Benedict Iroha, a former Nigeria defender, has exclusively told Completesports.com that the Super Eagles’ performance in Monday’s 1-2 defeat to Rwanda in AFCON 2025 qualifying match was a massive disappointment.
Completesports.com spotted the Texas, USA-based former Iwuanyanwu Nationale, ASEC Mimosas, and Vitesse Arnhem left-back at the Godswill Akpabio International Stadium, Uyo, during the game.
After Rwanda’s shock 2-1 victory at the Godswill Akpabio International Stadium Uyo, Iroha did not hold back his criticism of the Super Eagles’ underwhelming display.
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“That was the poorest performance I could have ever expected from the Super Eagles,” Iroha lamented. “They totally disappointed the coach with that level of performance. They didn’t come to the party at all.”
The 54-year-old Iroha, who was an assistant coach at Heartland FC when they reached the 2009 CAF Champions League final, losing 2-1 on aggregate to TP Mazembe, expressed frustration at how the players squandered a key opportunity. With the Super Eagles already qualified for the AFCON finals in Morocco, he noted the “dead rubber” match was an ideal chance for Coach Augustine Eguavoen to test fringe players.
“Unfortunately, the players who had the chance to stake a claim for a permanent place in the squad, especially for the 2025 AFCON, wasted it,” Iroha remarked.
“What Eguavoen did by giving opportunities to other players is what any coach would have done. This match was a chance to build squad depth. But the players’ mentality was poor. They disappointed the coach and failed to rise to the occasion.”
He highlighted the impact of substitutes Samuel Chukwueze and Victor Osimhen, who brought energy to the game, with Chukwueze scoring Nigeria’s only goal.
“Every team needs a strong bench to support the starting eleven in emergencies. But the performance, especially in the first half, was unacceptable,” Iroha said.
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Iroha, who retired in 2000 after a stint with Watford, also served as an assistant coach for Nigeria’s U17 Golden Eaglets when they won the 2007 FIFA U17 World Cup. He was part of Augustine Eguavoen’s backroom staff with the U23 Olympic Eagles in 2012.
Amid speculation about Eguavoen’s future, Iroha urged the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to entrust him with the Super Eagles’ 2025 AFCON campaign and offer him a formal contract.
“Eguavoen has built a good rapport with the players,” Iroha noted. “You could see how Chukwueze hugged him after scoring. That kind of unity is vital for success.
“While I don’t have the authority to dictate to the NFF, as a former international and coach with experience at various national team levels, I believe Eguavoen is the right man for the job. His track record speaks for itself.”
The current engagement marks Eguavoen’s fourth spell with the Super Eagles in different capacities, including Head Coach, interim and caretaker roles.
By Sab Osuji, in Uyo
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21 Comments
Na wah for naija, u slam eagles for poor performance and u still dey push for Egu to keep d job,abeg na who coach dem b4 wey undey slam dem? Na my papa coach dem? Naija funny I swear. Nff is d most unserious organizations in this naija. All these while u said Egu was on temporary job, una no fit find coach. Na now una wan start again.pity those expecting us in world cup. Rwanda came and beat us, d coach told us his resigning his post and we can’t even approach him to see if he can take d eagles. Sentiment just dey spoil una
Simply make your comment and leave the man out of your wàhala. Truly Eguaveon deserves more than the 3weeks he’s been given to prepare the boys. The worst is even that some stupid people would still want the man to perform miracle within such a short time. How na? What I think the NFF will do is to grant Egu a 4 year contract with an understanding that he qualifies the team for subsequent tourneys.
4yrs what??? Na wah. Have you seen his tactics, and ya asking for 4yrs when we are trying to see if we can qualify for worldcup. This worldcup saga,who got us into this shit? Indigenous coach. We kept saying use Indigenous coach and today wre are we? Nff should send him to a 4yr training instead for him to aquire d latest knowledge when it comes to football,and not for him playing same old patterns which previous foreign coaches wre playing . Come on this is d super eagles we are talking about here. Rwanda beating us at home with our top guys and we are asking another 4yrs for him? Well it’s ur opinion which u rightfully have, buy for me if we appoint him then we should be ready for d pain dat comes with it
Are you wondering why Nigeria is not moving forward? This is one of the examples Nigeria is facing as a nation.
