Foreign Coach Not Answer To Nigeria’s Football Woes

Vincent Clement

The engagement of a foreign coach has been said not to  be the solutionto the litany of woes befalling Nigeria’s national football teams at the moment.

Speaking to Tidesports against the backdrop of Nigerian teams’ recent poor performances and the call for a foreign coach to take over the national teams, especially the Super Eagles, a football fan, Ifeanyi Nwobi, said that the football governing body, Nigeria Football Federation, has to mend its way of doing things to ensure that the game breathes in new life.

According to Nwobi, “Local coaches have the capacity to succeed with our national teams if the right person is chosen, given free hand and the needed support to go for success.”

He argued that the 1994 World/Nations Cup set of Super Eagles were able to do well not just because of Clemens Westerhoff, a foreign coach, but because the coach was given a free hand and built his team without fear or favour.

The fan observed that Coach Shuaibu Amodu, who has led the Super Eagles to the brink of missing out of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, may not be the best candidate for the job, but, “we have too many hands in the pot, he may not have had the freest of hands in choosing his squad for the matches.”

He believes that one of the Nigerian coaches who can take over from Amodu and do well is Samson Siasia.

However, Nwobi calls on Nigerians to continue to support the Super Eagles as they play Mozambique and Kenya in the hope that providence can still see them qualify for the World Cup after endangering their chances in their last match with Tunisia in Abuja.

He also wants the NFF to ensure that  it does everything within its powers to give the team and coaching crew adequate support, and planning before the matches.