Nigeria is one of those teams that didn’t just think they would have a chance to reach the World Cup final. They were sure they would. When they faced Ghana in March this year, the vast majority of the online match betting at bwin and other bookmaker sites pointed to a win for Nigeria, and then it would have been a case of set-up for Qatar. However, disaster struck when the Super Eagles lost the home-and-away match with Ghana due to the away goals rule.
Of course, large numbers of Nigerians were excited to see the Eagles doing business on the world stage of international football, and were left disappointed as a result of failing to qualify. But looking further shows the real havoc caused by Nigeria failing to beat Ghana, with a lot of people losing a lot of money. You see, when there is a World Cup on the horizon, everything is always planned in advance.
Believe it or not, there are currently over ten thousand Nigerians living in Qatar, who are hosting the World Cup, which immediately made this an event and a spectacle that many people wanted to see the Super Eagles involved in. A local businessman who has lived in the country for over a decade placed an order for twenty thousand official Nigerian strips, which has since had to be cancelled, resulting in a major blow to the businessman.
The same guy had also seen the World Cup as the perfect opportunity to host a week of entertainment and fashion in Qatar, but those plans also had to be abandoned after Nigeria failed to reach the final. But, unsurprisingly, the local Nigerian-born businessman was not the only one to suffer this December, with many others hard hit as well, especially in the pocket.
Tour companies operating in both Nigeria and Qatar had been offering travel packages to take Nigerian fans to the World Cup since November last year, and while some still took the opportunity to tour Qatar and visiting relatives who live there, most decided it was a trip that no longer interested them, unsurprisingly since Nigeria will not be playing football in Qatar.
It just goes to show that while for many soccer is the be all and end all, and the whole point of hosting a World Cup is to compete on the pitch, there is a lot of planning and guesswork in some cases, with a lot depending on whether a nation actually manufactures it. And when they don’t qualify for the final, it can have a devastating effect.
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