Nigeria has twice in the past hosted two your World Cups, but are yet to host the senior FIFA World Cup tournament
Former Super Eagles goalkeeper, Peterside Idah, has shared his perspective on Nigeria’s potential to host the FIFA World Cup, suggesting it could take up to 40 years for the West African nation to achieve this feat, Soccernet.ng reports.
While Nigeria has successfully hosted two youth World Cups, the Under-20 tournament in 1999 and the Under-17 event in 2009, South Africa remains the only African country to have hosted the senior FIFA World Cup and Morocco is set to join this list when it hosts the tournament in 2030.
In an interview on Channels TV’s Sunrise Daily program, the 49-year-old former Nigerian international goalkeeper pointed out that Nigeria currently possesses only one stadium meeting the standards required for hosting a global football tournament, which is the Uyo Stadium.
“On record presently, the only playing field which we have is a grass stadium, and it is the Uyo Stadium, but 20 anything is still very long; maybe in the next 40 years, we would have had some kind of stability,” Idah remarked.
Idah also emphasized the need for significant improvements in Nigeria’s sports infrastructure and facility maintenance before the country could seriously consider hosting an event as prestigious as the FIFA World Cup.
“This stadium must be working. We have the civic centre that had everything such as the swimming pool, but these facilities are not being maintained,” he added.
While Nigeria recently made an unsuccessful bid to host the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON), losing out to Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda, the prospect of hosting a FIFA World Cup event remains a long-term goal that would require substantial investment in infrastructure, facilities, and organizational capacity.
