2022 World Cup: Nigeria failed to qualify because of over-reliance on 'rejected players' – Amokachi

Former Nigeria international striker Daniel Amokachi has claimed that the country failed to secure a World Cup berth since they paraded "rejected players" in the two-legged play-off against Ghana.

The Super Eagles failed to book their representation at this year's World Cup after drawing 1-1 at home against the Black Stars at the Moshood Abiola National Stadium in Abuja.

Ghana qualified on away goal advantage since the first leg ended 0-0 at Baba Yara Stadium in Kumasi.

Amokachi, speaking on SuperSport, called on football administrators in Nigeria to resort to developmental structures that saw the national team reach greater heights in the past.

The Super Eagles have depended heavily on on dual-eligible players who were born abroad presently including - Ola Aina, Joe Aribo, Calvin Bassey, William Troost-Ekong, Leon Balogun, and Ademola Lookman amongst others who opted to play for Nigeria after turning up for other countries

"Quality-wise we can’t take it away from Nigeria. Every day Nigeria is blessed with one immigrant player who is playing out there and he'll always come up and say I turned down my birth country, I want to play for Nigeria when their country of birth never looked for them," Amokachi expressed.

"They won’t even make their birth nation squads."

“Unfortunately for us Nigeria, we've thrown away our developmental structure which we had that made us win the 1996 Olympics gold medal, that made that generation so great.

"Stephen Keshi (the late) came into play and revived it and we saw how we won the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations," Amokachi concluded.