Olawale Ajimotokan with agency report
The Technical committee of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) rose from its meeting in Abuja on Wednesday to among other decisions throw open to all candidates the vacant Super Eagles head coach position.
The committee wants the best candidate irrespective of nationality to be hired to lead Eagles in the 2018 World Cup qualifiers starting in October.
The interview for the Eagles post will be before the June 24 draw for World Cup qualifiers.
“After the friendly matches (vs Mali and Luxembourg), and before the 2018 FIFA World Cup group phase draw, the technical committee will initiate the process for the selection of a substantive technical crew for the Super Eagles, with a head coach,” said part of the communiqué from the meeting.
“A small team of eminently –qualified persons with the required pedigree will take charge of the process, and the best candidate would be selected, irrespective of whether he is indigenous or expatriate.”
Meanwhile, former Flying Eagles Coach, John Obuh, has called on Super Eagles players and all and sundry to get behind newly appointed interim senior national team handlers.
The NFF announced on Wednesday that the quartet of Salisu Ibrahim, Alloy Agu, Imama Amakapabo and Kennedy Boboye will work with the NFF Technical Director, Shaibu Amodu for next month’s friendlies against Mali and Luxembourg.
Thus, Obuh who led the Flying Eagles to Colombia 2011 and Turkey 2013 FIFA Under-20 World Cups while saluting the choice of the tacticians by the NFF, he also called on the Super Eagles players and all stakeholders to back them towards succeeding.
“It is a very omen for Nigeria football. We should not forget that Imama is topping the league and Boboye is coming from behind, they are all doing well,” Obuh told Goal.com
“As long as they have a good coordination from Amodu Shaibu which I believe they will get, I am very impressed they will succeed.
“It is not all about what the coaches will tell the players or what the players are going to do, it also involves everybody, I mean the fans, the managers and sponsors of the team.
“We have a lot of down falling of our football system and we must put hands together to be able to resolve it.
“I just pray that the players are not going to be political or join sides on what is going on. The coaches too need to concentrate and do their beats to ensure their inputs are felt after the friendly games.
“And for the stakeholders in Nigeria football, they should wake up and let us solve our problems together.”
The Kwara United gaffer also bares his mind on whether the country should settle for an indigenous coach or an expatriate as Eagles’ permanent coach.
“It all depends on the supports. Either is good enough but all depends of the kind of support they get,” he continued.
“Whatever the NFF thinks they can give to the foreign coach, if they give the indigenous coaches that would be very nice.
“The colour of skin deceives us a lot, we might have given the local coaches time to proof their worth, but have we given them the wherewithal to succeed? All I know is that no foreign coach would accept the kind of treatment meted out to our local coaches.
“For now, I would advice we stick with our indigenous coaches till everything is stabilized because as it stand, no one is talking about our financial capability to hire an expatriate,” he concluded.
