April 06, (THEWILL) – The Nigeria Football Federation has begun the process of appointing new coaching staff for the Super Eagles, Nigeria’s senior men’s national football team, with a five-day ultimatum given to the relevant committee to submit names.
The NFF had disbanded the Augustine Eguavoen-led technical crew after failing to qualify for the Qatar 2022 World Cup, as THEWILL reported.
The order that went through the national team when Ghana beat Nigeria to the World Cup ticket in Abuja also affected Emmanuel Amuneke, Joseph Yobo, Salisu Yusuf, and Alloy Agu, all of whom were in the coaching team alongside Eguavoen.
Now, aiming for a fresh start after the massive disappointment, the NFF has set a deadline for the recommendation of coaches for vacant national teams, particularly the Super Eagles, in a communique issued following its executive meeting on Tuesday.
The NFF Executive Committee directed the Technical and Development Sub-Committee to suggest coaches to fill the vacancies now available in the national team within five days.
Part of the communique read: “The Executive Committee mandated its Technical and Development Sub-Committee to, within the next 5 days, make recommendations to the Executive Committee on coaching crews for the Super Eagles, the CHAN team, the U20 Boys (Flying Eagles) and the U17 Boys (Golden Eaglets) ahead of upcoming assignments.
“This is to ensure preparations for the next qualifying tournaments and championships commence in earnest.”
There have been notices of talks between the NFF’s eggheads and Minister of Youth and Sports Sunday Dare in recent days and certain names have surfaced as probable candidates to lead the Super Eagles, with Sunday Oliseh, a former coach and captain of the national team, topping the list.
According to sources, while the minister is open to employing another “local coach”, the NFF is dead set on hiring an expatriate, especially following the failure of the consortium of local coaches.
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.
