Stakeholder Warns NFF Over Flying Eagles Coach Appointment

Stakeholder Warns NFF Over Flying Eagles Coach Appointment

By Niyi Busari

A prominent football stakeholder in Nigeria has notified the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, beforehand to be wary of the kind of coach that will be picked for the Flying Eagles job, BSNSports.com.ng understands.

The top source who craves anonymity drew his conclusion following allegation by the former Flying Eagles coach, Paul Aigbogun who said that his assistants sabotage his efforts before and during the 2019 FIFA U20 World Cup in Poland.

The source added that those who were alleged by Aigbogun also applied for the vacant position.

His concern is, if any of the coaches is appointed, that means, many assistant coaches may believe sabotaging their principal's efforts not get good results is the short cut to emerge the head coach.

This, according to him will in the end affect the growth of Nigerian football.

"We allow ourselves to be used by the administrators, sometimes they used divide and rule style of leadership, those that applied for the Flying Eagles U20 job, the issues is, when Paul Aigbogun was there he alleged his colleagues of sabotage, either we believed the allegations or not, the two assistants of the same team are now applying for same post, what meaning do you read out of it?

"That allegations has not been confirmed though," he continued. "But if the man was saying that his assistants are working against him and the two assistants are applying for the same job, it means the allegations may be true."

He pointed that the federation made mistakes by 'forcing' assistant coaches on the head coach adding that the head coach should be allowed to pick his assistants to avoid sabotage.

"First of all, it's the coaches that should recommend his assistants, between them you can see the synergy that the coach is very intact.

"But when you appointed the assistant coach before the head coach, the assistant coach may not respect the head coach or work with him .

The NFF president, Amaju Pinnick said that the federation is not involved in national team coaches appointment adding that the PriceWaterHouse Cooper Ltd (PWC) is the company appointed to recruit national team coaches.