Former Super Eagles defender, William Troost-Ekong has waded into the fallout from Nigeria’s 3-0 defeat to Guinea-Bissau and his analysis skips past the pitch complaints entirely: the real problem, he says, sits with how Nigerian football is run.
Speaking as a guest analyst on beIN Sports during the UEFA Nations League broadcasts, the former captain argued that fixing the Super Eagles starts at the federation, not on the training pitch.
We need to see some consistency from the top down,” he said, pointing to the NFF, the coaching staff and the players as all needing to pull in the same direction.
The former Super Eagles captain retired from international football in December 2025 after 83 caps, was careful to frame it as a federation-wide issue rather than a shot at any one person.
That consistency is number one,” he said, before pointing to a deeper issue: “there’s still uncertainty how things are prepared for the team.”
Ekong was of the opinion that the Guinea-Bissau result was proof the cracks can no longer be papered over with talent alone. According to him, he said:
“I think we’ve managed to cover a lot of gaps over the years. But now, over time, those things will get exposed. They need to have the right structure around it.
For any team playing in Africa, the level is continuously increasing, also from the other teams. So you need to make sure you give yourself the best opportunity to win,” the 33-year-old declared.
This lands differently coming from Ekong than from the usual chorus of pundits. He captained this group through a World Cup qualifying campaign that ended in failure and left the setup in 2025 having seen the structural issues up close.
Chelle pointed to the pitch and the heat in Bissau; Ekong’s framing suggests those are symptoms, not the disease.
Now, with this coach, hopefully they can find some consistency and take the qualifiers seriously from the beginning. And then I think we’re going to see some great things from Nigeria,”Troost-Ekong stated
For a federation already under pressure after missing consecutive World Cups, having a respected former captain publicly call out administrative inconsistency adds to a mounting list of voices including former coach Jo Bonfrère who’ve rejected Chelle’s explanations for the defeat.
