As the search for a new coach of the senior national team of Nigeria continues, a chieftain of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has blamed the delay on one of the favourites for the job, OwnGoalNigeria.com reports.
Nigeria is without a substantive coach ahead of the start of the qualifiers for the 2025 AFCON, where they will play two games against Benin Republic and Rwanda on the 7th and 10th of September respectively.
The games will likely be handled by the head of the technical department of the NFF owing to the delay in finding a replacement for Finidi George, who left the role almost two months ago after a poor showing in the world cup qualifiers.
For now the NFF have narrowed their choices to just two in the duo of Janne Andersson and Herve Renard, but the latter is the preferred choice of most members of the NFF including the president Ibrahim Musa Gusau.
Renard initially priced himself out of the job with his salary demand described as outrageous by a highly placed board member. However his representative say he is willing to lower his wages because he is keen on working and making a statement with the Super Eagles.
Contacts were made last week just when the board has already settled for Andersson, who handled Sweden for seven years before leaving the role this year. Renard’s return to the negotiation table made the NFF to foot drag in completing the process of hiring Andersson.
” We (NFF) need Renard to make up his mind because at the moment he is confusing us. I can tell you talks are back on with his representative and that kinda slow the process since he is our first choice and rightly so”, he said on the condition that his name shouldn’t be mentioned.
