Former captain and coach of the senior national team of Nigeria Sunday Oliseh says he is disappointed by the decision of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to hire Eric Chelle as coach of the team, OwnGoalNigeria.com reports.
Chelle was appointed by the NFF in February replacing Austine Eguavoen, who held the role in interim capacity all through the qualifiers for the AFCON.
The French – Malian is the first foreigner from Africa to handle the Super Eagles, and Oliseh was left unimpressed terming his appointment as a disrespect to Nigeria coaches, who should have been allowed to do the job.
“Africans are not allowed to coach abroad, and Nigerians are not allowed to coach outside their shores. The only job that is the most prized one, leave it for the people to handle; that’s my opinion”, he said in an interview with Supersports.
“I am not a big fan of him, I feel it is a sign of disrespect to the coaches and people of Nigeria, I am not going to comment on how good he is but he looks like a nice guy but I feel my country has suffered enough; the coaches, players, ex players have suffered enough and they have paid the prize so, let them do their job.”
His claims is however not true as Nigerian coaches have coached abroad with the likes of Emmanuel Amuneke working in Tanzania recently. Former captain Stephen Keshi coached the national team of Togo and Mali respectively. Another former coach in Christian Chukwu also coached the national team of Kenya.
Mohammed Mowiz Suleiman
