A cross section of players of the senior national team of Nigeria have voiced their unhappiness with the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) over the coaching situation of the team as the date for the start of AFCON qualifiers draws near, OwnGoalNigeria.com reports.
The team is without a coach since the exit of Finidi George after a poor showing in the world cup qualifiers. The NFF in a communique made public say they will employ an expatriate coach to handle the team before the start of the qualifiers for the AFCON in September.
However with less than a month to their first game in the series, there is still no coach in sight with the NFF silent on the search for a new coach, although coaches have been shortlisted and interviewed for the job.
” It is the players that take the sticks when things go south, but a lot need to be in place for us to perform at our best. A coach need to be in place to study the opposition, bring tactics for us to execute but it’s less than a month to two games and we don’t have one yet”, a senior player in the team said on the condition of anonymity.
” We (players) see these things as a step to failure but sadly the fans don’t. The NFF need to do better for us to do better in games of such nature. Our opponents have coaches in place preparing for us. We don’t even have an idea of who will lead us. This is really sad”, a player who was at the last AFCON also weigh in.
Another player who was also at the last AFCON said it’s becoming habitual to delay announcing of a new coach, which means the coach has little or no time to assess each player before a call up or even playing them in games. ” These things need to be planned. Not like employ a coach and expect to win the next game or get fired like Finidi. It is becoming the habit of the NFF to set up these coaches to fail by making late announcements”.
Mohammed Mowiz Suleiman
