Why Nigeria are not at the World Cup with African giants missing for second consecutive tournament

The 2026 World Cup is nearly upon us, but Nigeria won’t be there.

The Super Eagles are one of the more successful African nations on the football stage, but they won’t be in North America.

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Their World Cup record is relatively strong, having not qualified for FIFA’s premier competition until 1994.

Since then, they’ve only missed out on 2006 in Germany and 2022 in Qatar.

Now, you can add 2026 to the list as well, with the Nigerian players facing a quiet summer rather than a chance to represent their country at an international tournament.

They’ve only ever made it to the the round of 16, but they have still been a valuable addition to the World Cup.

Here, talkSPORT.com looks into why Victor Osimhen and co won’t be in North America this summer.

Why are Nigeria not at the World Cup?

Nigeria failed to qualify for the competition through the group stage and then the play-off.

But not everything is as it seems.

Nigeria were put into Group C for World Cup qualification.

They were alongside South Africa, Benin, Lesotho, Rwanda and Zimbabwe.

The Super Eagles started the the group as favourites with only the top team automatically qualifying for the World Cup, and the team finishing second going into a round of play-offs.

Of ten matches, Nigeria lost one, won four and drew five, and it was those results, especially to Zimbabwe, that proved to be costly.

They finished on 17 points, with South Africa taking top spot with 18 points despite losing more matches than the Super Eagles.

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This saw Nigeria have to be involved in a play-off against Gabon first and then DR Congo.

The Super Eagles dispatched of Gabon 4-1 despite it being 1-1 at full time, which set up a tie against DR Congo for a place at the final play-offs.

DR Congo finished second in Group B behind AFCON champions Senegal.

They claimed 22 points, and the match was played in Morocco.

Nigeria scored inside three minutes through new Coventry City signing Frank Onyeka, but Meschak Elia Lina equalised in the first half.

That sent the contest to a penalty shootout, and Congo came out 4-3 winners with Calvin Bassey, Moses Simon and Semi Ajayi all missing penalties, handing Chancel Mbemba the chance to win the tie and take DR Congo to the next round of the play-offs.

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Controversy

Nigeria launched an appeal in an effort to get into the World Cup.

The Super Eagles filed a complaint to FIFA over DR Congo’s use of dual nationality players.

As per rules, players are only required to hold the passports of the representative country in order to be cleared to play for that country.

According to reports, between six to nine players used by DR Congo during the qualification campaign may not have completed the process of giving up their European passports in line with Congolese law before representing the country.

That initial complaint was rejected by FIFA’s Disciplinary Committee, but Nigeria launched an appeal.

In a statement, the Nigerian Football Federation said: “We have received the decision of the FIFA Disciplinary Committee on our petition, but we are not satisfied with the decision, which rejected our petition.

“I want to assure Nigerians that the NFF has immediately commenced the process of appealing the decision.”

However, that failed and DR Congo have since beaten Jamaica to make it to the World Cup, and they are in a group with Portugal, Uzbekistan and Colombia.

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And after the match between DR Congo and Nigeria, the Super Eagles’ head coach Eric Chelle accused their opponents of witchcraft.

Chelle had to be held back from attacking the opposition bench before Mbemba’s penalty, and after the game, he said: “During all the penalties, the guy of Congo did some voodoo.

“Every time, so this is why I was a little nervous after him.”

When asked what he saw, Chelle shook his arm and said: “Something like that… I don’t know if it’s water or something like that.”

What about Cameroon?

There will be no Bryan Mbeumo or Andre Onana at the World Cup either after they also failed to qualify.

Cameroon finished second ion Group D behind minnows Cape Verde.

The Indomitable Lions finished on 19 points, missing out by four points.

That saw them put into the play-offs, and they came up against DR Congo, who won 1-0.

Mbemba was the hero for his country once again, and it ensured Cameroon failed to qualify for the World Cup for just the fourth time since 1982.