World Cup Bombshell For Buhari: Dalung kicks against Nigeria’s participation

Attention President Muhammadu Buhari: This is what the man you appointed the general overseer of our sports told an international media organisation,Voice of America, Hausa Service: Nigeria does not need to attend the next World Cup holding in Russia.

The World Cup is not just a football competition. It also represents a bigger avenue for nations to showcase their football artistry to a global audience, with players getting to secure new and bumper contracts and endorsements, which in turn, impact positively on the country’’s Gross Domestic Product and Foreign Direct Investment. Football is business and the World Cup fetches money for all participants. It is top in entertainment and business. Qualifiers even earn more than $5m from Fifa.

Besides the Olympics, the World Cup is by far the single biggest sports competition in the world, drawing record crowd appearances and creating a never-seen like before football atmospheres for its one-month duration. The road to the next World Cup in 2018 is on, with the Super Eagles are leading the proverbial group of death with six maximum points from two matches against Zambia and Algeria. Cameroon, the only African country with the most appearance at the World Cup make up the group, from which only the first-placed team qualifies for the event.

Having missed out on a place at the next Africa Cup of Nations, starting in January in Gabon, Nigeria desperately needs to play at the World Cup to make up for the lost chance to play at AFCON 2017 but bizarrely, the one who ought to be championing the cause of going to the World Cup is ridiculously the one kicking against it. Minister of Sport and Youth Development, Solomon Dalung yesterday stunned all when he told the Voice of America that he was against Nigeria’s participation at the World Cup.

His reasons: “That competition stinks of corruption; that Nigeria is too poor to waste money on it and that Nigeria would never win the trophy”. The implication of his statement is also that it is not necessary to waste money qualifying when you cannot win the World Cup. As shocking as these may be, Dalung, a lawyer by training, said Nigeria should be content with playing at the Nations Cup, Olympics, Commonwealth Games. He said that Nigeria could win the Nations Cup but not the World Cup. World Cup finalists are guaranteed huge sum of money running into millions. According to Dalung, “The cup that we can win is the African Cup of Nations. There is nothing again that will take us to another man’s balcony in the name of the World Cup. We already have the Commonwealth Games and the Olympics. For these, we can attend such meets. But I am opposed to the World Cup. We don’t agree to it. Conspiracy in the World Cup is too much,” he said, a st

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