27th November, 2012
In reaction to the complaint over the refusal of football team coaches to grant post match interviews in the Sports Festival, the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, has ordered that post match conferences be held at match venues starting from Wednesday.
Head Coach of Ogun State football team declined to speak with journalists after his team worked over the Adamawa State side yesterday at the Agege Stadium, Lagos.
The football tactician directed the journalists to speak with the Ogun State Commissioner of Sports instead, claiming that he could not grant an interview being a civil servant.
Reacting to the behaviour of the coach, representative of the NFF at the venue, Joro Barnabas, revealed that the glasshouse will compel the coaches or any of their assistants to grant interview with effect from Wednesday.
“The normal practise is for coaches to speak to journalists at the end of matches. What we will do is to make the coaches or their assistants speak to journalists at post match conferences.
“I don’t see why coaches cannot speak to journalists if what they say do not have a political undertone. Things will change from Wednesday when we make the post match interviews compulsory for them,” said Barnabas.
—BIMBO AJAYI