Minister of Sports and Youth Development,
Solomon Dalung, and the leadership of the Nigeria Football Federation are
billed to meet on Tuesday (today) in Abuja.
Top on the agenda of the meeting, The PUNCH learnt, is the
federation’s decision to employ a Frenchman as the next coach of the Super
Eagles.
Soon after the Eagles were eliminated from
Gabon 2017, the NFF President Amaju Pinnick announced that the football
governing body had almost concluded the process of hiring a foreigner as a
replacement for Sunday Oliseh, who resigned from the post in February.
“We have also scheduled a larger meeting with
the sports minister on Tuesday (today) which will help determine the way
forward,” he added.
He told reporters that the meeting would
determine the way forward as they embark on some reforms and concentrate on the
2018 World Cup qualifiers starting later this year.
On Monday, Dalung said he had not been
briefed of the proposed hiring of a foreign coach for the Eagles.
Dalung, who spoke on a SuperSport programme, expressed
his support for Nigerian coaches, saying he would agree with the hiring of the
coach if he was convinced of the need for such.
“The issue of the foreign coach has dominated
the air but personally and as a minister in charge of a ministry, I have not
received any report from anybody that our football problem is coaching and that
we need a foreign coach to solve it,” he said.
“We have players that have played in the past
and even brought honours for us and yet if we are unable to develop our own
game according to our country’s tradition, then certainly I will have to be
convinced with a superior argument that the only way out is a foreign coach.
“There have also been a lot of speculations
and complaints by the local coaches that some of them have not been paid. Now
if we have not been able to pay Nigerian coaches, is it a foreign coach that we
will be able to pay?
“The hiring of a foreign coach should not be
by verbal agreement because if we do such, we are also destroying the prestige
of the Nigerian coaches. It will be a case of dumping them, after we have used
them which is not good. I believe in Nigeria and I believe we should learn from
the mistakes we have made.”
Source: THE
PUNCH
0 Comments