The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) through its President Amaju Pinnick had told everyone that the country had found its own Pep Guardiola, in Sunday Oliseh.
But eight months after, Oliseh’s time as Super Eagles coach would end up being dotted by avoidable controversies which has seen him earn the accolades as the worst coach ever in the country’s football history. However, there’s a lot to learn from the Oliseh saga.
Sports journalist, NomsoObiajuru presents major lessons to be learnt from the Oliseh’s saga, and what steps should be taken by the NFF, to prevent future occurrence.
The fact that Oliseh’s and NFF’s relationship has gone so awry to the extent that both parties are allegedly planning to settle their problems in court, says a lot about the entertainment and drama that has evolved in our football. It is a big insult on our nation.
The NFF, stung by the sudden resignation of coach Sunday Oliseh had asked their lawyers to study religiously his contract and come up with possible areas he breached the contract . This will guide them in dragging him before FIFA and CAS. But according to Oliseh, he is prepared to meet the NFF in court over what they termed breach of contract.
But should court be the next agenda on the NFF’s mind, I guess not! What should be done is correcting the wrongs that have been made.
The swiftness, with which the nation’s football governing body have reconstituted the coaching crew by bringing in Siasia, Amuneke, and others, is quite commendable, why because both Siasia and Amuneke are more experienced than Oliseh as a coach. However, the system which brought Oliseh in the first place, is in one area that should be perused holistically.
Below are some of the changes the NFF needs to implement in its administrative works:
Introduction of technical programmes
It is unfair to generally blame Oliseh for quitting his job, why because the NFF gave him the leverage to do what he did. In every working football system, a coach must submit a technical programme before he/she starts coaching a team. But did Oliseh do this? No.
The NFF must learn to have articulated technical programmes which will ultimately lead to progression in our football.
Change in the recruitment exercise of our coaches
“In 1982, there was advertisement for Chief Coach of the Nigeria national team. I understand that 60 people applied for the job, we were shortlisted to seven, and then an interview was conducted. We were asked to present a two year programme for the national team to be presented at the interview. The programme I prepared was 10 pages and with all my papers of my certificates and others, I presented over 80 pages. When last did we do something like that in the selection of our coaches,” Ex-coach of the Super Eagles Chief AdegboyeOnigbinde had said in a recent interview.
The aforementioned quote clearly shows that there is something wrong with our recruitment exercise and in the selection of our coaches. This should be thoroughly reviewed and re-examined.
Gone are the days when interested candidates for the Super Eagles job were painstakingly scrutinized.
Although, the NFF had said in a statement on Monday, February 29: “The NFF executive board with its penchant for long term planning took a long term view of Oliseh’s appointment and remains confident that with a little more patience on the part of the coach, things would have turned around for the better in the long run.”
But for me, Oliseh’s relationship with the NFF was bound to head south going by the early negative signs.
Oliseh had mentioned in one of his many assertions in his famous YouTube rant that he never wanted the Super Eagles job and that he rejected NFF’s offer twice.
“I didn’t beg for this job, I never wanted this job, I refused it twice and it took the intervention of a highly respected friend of mine who was in government for me to take this job,”Oliseh said.
This brings back concerns of how people get into power in our country. Is merit considered or does favour do the magic?
From Oliseh’s assertions, his job as Super Eagles coach could well have been influenced.
The NFF must learn to change its recruitment exercise by placing emphasis on aptitude and demonstrable abilities.
Developing our coaches
There have been calls for us to start developing our football. But when we talk about developing our football, it doesn’t always have to be about developing our players. What happens to our coaches? Don’t they also deserve advanced knowledge? Like they say “knowledge is power”.
This brings us back to the number one point, which is the need for technical programmes in our football.
The way we run our football is the major lesson to be learnt from the Oliseh’s saga. People may say that Nigerian coaches aren’t doing enough to develop themselves but I’m of the opinion that the NFF also has a role to play.
I’ll say this, just as change has swept through FIFA, I expect the same with the NFF.
This is because we stand at the risk of not qualifying for the Nations Cup, the World cup and even being left behind by emerging forces in Africa, if the right things are not done as quick as possible.
