Super Eagles: NFF rejects Oliseh, insists on foreign coach as Eguavoen says ’I don’t see myself as failure’
The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has reportedly told Nigeria’s sports ministry that it intends to hire a foreigner to manage the Super Eagles.
The foreign technical adviser will head a team of local gaffers who will serve as assistant coaches, The Realm News learned on Tuesday.
The Ministry of Youth and Sports met with NFF executives, led by Amaju Pinnick, in Abuja on Monday. The parties will also meet on Tuesday regarding the next leadership structure for the national football team.
It was not immediately clear if the NFF has decided on any foreign coach. Recall that the federation sacked Gernot Rohr before this year’s African Cup of Nations (AFCON 2021), putting former footballer Augustine Eguavoen in charge.
Portuguese coach Jose Peseiro was supposed to take over from Eguavoen after the nations cup but the plan now seemed dead on arrival as Nigeria not only performed badly at the tournament but also failed to make it Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup.
Rohr had complained about the quality of Nigerian footballers. After the NFF sacked Eguavoen’s failed technical crew, the Nigerian now echoed his predecessor’s worries.
“I don’t see myself as a failure, I don’t have regret taking the Super Eagles job. I can’t reject the call to serve. Maybe the Super Eagles players don’t have the character, I used the word maybe. I also think the emotion was overwhelming,” he was quoted to have said.
The sports ministry was reportedly in talks with Sunday Oliseh. But the NFF does not want the Nigerian football legend, who resigned as Eagles’ coach in 2016, to return to the helm.
“The NFF are not interested in any member of the Class of 94 for now,” journalist Adepoju Tobi Samuel said on Tuesday. But the sports ministry is, he said.
