I’m not a prophet of doom nor am I any of those prophets prophesying on Nigeria’s chances of victory before each game. I also don’t pretend as if I know it all about the beautiful game. I only like to speak to certain double standards whenever they happen. I’ve been pinching myself to find out if I’m in a trance over the swiftness in which NFF strengthened the Super Eagles on frivolous grounds that the team needed technical sagacity, whatever that means.
The question this writer would want to ask my friends at the federation is where this latest technical sagacity was when Gernot Rohr toyed with our sensibilities, losing to the Central Africa Republic inside the Teslim Balogun Stadium in Lagos, drawing 4-4 against Sierra Leone inside the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium in Benin City, etc? This federation almost pulled down its house when sports minister, Sunday Dare ordered the sacking of the German. In fact, the release virtually hinged the German’s sack on Sunday Dare, just as they pointed to Nigerians who to blame if the Austin Eguavoen led side fumbled at the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroon.
What the federation’s eggheads didn’t say in this new technical sagacity jargon is to prepare Nigerians’ minds for a likely fiasco against the Black Stars in the two-legged Qatar 2022 World Cup qualifiers in Ghana and Nigeria and boldly identify who to blame if things went awry in Cameroon. I will never wish the Super Eagles bad luck (tufiakwa) in any game because Nigerians come together as one Nigeria devoid of our ethnic, political, and religious biases.
The truth about football is that it is so apparent to everyone when a team plays well and when it doesn’t, just like how woeful the Ghanaians were at AFCON 2021. It was obvious that the Eagles wouldn’t roughen feathers in Cameroon against well-organised countries with rich football pedigree given the way we prepared for the competition. In fact, with a few weeks to the 2021 AFCON matches, not a few knew who would be Nigeria’s coach following the exit of Rohr. They also told us about an observer role for the Portuguese.
It is obvious that this federation still wants the Portuguese, especially if Nigeria doesn’t beat Ghana resoundingly to grab the sole qualification ticket to the Qatar 2022 World Cup. They have laid the mines for disaster in this new arrangement by referring to Emmanuel Amuneke as the Chief Coach in a release on Monday, only to mouth to Nigerians again that Amuneke is Austin Eguavoen’s first assistant coach. Wasn’t Eguavoen the chief coach in Cameroon? The federation seems to have forgotten that Rohr had said that there was no position such as Technical Adviser in the Super Eagles and that he was the team’s Head Coach. Is this how we allow foreign coaches to constitute their backroom staff? Why do we act differently with the local coaches? Colonial mentality.
What has happened to the golden rule where foreign coaches pick their assistants and brazenly reduce the Nigerians selected to work with them to ball pickers during training sessions? Need I waste space mentioning instances where Nigerians working with foreigners talk about their sordid times with these fellows? Most of them are dead (God rest their souls). I don’t want to disturb their quiet by dragging them into this federation’s latest quagmire.
I don’t need to be a seer to know that Eguavoen and Amuneke sincerely won’t be together no matter how hard the NFF tries to make us believe. Eguavoen’s ego has been bruised with Amuneke’s inclusion, knowing that the former Golden Eaglets’ Coach rejected the N3 million a month job when it was offered to him before AFCON 2021. Amuneke was quoted to have doubted the federation’s sincerity to give him a free hand to work. He further urged the federation to inform him with a formal appointment letter which should be directed to his lawyers. I would choose to refer to Amuneke’s decision as being a thoroughbred professional coach. NFF, have you addressed all these requests by Amuneke?
No sentiments should be shown in sporting decisions. Would the federation classify Eguavoen as a failure to necessitate any addition to his technical crew without his consent? Who do we blame if the country fails to qualify for the Qatar 2022 World Cup? Eguavoen? Certainly not, given the way the former Eagles captain restored the Nigerian playing style in our first three matches in Cameroon. The new argument that the decision to drop two coaches to appoint Amuneke to save costs is laughable because the wages of the two assistant coaches are less than what the former Eaglets coach would be paid. How can the federation say they are cutting costs when they allow the coaches to invite 28 foreign-based players to camp, knowing that only 20 of them can prosecute a game? Who do they think they are fooling?
If the federation were so determined to have Amuneke in the technical crew, they could easily have done that by removing coaches who Eguavoen felt he wouldn’t miss if axed. After all, Rohr had several coaches who we were told he paid their wages. Indeed. Besides, England has 12 backroom staff whose roles are defined and don’t overlap. If the federation wanted to be prudent in their spending, then they ought to have dropped Salisu, who is also the CHAN Eagles coach, and replace him with Amuneke.
Unfortunately, the two coaches who did the spying job on the opponents resulting in the remarkable group stage’s matches are gone on the altar of being prudent. This is very interesting. What manner of strength is anyone introducing into the Eagles when the experts in drawing the roadmap which the coaches must use have been left on the lurch. Matches are won from the bench based on scripts written by the teams’ technicians who sit at the stands to watch out for the oppositions’ flaws for halftime talks.
I sincerely hope we have not paved the path to disaster on March 27. I also foresee a situation we would press the panic button in the event that Black Stars beat us in the first leg by inviting the Portuguese to take over with all manner of permutations (God forbid). Did the federation consult the players for their assessment before sacking the two most qualified coaches? That is how it is done in saner climes. The person who instructed that the Eagles should play against Ghana in Abuja has solved one of the greatest problems with the team. In Lagos, the players had a field day sleeping with women so much that they organised a party with the coaches knowing. The matter wasn’t allowed to escalate yet it showed in the way the players performed in their last game in Lagos.
I hope that the security arrangement in the Abuja Hotel would be water-tight to check our players’ excesses. These are big boys with tremendous cash in their pockets. They could easily pay for Suites in the hotel where they are camped and do whatever they choose to effortlessly. Black Stars are always at the spoilers’ best if their next fixture is Nigeria.
And this…
Is it true that the federation is pleading with Eguavoen to write a letter to the federation to employ a certain 22-year old into his technical crew? Yet, the body wants to cut costs. This allegation had better not be true.