April 05, (THEWILL) – In a deliberate attempt to distance himself from the disastrous failure of the country’s senior men’s national football team to qualify for the Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup, Austin Eguavoen, the team’s previous Technical Adviser, has slammed the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) for decisions made.
For one, he revealed that it was a bad decision to have dismissed former coach, Gernot Rohr, as at when it happened, a decision that he categorically stated that he did not support. He confessed that he proposed to the NFF that Gernot Rohr not be fired.
Eguavon expressed his displeasure with the timing of Rohr’s leaving on Monday Night Football, on the digital satellite television channel SuperSports.
In December 2021, Eguavoen took over from Rohr, just in time for the TotalEnergies 2021 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) in Cameroon, in January.
“Yes, I complained about the timing as it was too close to the Africa Cup of Nations,” the 56-year-old clarified, even though he accepted to handle the team on an interim basis for the duration of the competition, while the NFF hunted for a permanent manager.
To corroborate the claims of Eguavoen, Victor Ikpeba, also a former Nigerian international and contemporary of Eguavoen’s, remarked: “Eguaveon was not in support of the decision to sack Rohr.”
Ikpeba decidedly declined to blame Eguavoen for Nigeria’s World Cup defeat in 2022, believing that the blame for the absence of Nigeria in Qatar tests squarely on the shoulders of the NFF, and the Federation must be held accountable for it.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
