National Sports Commission (NSC) has said the decision on the future of Super Eagles coach Eric Chelle rests with Nigeria Football Federation (NFF).
Gatekeepers News reports that speaking on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief on Monday, NSC Chairman Shehu Dikko explained that Chelle’s position would be reviewed by NFF after the ongoing World Cup qualifiers.
Dikko said, “Eric Chelle is the responsibility of the Nigeria Football Federation to decide. At the end of the day, after they finish, they’ll do the analysis, and then they will recommend to us, and then we look at it, we approve or disapprove, or we engage to do that.”
He acknowledged that the team’s World Cup hopes are slim but praised the improvement under Chelle.
The NSC chairman said, “When we came on board, we only had three points out of 12, but now we have been able to, at least with Eric Chelle, the NFF, pull ourselves together. Now, we have eight points in another four games.”
Nigeria currently sits third in Group C with 11 points, six behind leaders South Africa and three behind Benin, with only two matches left. The Super Eagles will face Lesotho on October 8 and Benin on October 11.
Their qualification chances suffered a blow on September 9 after a 1-1 draw with South Africa in Bloemfontein, where William Troost-Ekong’s own goal and Calvin Bassey’s equaliser left Nigeria needing a near miracle to qualify for the 2026 World Cup in the US, Canada, and Mexico.
Dikko stressed that the NSC has provided maximum support. He said, “For the last game we played, the National Sports Commission chartered a flight, paid for hotels, and made the bonuses available.”