It would reach a stage where Nigerians would be going after those running the affairs of Nigeria. It’s getting to that stage soon.
Indeed, Nigerians are the major problem of Nigeria, shikena. Fingers crossed. Ire o. God bless Nigeria!!!
NFF SHOULD EMPLOY A COACH THAT IS HIGHLY TECHNICAL, GOOD STANDARD FOREIGN COACH THAT KNOWS AFRICAN FOOTBALL & PLAYERS.
THE REASON WHY SOME EX-PLAYERS AND SOME PRESENT SUPER EAGLE PLAYERS ARE IN SUPPORT OF INDIGENOUS COACH(especially Equaveon) IS BECAUSE THAT, IT WILL BE VERY EASY FOR THEM TO PENETRATE IN HIM, CONTROLLING HIM & DICTATING TO HIM WHEN IT COMES TO PLAYERS SELECTION, WHICH IT CANNOT BE POSSIBLE ON FOREIGN COACH. ALSO, IT WILL BE VERY EASY TO DO BUSINESS BY INTRODUCING PLAYERS TO INDIGENOUS COACH AFTER COLLECTING BRIBE FROM SUCH BE PLAYERS.
** NOTE: We should not be deceiving ourselves in this country because of the way things work for other countries (e.g. Democracy work well in America, S/Africa, Ghana but it doesn’t work well in Nigeria).
THE WAY THINGS WORK FOR COACH H. SHEHATA(EGYPT), COACH ALIOU CISSE(SENEGAL), COACH EMERSE FAE(IVORY COAST) BY WINNING AFCON FOR THEIR COUNTY (and also qualified for next AFCON easily) MAY NOT WORK IN NIGERIA DUE TO CORRUPTION, IMPROPER PLANNING, LACK OF STRUCTURES, BAD MANAGEMENT.
IN NIGERIA, WE ARE TOO RELIGIONISTIC, REGIONISTIC, TRIBALISTIC & SENTIMENTAL.
EVEN when Keshi won AFCON in 2013, he failed woefully to qualified for next AFCON due to bad management(Pinnick VS Giwa), sentiment, jealous, hatred towards some players (e.g. Yobo, I.K. uche, V.moses).
**** NFF SHOULD GO FOR THE BEST COACH.***
What matters most is to move our football forward & not celebrating FLUKE WINNING again. We struggle/manage to beat CIV by penalty in AFCON group stage. But E/guinea beat CIV 4-0 convincingly.
*** KESHI WON AFCON IN 2013, BUT WE CANNOT BOAST OF PLAYERS, THE TEAM FOR THE FUTURE (for instance: Sunday MBA, Uzoenyi, Oshaniwa, Agbim are nowhere to be found in future football). AND NIGERIA FAILED TO QUALIFIED FOR NEXT TWO CONSECUTIVE AFCON.
WHAT A SHAME!!!!
**** WESTERHOF WIN AFCON IN 1994, BUT NIGERIA CAN BOAST OF FUTURE FOOTBALL (for instance: Oliseh, Okocha, Amokachi, Amuneke shine for future football).
WHAT A BRIGHTER FUTURE!!!!!
### NFF SHOULD EMPLOY A GOOD DISCIPLINE, TACTICAL, HIGHLY RESPECTED COACH ###
Exactly
That is the height of idiocy. He led the Eagles to four games, won one, tied two and lost one. You slam the players for poor showing under Eguavoen, but at the same time advocate for Eguavoen to be upgraded from interim to a permanent coach.
You have to vomit whatever it is you ate or drank that got you thinking Eguavoen is a good fit for the job.
Stop letting sentiment becloud your judgment, Eguavoen is not better than Finidi. Just as Finidi was demoted that led to his exit, Eguavoen should be gone. He has no business being Eagles coach.
Stop your nonsense criticisms of Eguavoen, without facts! He did not “win one” game as you claimed but three, including beating Rohr’s Benin Republic 3-0 in the first match of the AFCON qualifiers. There is no way he will qualify Nigeria for AFCON let alone top the group with a game to spare!
