Arsenal manager, Arsene Wenger, has blamed the Super Eagles’ second round exit at the World Cup in Brazil to “organisational problems”.
Wenger, who spoke to the Daily Mirror, said the five African teams in the tournament that ended on Sunday had the quality to go far Brazil but regretted that they lacked good administration.
Nigeria beat Bosnia-Herzegovina 1-0 after playing out a 0-0 draw against Iran and lost 3-2 to Argentina in their Group F fixtures . The Eagles were sent packing from the tournament after losing 2-0 to France in the round of 16.
“I don’t think it’s purely down to quality. I think it comes down to organisational problems before the World Cup and during the World Cup,” Wenger told Daily Mirror.
“I think what hurts football fans both in Cameroon and Nigeria – two big footballing nations –was not that their countries did not reach the quarter-finals, it was the fact that both teams had no solidarity and they had problems that were exposed all over the world before the competition and that’s the main reason.
“Football is difficult enough when you are united but if you are not united at that stage then you have no chance.”
He added, “I would still like to give some credit to Algeria. They played so well and at some points they even made Germany look average, and they were the only country who could do that. I would have liked to have seen more from the African countries.”