Salisu fails again but the Super Eagles' failure is the perfect end to Pinnick's disastrous tenure

2022 will go down as the year the Nigeria men's national team- the Super Eagles- failed on all fronts.

A year that started with so much optimism is ending with disappointment and pain, even though there are still four months left. 

It all started at the 2021 Africa Cup Nations, which saw Nigeria crash out in the round of 16 following a 1-0 loss to Tunisia. If the AFCON exit was disappointing, the next one was even more painful.

The three-time AFCON Champions met arch-rivals Ghana in a two-legged World Cup playoff clash for a place in Qatar.

However, they missed out on qualification via away goals after playing a 1-1 draw at home following a goalless draw in Kumasi. 

And just last Saturday, the misery continued after the Super Eagles- albeit the home-based players, missed out on CHAN qualification, losing to Ghana once again. 

Nigeria had managed to cancel out a 2-0 first-leg defeat only to lose via penalties. But while all these results were a new low for the Super Eagles, they all had one thing in common- Salisu Yusuf. 

The former Kano Pillars was involved in some capacity in the team's doom this year. He served as an assistant under Eguavoen at AFCON 2021 and the World Cup Playoff against Ghana while he was in charge of the home-based Super Eagles. 

However, if we learned anything from the Super Eagles' failure this year, it is that Salisu should never have been involved with the squad. 

This is someone who has been with the team since 2009 yet has not offered anything new to the squad. Before his time with Eguavoen earlier this year, Salisu also served as an assistant under former Super Eagles coach Gernot Rohr, but he offered nothing to the team. 

The ex-Rangers coach should not have had anything to do with the Super Eagles in the first place, especially after he was banned for accepting a bribe to change his 2018 CHAN Super Eagles squad. 

However, he was offered an instant welcome following the completion of his ban by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), which raises the question of whether he has dirt on the Federation. 

It cannot be that the ex-Enyimba is the only available good local coach in the country, and even if that were the case, he has shown over time that he is not good enough. 

Yet, the NFF keeps rewarding his failure by offering him national team jobs, which has resulted in another disappointment, with the home-based Eagles CHAN failure.

Also, the home-based failure to qualify for CHAN again banishes the idea that the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) players are good enough to play for the Super Eagles. 

However, while Salisu has shown he is not good enough, the home-based Eagles CHAN disappointment, as bad as it looks, is a befitting way to end Pinnick's disastrous tenure as the NFF president. 

When Pinnick emerged as the Federation's president in 2014, he sold dreams to Nigerians and was seen as someone cut from a different cloth.

However, eight years later and a few months to the end of his second term tenure, his time as president has taken Nigerian football to a new low. 

While there have been some lucrative deals with Nike, MTN and Coca-Cola, there has not been anything to show for it. The NPFL keeps getting worse each year, with every initiative failing even before it began. 

The welfare of the NPFL players has not gotten any better, while the organisation has been poor during Pinnick's time. Under his regime, the league failed to finish. 

The national team, which is the bread and butter of Pinnick's Federation, did not receive better treatment, either. Under Pinnick's tenure, players were often owed match bonuses, bringing embarrassment to the nation at major tournaments.

And the performances were not that good, either. During his time as NFF President, The Super Eagles missed two AFCONs and a World Cup, no thanks to some of his decisions. 

For example, his decision to sack Rohr just a month before the AFCON cost the team a potential good run in Cameroon and a place at the 2022 World Cup. 

His choice to also appoint Randy Waldrum- a university coach- as the Super Falcons coach is also another example of his terrible decisions as NFF boss. 

And that is not to mention the accusations of bribery and corruption levelled against him and other NFF members.

Yet, when he talks, he speaks like he is the best NFF president Nigerian football has ever had, and it is even more annoying when some members of the press keep lapping him up. 

However, the truth of the matter is that Pinnick never cared about Nigerian football. He will be remembered as a president who only cares about his image and loves playing to the gallery, which is why the home-based Eagles' failure is a befitting way to end his disastrous tenure.