19th February, 2016
Taiwo Adelu
Chief Coach of Nigeria’s Super Eagles, Sunday Oliseh has revealed that the financial predicament he is facing has prevented him from visiting some foreign-based players before the two legged Africa Cup of Nations qualifying matches against Egypt next month.
Oliseh said that while it is important that he meets physically with these players before the matches, he is struggling to raise funds for his travel expenses.
He, however, hopes that the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, will come to his aid.
“I’m struggling financially because there is no money for me to travel. I know very soon I will get to physically talk to some of the players.
“I need to speak with each of these players for like 15 to 20 minutes face to face at their respective bases in Europe before we will meet in Nigeria.
“The problem now is that if I have to travel around Europe I will need money for my transportation, accommodation and other logistics. I’m waiting for the approval of the football Federation before I will do this. Things are biting harder for everybody now. I just hope I won’t be misquoted, ” the coach said in an interview on a Lagos-based sports radio on Friday.
Speaking on his programme for the matches against the Pharaohs, Oliseh disclosed that he has not sent the list of the players he will invite to the NFF, adding that the present form of the players will determine who to invite.
“We will look for current form of the players. I want to start the camping two weeks before the match with home-based players. I need to select some of them for the two matches because of their performance in the last CHAN in Rwanda.
“The plan is to play result oriented games which I’m very much optimistic that we will win,” he said.
On the state of his health, Oliseh happily said that he is getting better compared to when Nigeria featured in CHAN in Rwanda last month.
“I had a test which came out fine and I’m happy to say that I have begun to play tennis. I had not been on court in the last three to four month because of my illness. Tennis is a sport I love doing after my retirement.
“I can now run without catching my breath,” Oliseh said.