Confederation of African Football (CAF) and Federation of International Football Association (FIFA) technical instructor, Adegboye Onigbinde, has condemned the approach of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) in the appointment of a new coach for the Super Eagles.
The former Super Eagles chief coach said the NFF is as confused as ever about its approach and the title of the new Super Eagles handler.
“I have never seen anywhere in the world where you will have a technical adviser and chief coach. Why the confusion? This is not the practice in Spain, England, Brazil and most football playing nations,” Onigbinde stressed.
“Why must ours be different? Who is deceiving whom? The NFF said they never appointed Paul Le Guen, yet the executive committee has mandated its Technical Committee to look for another foreign technical adviser as Le Guen (who it claims it did not offer a job), has refused to accept to be given targets as well as unwillingness to live in Nigeria, made his candidature unacceptable to the board.
“The committee also disapproved of Le Guen’s desire to come to the job with two assistants, which would make Nigerian coaches redundant.”
Onigbinde said Salisu Yusuf’s appointment is purely a political move to appease certain individuals and absolved himself of blame as a member of the technical committee.
“I was a member of the technical committee but for the past three to four years, nobody has invited me to any meeting. As I speak with you, the NFF has not written to withdraw my membership.
“The NFF claims it does not have confidence in Nigerian coaches but the question I ask is, have they ever taken pains to select the best out of the bad coaches? How do you condemn everyone when you picked the wrong person for the job?
“The case of the NFF is like that of a man who was asked to pick an orange from a basket and decides to close his eyes to pick the orange, and when he gets out he finds out that the orange he picked is bad.
“Instead of admitting his error, he goes about saying all the oranges in the basket are bad.
“The NFF is even responsible for the division in the Nigerian Football Coaches Association (NFCA).
“I recall some few years ago when we were going to hold a congress to elect our officers, I got a call from a reliable source that if I got elected they would not recognise the election.
“After that, there was another call asking that a certain individual must be voted president because they don’t like my face and can’t handle me.
“I called my colleagues and told them that I didn’t want them to suffer because of me before leaving the venue.”
The Executive Committee has directed the Technical and Development Sub-Committee to recommend a candidate for the post of technical adviser of the Super Eagles.
It noted that the refusal of Le Guen, earlier recommended by the sub-committee, to accept targets and his unwillingness to live in Nigeria made his candidature unacceptable to the board.
The committee also rejected Le Guen’s plan to come to the job with two assistants, which would make Nigerian coaches redundant.
The committee noted that it was the desire to show transparency that made the Technical and Development Sub-Committee to make public its recommendation in the first place.
It resolved that any candidate that would be so recommended by the Technical and Development Sub-Committee must have accepted to be given targets, must be willing to live in Nigeria, and must agree to undergo other internal evaluations.