Since Sunday Oliseh resigned as the coach of
the Super Eagles, the team has been without a
substantive manager. Following his exit, Samson
Siasia was drafted to handle the team in an
acting capacity for the remaining Nations Cup
qualifying matches, which ended with Nigeria
missing out in the competition holding in Gabon
next year.
The team is currently being handled by Salisu
Yusuf as a caretaker coach. What this translates
to is that the senior national team is in need of a
substantive head coach. The good news is that
the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) according
to its President, Amaju Pinnick, is working hard
to secure one. A Technical and Development
Committee, was set up. The committee last
Friday released a shortlist of three candidates for
possible consideration after inviting applications
from interested coaches.
However, the process is now mired in some
controversies that need to be resolved before
the identity of the coach will be made public.
One of these is the alleged disagreement within
the NFF leadership over the choice of the coach
to be appointed. Another is on whether the
coach should be a foreign or local one.
It is understood that the NFF leadership and the
Sports Ministry are sharply divided on the issue.
While Pinnick is said to be strongly enamoured
with the idea of contracting a “world class”
foreign coach, the Sports Minister is strongly
opposed to it, arguing that Nigeria has qualified
coaches to handle the team and successfully
lead it to global achievements.
The Minister is also worried about the cost
implication of hiring a foreigner for the job,
saying the reality of Nigeria’s current economic
challenges does not encourage the hiring of a
foreigner whose expected huge Dollar-
denominated salary would be too much for a
cash-strapped NFF to pay. As if to counter this,
NFF has reportedly secured a sponsorship deal to
enable it pay for the hiring of the foreign coach.
While this drama continues, our concern is that
the qualifying matches for the 2018 World Cup
would start soon with the Super Eagles still
without a substantive Head Coach to supervise
the earnest preparation of the team. The present
situation is more worrisome considering the fact
that Nigeria is drawn in the same World Cup
qualifying group as Algeria, Cameroun and
Zambia, which boast intimidating profiles, thus
making the job of picking the sole qualifying slot
all the more difficult.
A quick decision needs to be made. Delay is
dangerous. We prefer a local coach, and call on
the sponsors to offer the same financial support
if an indigenous coach is selected for the Super
Eagles.
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