Chairman of the National Sports Commission Shehu Dikko likes exhibiting his neatly knitted national dresses with matching fez caps, shoes, and/or slippers at public sporting ceremonies. I couldn’t, however, understand his presence at the unveiling of the new Super Eagles head coach Eric Chelle in Abuja on Monday. I thought Dikko could have waited for the NFF team to bring Coach Chelle to his office instead of crowding the media event on Monday.
Why the hurry, my dear Dikko, in attending the unveiling event? Perhaps, it has become necessary to remind you that you are no longer a member of the NFF. You have been elevated to be the face of sports in Nigeria, not football in your capacity as the NSC Chairman. Your ubiquitous presence at photo ops sessions gave the wrong impression that you are not busy which isn’t true. You are full of ideas to lift Nigeria’s sports into its Eldorado. Please sit in your office and work the talk.
Indeed, when England unveiled Thomas Tuchel as the Three Lions manager, the photo session didn’t have suit-wearing administrators like we do here. Tuchel and his assistants had the day. The pictures were about them, not the crowd that almost choked Chelle at his unveiling. Not so for NFF. Everyone in NFF who was in Abuja on Monday imposed himself on the coach. The picture of the day when Austin Eguavoen was being introduced to Chelle was done behind the federation’s President and the commission’s Chairman, success has many fathers. We wait.
Back to Chelle’s unveiling. NFF President Ibrahim Gusau disclosed that the tactician had signed a two-year contract, with the option of another year, if he qualifies the Super Eagles to the 2026 FIFA World Cup finals. Chelle has also come into the job with three assistants and will work with the crew on the ground to enhance the Super Eagles’ brand. He will be with the Super Eagles B – which is preparing for the upcoming 8th African Nations Championship – only in a supervisory role.
Those who thought that the NFF bigwigs were infallible with their sacrosanct pronouncements should cover their faces in shame. Gusau has reversed himself by saying that Chelle will work with the Nigerian coaches in the Super Eagles. Gusau also stated that Chelle would work with the CHAN team in an advisory role. These two policy reversals have restored the dignity of the Nigerian coaches and recognition of their tactical savvy. After all, they would be paid with taxpayers’ money. How would Gusau have felt if he stuck to his earlier decision that Chelle should handle the CHAN assignment now that CAF has postponed the tournament from February 1 to August this year? Eggs on his face definitely.
Our dear NFF President, is it true that Chelle would be paid $55,000 monthly while his assistants would receive $5000? Will the federation still pay Eguavoen N10 million monthly? Yet, he is the federation’s Technical Director, a position that makes him the boss to the assistants, even if being boss to Chelle would cause chaos. A topic for another day.
Gusau’s statements on Monday truly addressed the issues of the day, except that he didn’t tell his listeners if he had paid the players, team officials, and coaches their outstanding entitlements as he promised in December. Chelle’s problems would start with the players playing the game against Rwanda in Kigali on March 17 with caution knowing that their European club matches tower above playing for the country in terms of handling matters concerning their welfare.
A team that will qualify for the 2026 World Cup needs at least four years to establish its spine through competitions. We can safely call Victor Osimhen in the attack but Wilfred Ndidi is almost gone in the midfield. The Eagles’ defenders have aged and are easily outrun by the opposition’s attackers. Need I highlight the hopelessness in the quality of our goalkeepers? They aren’t world-class and leak goals while manning the goalposts for their European clubs. Ademola Lookman is a different kind of striker from Osimhen, he comes as an addition to Nigeria’s total and has a complete playing spine.
Chelle has only Osimhen in the Eagles’ spine except he wants to draft Ola Aina to the central defence with the believe that Ndidi would find his range and energy to marshal the midfield like he did in the past. I have my doubts since Ndidi is no longer the pivot of Leicester FC’s midfield. Playing regularly for the Foxes helped polish his game in the past. One could easily have drafted Alex Iwobi as the Eagles’ spine even if Ndidi is playing. But it appears that our coaches don’t know how to deploy Iwobi like his Fulham FC England’s manager. One hopes Chelle changes the Iwobi narrative during his reign.
Chelle, Nigeria doesn’t have a reliable goalkeeper. Nwabali isn’t in his best form. He panicked in Nigeria’s last game. And with Francis Uzoho out injured, it is almost certain Nwabali would be Chelle’s choice with Okoye being the reserve goalkeeper. Yes, Chelle must insist on picking those playing regularly for their European clubs to prosecute Nigeria’s remaining six matches, no matter their pedigree in the Super Eagles.
Interestingly, giving the players their dues should be spontaneous not kept in abeyance on the altar of the NFF being broke. How do you plead with players to pay for their flight tickets with a promise to refund monies spent. Then you renege on such payments not for one game but for several matches. The question would be why did the NFF men allow the coaches to invite 24 foreign-based players when only 16 can prosecute each game? I can list at least seven players who have been repeatedly invited to the camp and ended up not playing the matches. The federation looks the other way to such wastage because they want to give the coaches freehand to invite whosoever they like.
“I see in the new Head Coach the right spirit and the right attitude, and I have faith that he will take the Super Eagles to the next level. He sees the job of leading the Super Eagles as his dream job, and that is a huge motivation in itself.
“Coach Chelle recognises and appreciates what is ahead of him, and he says he loves the challenge. We will be there giving him the necessary support all the way,” Gusau said.
Gusau, Chelle is a professional who by the NFF’s reckoning knows his onions. What this writer found interesting was his insistence that he could be unsparing with lazy players and very strict in metting out disciplinary measures. He said he would be fair to all, but we know that the big boys would get a slap on the wrist. It didn’t start today.
