Former Tremendous Eagles’ striker, Julius Efosa Aghahowa has added his voice to reactions trailing the anticipated deduction of three factors from South Africa’s present haul within the 2026 World Cup qualifiers and faulted the lengthy delay of an announcement by world soccer governing physique, FIFA.
Sports247 stories that Aghahowa is of a view that FIFA’s failure to make an early pronouncement on the essential matter has nearly rendered the result irrelevant, as a deduction might ultimately not have its desired impact on the alleged culprits.
The previous Bendel Insurance coverage of Benin Metropolis, Shaktar Donetsk of Ukraine and Wigan Athletic of England fleet-footed attacker reasoned additional that the form of the group may have been totally different had FIFA made their choice identified earlier than Nigeria performed away to South Africa earlier this month.
‘Agha-Surprise,’ as he was fondly referred to as throughout his enjoying days, retorted: “FIFA have their very own approach of doing issues however, usually in a state of affairs like this, the international locations are presupposed to know their destiny nicely forward of time.
“They should know whether or not they nonetheless have an opportunity to qualify or not. However, because it has come to be, it’s now very troublesome to understand how to enter battle with the workforce which will have three of their factors deducted.”
The previous police officer who received a well-struck purpose for Nigeria on the 2002 World Cup co-hosted by Japan and South Korea, after which his exceptional cartwheel celebration turned an iconic picture that was relayed on tv for a number of years, harassed that an early announcement by FIFA would have made the group’s lone ticket more durable to get.
Aghahowa added, “Now there are indications that the three factors deduction might not even have any impact. It could have been higher if they’d taken it out earlier than our conflict with South Africa. We’d have identified whether or not we nonetheless had an opportunity to get one thing.
“We don’t know why they’re delaying. I can’t communicate for them, however it could have been higher if the factors had been taken out since,” Aghahowa reiterated.