Every Dick and Harry wants to be a coach in Nigeria and think they know it all. What Ben Iroha is saying is the truth. The squad is gelling and working well with Eguavoen and better for continuity and focus than going to get a “cut and nail” Oyibo in the name of foreign coach as Nigeria cannot,at the moment, afford a competent foreign coach.
Well said from the man wey sabi.i don’t know why Nigerians always blame the coach our players are not living up to the expectation that is just the truth. Eguavoun has delivered the ticket to morroco 2025 which is the most important thing. am happy with the coach he has done well nff should make the job permanent for Eguavoun he deserve it.
okay na segun west, we don hear yuh, abi shey na patrick? or ararafra kumbie or olaoibenikanninu, abi na olaosenikan? today yuh har stan ba? lmaaaooo! am not really sure wat yure game is or wat agenda yuh are here running, useless mumu man! kmt!
Don’t let us be decieving ourselves on Equaveon.
Equaveon has been given enough chances as a national team coaches in different capacity.
1. WHAT IS HIS ACHIEVEMENT?
2. WHAT IS QUALITY OF PLAY HAS HE OFFERED TO THE TEAM?
3. SINCE WHEN EQUAVEON HAS BEEN COACHING, CAN ANYONE MENTION WHICH NEW KEY PLAYERS HAS HE SOURCED/SCOUT/BROUGHT TO ANY NIGERIA TEAM & STILL BE RELEVANT FOR FUTURE FOOTBALL??????
The answer is CAPITAL NO !!!!!!!!
(Because when Equaveon was U-17 Coach, the set of players like Mikel, promise, Obasi, Ezekiel-Bala was all detected by coach GANIYU-SALAMI NOT Equaveon)
FOR INSTANCE:
*** WHEN SIASIA WAS A COACH OF U-20, U-23,& SUPER EAGLE, HE SOURCED FOR SO MANY PLAYERS FOR NIGERIA TEAM LIKE: AKPEI, TAYE-TAIWO, ADEFEMI, NSOFOR, ADELEYE, KAITA, CHIBUZOR-OKONKWO, AJILORE, SHEHU-ABUBAKAR, ETEBO, JOEL-OBI, EMENIKE, V.MOSES. AND MOST OF THIS PLAYERS MENTIONED ABOVE, ARE ALL RELEVANT FOR MORE THAN FIVE YEARS FUTURE FOOTBALL.
(BUT PLAYERS LIKE MIKEL, PROMISE, OBASI, EFE, EZENWA, HARUNA-LUKMAN, RABIU-IBRAHIM ARE SOURCED BY GANIYU-SALAMI, LADAN-BOSSO, YEMI-TELLA)
*** LIKEWISE ALSO, WHEN KESHI WAS A SUPER EAGLES COACH, HE SOURCED FOR PLAYERS LIKE: AGBIM, OBOABONA, EGWEKWE, STANLEY-EZOENYI, OSHANIWA, SUNDAY-MBA. ALTHOUGH, MOST OF THIS PLAYERS DIDN’T RELEVANT MORE THAN TWO YEARS FUTURE FOOTBALL.
###$ EQUAVEON CAN NEVER BOAST OF ONE PLAYERS HE HAS PRODUCE FOR ANY NIGERIA TEAM AND STILL FUNCTION/RELEVANT FOR MORE THAN ONE YEAR FOR FUTURE FOOTBALL
### EQUAVEON ALWAYS RELY ON ALREADY-MADE PLAYERS.
We Never Ever Learn in this country,once we do 60 percent of our problems will be solved simple!
Eguavoen is not the problem some of the players the question is re some of the players committed themselves some of the players need a no nonsense coach.
@Martin Talk about lack of accountability against your own. Did you head yourself? Eguavoen is not the problem then you blame then players then in the same sentence you admitted that you are just not ready to tell the truth if Eguavoen is not the problem as you claim why you turn around and admit that he is not a No Nonsense coach?, quoting you “the players need a no Nonsense coach”
Nigerians you are to blame for the people leading you failing you!!!!
@Martin Talk about lack of accountability against your own. Did you head yourself? Eguavoen is not the problem then you blame then players then in the same sentence you admitted that you are just not ready to tell the truth if Eguavoen is not the problem as you claim why you turn around and admit that he is not a No Nonsense coach?, quoting you “the players need a no Nonsense coach”
Nigerians you are to blame for the people leading you failing you!!!!
