu to brief him on the Commission’s 2025 performance, approvals granted by the President, and projections for 2026.

Checks revealed that the national football team was eliminated from the 2026 World Cup qualifiers after losing on penalties to DR Congo in the African play-off final in November 2025.

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Nigeria had notified FIFA of breaches during the African play-off final.

The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) filed a protest before the global football body, alleging that DR Congo fielded ineligible players due to dual citizenship issues under Congolese law.

Dikko expressed confidence that Nigeria would appear at the tournament since it has a good case against DR Congo.

He said, “It is what it is. I keep saying it, when we came in as a sports commission, the World Cup issue was already virtually lost. Remember when we spoke here, we were three points out of 12, but we pushed, worked with the NFF, with everybody, and we nearly made it.

“We had a misfortune or penalties in the playoffs. We lost it, but we found out there are some breaches here and there, which we believe, even before we played the playoffs, those breaches, we noticed them, and we already documented them.

“So ourselves and the NFF submitted to FIFA what we feel were the breaches against the rules and regulations, which is also part of sports, it’s not being sore losers, it’s just what it is.

“So the relevant bodies of FIFA are dealing with it, and we are hoping that any moment, we will hear their decisions. But we are confident we have a good case.”

He, however, said the NSC was prepared to put the FIFA 2026 behind it and concentrate on the forthcoming AFCON and WAFCON.

“But I keep saying, we have put the World Cup behind us already. Whatever happens, it is what it is. But we are not looking at that, we are looking at how to build for the next competitions, the next AFCON, the next WAFCON is next month.

“You can see how we pushed the performance at the last AFCON in Morocco; everybody was happy about it.

“So World Cup is a closed chapter, but yes, we have a pending legal issue to deal with. It’s not within our competence to do; our own is to say this is what we feel was the wrong thing that was done, and we leave it.

“Even FIFA, it’s not the FIFA deciding, there are independent bodies in FIFA who are independent of FIFA; disciplinary committee, ethics committee, are independent bodies of FIFA, they make their decision based on what they see on the rules and they won’t tell you, we are doing it tomorrow or next tomorrow, when they finish, they will tell the world. But we are confident that, yes, if it is legal issues, we have a good case. That’s why we submitted the case.”

Appraising the sports sector, the Chairman of the NSC described the feat achieved last year as remarkable, declaring that, “375 medals were won across all sports, while sports, which he noted contributed about 1.2% of the GDP in the third quarter of 2025, also earned about N50 billion of private sector funding.

“I’m sure if you are following, you’ll have seen that two weeks ago, Mr President himself published it on his Twitter handle, the progress that was made in 2025. Last year was huge; we made almost 375 medals across all sports, contributed about 1.2% of the GDP in the third quarter of 2025, about N50 billion of private sector funding that has come in, and all the firsts that we have won across all sports, and also the challenges.

“So we are really on the right track, and I believe Mr President is happy, and that’s why we are now having this conversation to see how we can make it better in 2026 and beyond, and I submitted our annual report of what we have done, formally, to Mr President and then there are certain approvals.

“For example, he approved the constitution of the Nigerian anti-doping agency, which is a must for us, because WADA are on our case.

“Mr. President has signed the bill since last year, after almost 20 years in the hiatus of the antidoping bill, he has signed it, and now he has approved that the board of the Anti Doping Agency of Nigeria should be constituted, which is one of the conditions WADA wants to see us achieve.

“Already, Nigeria has been cleared and a clean country in sports. So we are really on the right track, and there are so many other approvals that Mr. President has given today for the benefit of sports, going forward.”