Eagles’ New Coach ToBe Unveiled Soon

The announcement of a new head coach for Nigeria’s Super Eagles today by the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, may be delayed, as the football governing body awaits its technical committee’s recommendations to that effect.

The Media Officer of the NFF, Ademola Olajire, while speaking on RayPower FM this morning said the issue of hiring a new coach for the senior national team is a thorny one that can’t be hastily handled hence the need for the technical committee to do a thorough job.

According to him, the NFF is expecting the Chris Green-led technical committee to finalise their deliberations and submit a consensus recommendation to the NFF after which its Executive Committee will deliberate on the recommendations before unveiling the new coach.

“The decision to name a new coach is still pending, because as at today the technical committee has not forwarded its recommendation of who to employ as coach of the Eagles and the position of Technical Director to us. As soon as they do this, the Executive Committee will act on it accordingly,” Olajire said.

Reflecting on why it is taking Green and other members of the committee so long to come out with a replacement for Samson Siasia who was sacked last Friday after failing to qualify Nigeria for the Africa Cup of Nations, Olajire said: “Nigerians should understand that this is a committee that is made up of over10 members with different backgrounds and different views. I think they are having stormy sessions to reach a consensus on the issue at hand and this will definitely take some time.”

Olajire revealed further that the Aminu Maigari-led Executive Eommittee may not be able to delibrate on the technical committee’s recommendations until sometime later tonight or tomorrow morning.

P.M.Sports gathered that the technical committee of the NFF started their meeting yesterday but were unable to arrive at a decision as at last night. They continued deliberations by 9 a.m. today and nothing concrete had come out of the meeting as at press time.

A good number of foreign coaches have indicated interest in the Eagles’ job. They include former Ghana and Serbian coach, Goran Stevanovick, former Sheffield United coach, Kevin Blackwell, ex-Senegal coach, Bruno Metsu and Brazilian Edinson Silva.

Meanwhile, Rennes of France defender, Onyekachi Apam, has slammed the Eagles over their lackadaisical attitude to the national calls, saying the players’ attitude to national duties must be changed for the team to regain their lost glory.

Apam attributed the Eagles’ woes to the poor attitude of the players, adding that if a world class coach is appointed to handle the team with the same mentality and orientation of the players, he would still fail the nation.

“I was part of the Eagles and I can say that the players’ attitude to the national assignments is bad and irresponsible. Many of these players could not behave in their clubs the way they do here. This must stop for us to move forward,” he said.

—Bamidele Olowosagba