The coach of the senior national team of Nigeria Jose Peseiro caused a lot of debate with his decision to include some players in the list of players called up for the Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers games against Guinea Bissau.
Peseiro’s list was largely filled with players who are mostly inactive ahead of players who have been doing really well this season. Their inclusion had led to many labelling the coach as incompetent.
That appears not to be the case according to Colin Udoh of ESPN, he wrote the coach was forced to compromise because of an instruction from the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) on a particular quota for foreign based players.
In his report, Udoh quoted an unnamed chief of the NFF who said the coach has been told not to call up more than 20 foreign based players as a means of cutting cost due to the financial issue the football house is facing, he was also mandated to call players from the Nigeria Professional Football League to bring visibility to the league.
“We cannot afford to invite so many players from Europe any more because we need to be very judicious in our use of the limited funds we have,” the board member said. “Peseiro can call as many players as he wants, but only 20 can come from abroad. If he needs any more, he should get them from the local league.”
“The president wants to make sure that the local league players are recognized in the Super Eagles, and this will be one way to help strengthen the league and make it more attractive,” the board member told Udoh.
It was on the premises of the above that two Nigeria U20 players in Chijioke Anigboso and Daniel Bameyi were handed a call up to the team in addition to Victor Sochima of Rivers United.
For the case of Ahmed Musa, the coach had to hand him a call up with his contract up in few months time and Musa is seen by the Portuguese as someone who can influence the top men at the NFF to give him an extension.
Another reason is for Musa to act as mediator in the planned discussion with the new NFF president Ibrahim Musa Gusau, over their unpaid wages which runs into billions of Nigeria left behind by the former NFF board led by Amaju Pinnick.
Mohammed Mowiz
