The technical director of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) Austine Eguavoen says he was disappointed that head coach of the senior national team of Nigeria, Eric Chelle didn’t pick any player from the Nigeria Professional Football Federation (NPFL) in his squad for the recently concluded AFCON.
Chelle went to the tournament with a team of 28 players all picked from teams outside Nigeria, and the team went all the way to the semi final before losing to the host Morocco 2-4 on penalties.
They recovered to win the third place playoff Against Egypt 4-2 on penalties, with Chelle earning applause for the way the team played at the tournament, but Eguavoen isn’t totally happy that no player from the domestic league made the team.
“I felt disappointed that we did not include some NPFL players in the AFCON squad. Some players in the team may not even get a minute of action, so why couldn’t we include a few players from the local league? At least three or four would have been better”, he said in an interview with Footy Africa.
Reminded that Chelle coached the home based players at the CHAN tournament, where they were woeful and maybe that was the reason why they weren’t picked, Eguavoen said it will be unfair to judge the players with their CHAN performance.
“The players are not bad, and just because we didn’t do well at CHAN doesn’t mean we should throw the baby out with the bathwater. That said, I think this is something we need to look into because it speaks volumes when players come directly from the local league into a major tournament like AFCON.”
“There is an issue. The selection of players for the Super Eagles is the responsibility of the coach. We can only advise him; we cannot force players on him. I must also say that he has a lot of respect for the players and wants to see how he can gradually bring them through. We have discussed this a few times, but the timing has to be right”.
Mohammed Mowiz Suleiman
