Former Super Eagles captain Sunday Oliseh has launched a scathing attack on the Nigeria Football Federation and current national team players, accusing them of creating divisions that threaten the squad’s World Cup qualification chances.
The 1994 Africa Cup of Nations winner expressed outrage over the treatment of captain William Troost-Ekong and striker Cyriel Dessers following Nigeria’s disappointing 1-1 draw with South Africa in their World Cup qualifier.
Speaking on his YouTube channel, Oliseh warned that the internal fractures mirror those that cost Nigeria dearly two decades ago.
“Football is a team sport. From that alone you already know why this Super Eagles is not performing,” Oliseh declared. “They are shifting the blame away from the management and putting it on the players.”
The former midfielder defended Troost-Ekong, who conceded an unfortunate own goal whilst attempting to clear danger during the South Africa encounter. He also backed Dessers, despite criticism of the striker’s performance just days after he helped secure victory in Nigeria’s previous match.
“Your captain scored an own goal while trying to defend. It is as if he took the ball with his hand and put it inside. He was trying to defend and scored an own goal,” Oliseh explained. “Dessers, who was one of the instrumental players that helped us to win three days before, is being criticised. Now they are being attacked.”
What particularly angered the former Juventus star was the silence from other squad members when their teammates came under fire.
“They attack these players and the Super Eagles players, none of them have said anything. So it is as if they even deserved being criticised because they are not standing as a team. They are not backing their leaders,” he stressed.
Oliseh drew parallels with Nigeria’s squad disharmony in 2002, which he claims led to the country’s first World Cup qualification failure in nearly two decades.
“This is what destroyed the Super Eagles in 2002. Look when they did it in 2002, have we all forgotten that the punishment we got was that in 2006 we didn’t qualify. It became the first time that Nigeria did not qualify for the World Cup in almost 20 years. And that’s when the national team started degrading,” he recalled.
The 50-year-old also alleged serious financial grievances within the squad, claiming some players have gone without match bonuses for extended periods whilst enduring public criticism.
“So you have not been paid match bonuses and you’re being criticised and you don’t have enough gut to come out and make your own clear in this modern age of social media where you don’t need the mainstream media to put your own opinions out there,” he said.
