Beyond Pride, N5bn at Stake as Super Eagles Battle Ghana for World Cup Ticket

Beyond the prestige of making Ghana suffer a back-to-back absence from the biggest stage of global football, Nigeria’s Super Eagles stand to reap a bountiful $12million (about N4.996billion) if they defeat the Black Stars in the second leg of the 2022 World Cup playoff in Abuja tomorrow.

Going by the 2022 FIFA World Cup price money, if Eagles who played a goalless draw with the Black Stars last Friday in Kumasi, are able to surmount the hurdle posed by Ghana, they stand to get $10million for taking part in the group stage of Qatar 2022.

There is additional $2million for the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to help prepare the team for participation in the first Mundial to hold in the Middle East between November and December later this year.

The Black Stars who failed to qualify for the 2018 edition in Russia missed out of the $9.5million pocketed by the Super Eagles.

With the goalless draw from the first leg in Kumasi last Friday, the Super Eagles will need to up their game to put smiles on the faces of football-loving Nigerians.

The last time both countries were involved in a FIFA World Cup qualifying was in 2001, when they finished 0-0 in Accra and Nigeria swept aside their visitors 3-0 in Port Harcourt in July 2001 to qualify for Korea/Japan.

Nigeria has been at every FIFA World Cup finals since 1994, bar the 2006 edition in Germany, and reached the Round of 16 in USA 1994, France 1998 and Brazil 2014.