By Our Correspondents
Football enthusiasts in Nigeria have urged the nation’s football governing body, Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to put its house in order to avert the looming danger of not qualifying for the 2026 FIFA World rather than focusing on Victor Osimhen.
Nigerians who took to their various social media handles to express their displeasures over the reported threats by the NFF to sanction the Napoli Star over the video he did regarding his fallout with the immediate-past Head Coach of the Super Eagles, Finidi George, warned that any attempt to ‘victimize’ the Africa’s Best Player would meet resistance from fans across the country.
Profile SportsDesk captured the following remarks by angry Nigerians:
“You can’t cause the problems, benefit from the problems, embarrassed Nigerians with the problems and then turn to punish an innocent person. Leave Victor Osimhen alone’.-Paroddy G”
“NFF should hide their heads in shame instead of trying to victimize a man who has put in all his best to better Nigerian Football’ -Zikky Joe”
“We have good indigenous coaches like Sampson Siasia, Amunike, Amokachi, etc in this country. But you NFF chose to hire Finidi George whom you can teleguide. The catastrophic result is here. Instead of all of you resigning, you want to sanction Osimhen. Go ahead and sanction him and lose the support of Nigerians’ -Ukpeh Andy”
“Did Victor Osimhen cause the woeful and embarrassing performance? Leave the young man alone and focus on how you can escape the imminent non-qualification of the Super Eagles’ – Taslim Ojo”
“Everything about NFF is failure. Why not allow the sleeping dog lie’ -Rapza Bongos”
“You can’t sanction a man for telling the truth. Focus on sanitizing the NFF for the good of our football’ -Fyneface Tamuno”
“Banning Osimhen from the national team squad will be counterproductive. Anybody thinking of such a move should ponder the broader implications of something that drastic. Discipline is essential and should be maintained. But purging perhaps your best player during a qualifying round that you are performing poorly at is itself an own goal. Yes, there is no I in team. But there is an I in win. And Osimhen is a winner. Our next opponents will be smiling. And this latest action will likely antagonise Osimhen further.
The goal is for him to understand where he erred and apologise. Since that is the goal, it makes more sense, from a leadership point of view, to speak to Osimhen behind the scenes and address the issues that gave rise to his outburst. He would have been more likely to apologise on his own initiative if that course of action was taken. That is goal oriented leadership, which, in my opinion, the Nigerian Football Federation ought to apply in this instance. Perhaps it is not too late to reconsider the ban’ – Reno Omokri”
Recall that there have been media reports to the effect that the NFF was considering sanctioning Osimhen after the Sallah break.
One of such reports is hereunder reproduced:
The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) will reportedly open disciplinary proceedings against Victor Osihmen over his verbal attack on the former coach of the senior national team of Nigeria, Finidi George.
Recall that the Napoli striker launched a scathing attack on the former Super Eagles head coach during an explosive Instagram Live session.
During the outburst, a visibly angry Osimhen condemned Finidi over an alleged comment questioning his commitment to the Super Eagles after the player withdrew from their last two 2026 World Cup qualifiers due to injury.
Finidi George was quoted to have said he can’t beg Osimhen to play for the national team, a quote that was reportedly fake and misleading.
According to Vanguard, the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) will in the coming days charg,e Vctor Osimhen for improper conduct over his verbal attack on Finidi George.
A board member of the NFF confirmed the new development to Owngoal Nigeria.
“Already the president of the NFF Ibrahim Muse Guseu has spoken with Osimhen over his outburst and Finidi also reached out to him. The report he reacted to is fake and misleading, sadly he didn’t confirm before reacting”, a board member of the NFF told Owngoal Nigeria.com.
“Victor Osimhen is a role model and the only way we can help the incoming coach stamp his authority is by using him to set an example. He crossed the line with his outburst even when Finidi called him to explain he still didn’t doom it fit to retract his statements. We won’t condone that and after the Salah break, we will sit on the issue. I can tell you he won’t be in the team until he says sorry for his actions”, he concluded.