Many people are quick to blame corruption or mismanagement whenever a team fails, but sometimes football simply reminds us that anything can happen.

Take France, for example. The world champions once failed to qualify for two FIFA World Cups. Italy too  a four-time world champion  missed out on two consecutive editions.

Was that corruption?

 Of course not. It was simply football doing what football does best: being unpredictable.

Look at our own Nigeria FA Cup last season. Abakaliki FC, a team that had been relegated to the NLO One, surprised everyone by reaching the FA Cup final against Kwara United. Nobody saw that coming. 

Or take Chelsea a team that struggled to qualify for the UEFA Champions League ,yet went on to reach the FIFA Club World Cup final and defeated the European champions PSG 3–0.

History is full of such surprises. Who could have predicted that Greece would win the European Championship in 2004? Or that Leicester City, a team fighting relegation one season, would become Premier League champions the next?

Football is not always about logic. Sometimes, failure to prepare truly means preparing to fail  but other times, grace simply takes over. Grace makes the impossible possible.

So, while Nigeria must go back to the drawing board to fix the irregularities, the fire-brigade approach, and the endless cycle of appointing four coaches in four years we must also believe that grace will speak for the Super Eagles.

 Nigeria will qualify for the World Cup, and when we do, we’ll look back and laugh at how funny football can be.