FIFA to pay Eagles N5.6bn for World Cup qualification

 

Nigeria will receive €12.2m (N5.6bn) from FIFA if they qualify for the Qatar 2022 World Cup later this year, according to reports.

The World Cup will take place in Qatar from November 21 to December 18, with 32 teams competing.

The Super Eagles are attempting to qualify for their sixth World Cup appearance, but they are only two games away from doing so.

They will meet the Black Stars of Ghana in the Qatar 2022 play-off, with the first leg scheduled for the Baba Yara Stadium on Friday (today), and the second match scheduled for Abuja on Tuesday.

According to PUNCH Sports Extra, FIFA boosted the qualification incentive from €10 million to €12.2 million to aid qualified teams prepare for the competition.

When Nigeria qualified for the 2018 World Cup in Russia, FIFA awarded the Nigeria Football Federation €10 million.

Meanwhile, the build-up to the fixture has been spiced up by talk of the long rivalry between the two nations, dating all the way back to their first meeting in 1951, when the Nigerians romped to a 5-0 victory over their neighbours.

Nigeria have kept a clean sheet in each of their last three meetings in World Cup qualifiers against Ghana – winning one and drawing two, although they have failed to score in three of the previous four such meetings themselves.

Ghana remain unbeaten in their last five games against Nigeria in all competitions – winning three and drawing two.

There is just a single goal scored across the last three meetings (Asamoah Gyan’s winner for Ghana at the 2010 AFCON), with the last two encounters ending goalless (a friendly in 2010 and most recently at the African Nations Championship in 2014).

Ghana and Nigeria shared exactly the same records in the second round of qualifying for the 2022 World Cup, both winning four, drew one and losing one of their six matches.