Someone here said we should offer Eguavoen a 4 year contract.
Hehehehe!
Why only 4 years? Why not make him coach for life?
You slammed the performance of the team, yet you want to reward the coach? Can a rickety looking furniture come from a good carpenter? Or can a good cook produce unpalatable food?
This kind of backward reasoning is why we find ourselves where we are today in this country. Even if Eguavoen is your friend as per your team mate from your SE days, must you be doing paddy paddy at this time?
It’s obvious that this guy does not have the tactical acumen for the job, yet you ex internationals keep pushing for him.
At the moment, the so called technical department of the NFF is largely comprised of ex internationals like Mr. Iroha. So is this not a conflict of interest? How will these ex internationals not support Eguavoen, who as the technical director is the head of the technical department?
We need to eliminate conflict of interest in the NFF technical department. When members have “close friendships” with each other like Iroha and Eguavoen obviously have, the truth will often get swept under the carpet, and mediocrity and gross incompetence will continue to be tolerated in the name of misguided loyalty.
South Africa last lost a match in 2024 at AFCON against Nigeria (penalties oh) because only Mali defeated them in early 2024 friendly before AFCON.
Now, see how they are progressing from glory to glory..
07/02 Nigeria 1 – 1 South Africa
10/02 South Africa 0 – 0 Congo DR
21/03 Andorra 1 – 1 South Africa
26/03 Algeria 3 – 3 South Africa
07/06 Nigeria 1 – 1 South Africa
11/06 South Africa 3 – 1 Zimbabwe
26/06 South Africa 1 – 1 Mozambique
29/06 South Africa 0 – 0 Botswana
02/07 South Africa 1 – 0 Eswatini
06/09 South Africa 2 – 2 Uganda
10/09 South Sudan 2 – 3 South Africa
11/10 South Africa 5 – 0 Congo
15/10 Congo 1 – 1 South Africa
15/11 Uganda 0 – 2 South Africa
19/11 South Africa 3 – 0 South Sudan
If you were God and Lesotho/Zimbabwe decided to “sell” their slots to South Africa for having no ambitions themselves to qualify for world cup (grateful to SA for accommodating their home matches), would you not turn a blind eye?
And we fervently dream we can upstage RSA with our “dark” football such that we are neither invisible at home or away.
I don’t even think South Africa would qualify for the WC. I think Benin Republic would pick that slot. Maybe SA would move on to the other stage where the 2nd placed teams play for the remaining 1 slot. Eguaveon or any local coach CANNOT qualify us from our current position, even a foreign coach would struggle because we’ve missed that window of opportunity for any new coach to experiment.
It’s a grim situation, really, but I’m not losing hope. Osimhen says SE just needs to win the remaining 6 matches. The question now is, can we??
Unfortunately, there’s nothing anyone can do about Gusau’s penchant for dragging feet on critical issues like hiring a competent foreign coach. He’s been on that matter for close to a year now. It’s almost like voodoo. It’s not a political system where he can be overthrown by force to save everyone from the long talk. I wish it were. We cannot afford to miss 2 WC, especially after it was expanded to 64 teams.
If wishes were horses beggars will ride. All of that is wishful thinking if not followed with a concrete plan. You do not even have a substantive coach , NFF continue to use sentiments in player selection, bonuses are still paid, no scouting to fill the gaps in the team but on the other hand the our competition have settled experienced coaches who have started to work as we speak but we feel it is our God given right to show up on match day and believe the opposition should just allow us to score.
Smell the coffee and begin to prepare your mind. It is looking more likely that we have bungled another world Cup ticket.Since January we haven’t recruited a coach! That is the level of incompetence on show here. Is it mission impossible? Certainly not but they will have to show intent, decisiveness and seriousness both at administration level and also with the players. The NFF Board do not possess these qualities. I really want to believe they will turn it around but I haven’t seen enough to convince me otherwise.
@ Complete Sport, for una mind oooooooooo, Una nor like freedom of speech ooooo, that is why una dey delete my comments for bashing una incompetent coach when una dey support.