The president of Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Amaju Pinnick, has called on soccer loving Nigerians to forgive the Super Eagles and the NFF after Nigeria missed out on AFCON 2017 qualification for the second time in two years following last night’s loss to Egypt in Alexandria.

The draw for Russia 2018 World Cup will be conducted in June with the qualifying tournament to begin in October. Amaju says Nigerians should shift their focus to the World Cup qualification campaign.

“We are all disappointed we did qualify (for AFCON 2017),” said Pinnick to footballlive.ng “The god of soccer did not smile on us. I believe Nigerians should forgive us for us to move on. The focus now is to qualify for the 2018 World Cup. We will keep the Eagles busy during the FIFA friendly windows ahead of the World Cup qualifiers.”