NFF warns Oliseh and fires Babangida

The Nigeria Football Federation has issued what it described as a final warning to Super Eagles coach, Sunday Oliseh.

The warning which was handed down following an Executive Committee meeting held on Tuesday asked the coach to stop making unguarded comments in the

media about his job and employer.

The communiqué of the meeting, which was made public on Wednesday read, “The Executive Committee reviewed the outing of the Super Eagles at the recently-concluded 4th African Nations Championship and the events that followed, and rebuked Coach Sunday Oliseh for his unwarranted statements unbecoming of a national team coach in both regular and social media. While acknowledging his apology, the Executive Committee made it clear that similar infractions would not be tolerated in future.”

At the height of the disagreement between the NFF and the coach last week, the sports minister Solomon Dalung stepped in and prevailed on the NFF not to fire the coach.

The NFF has also insisted that the coach will henceforth be answerable to the federation’s Technical and Development Committee and not only to the General Secretary of the FA.

“In line with global best practices, the committee decided that coach Oliseh must henceforth report to the NFF General Secretary and the Technical and Development Committee, and should be ready to defend his entire programme before the Committee, including invitation of players and training programmes,” the statement read.

It was not immediately clear if that directive would also mean adjusting certain parts of Oliseh’s contractual agreement with the NFF as those who have detailed knowledge of the terms of the contract have said that the document states that the coach will work with the General Secretary with the technical committee serving only as an advisory body.

The immediate disengagement of Tijani Babangida as the Personal Assistant to Oliseh was also approved as recommended by the Technical and Development Committee. The General Secretary was asked in the statement to follow the due process in effecting his disengagement.

The former Eagles winger joined Oliseh immediately he took over the job of the Eagles last year. No reason was given for his sacking.