Amokachi Set To Take Over Super Eagles

Nigeria coach Shuaibu Amodu will have to win his next game against Benin convincingly or see himself shunted aside for his assistant Daniel Amokachi to take charge for the rest of the Nations Cup, while Mozambique coach Mart Nooij is favoured for the World Cup.

Tuesday’s defeat to Egypt has seen the pressure on Amodu rise to unbearable levels and the Nigeria contingent held no less than three meetings on Wednesday as they sought to find a way forward, with confidence in Amodu’s abilities falling to a dismal low.

The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), executive committee have previously backed Amodu publicly, but our source  understands that a heated meeting on Wednesday saw the majority of board members asking for Amodu to be asked to ‘step aside’ with immediate effect and hand over to Amokachi for the rest of the competition.

However, NFF chairman, Sani Lulu Abdullahi would have none of it and insisted that Amodu be given at least one more game, against Benin, to save his job.

For the World Cup, the bulk of the NFF Executive Committee are in favour of Nooij, who is currently in charge of Mozambique.

Nooij’s major edge over other contenders, including Claude Leroy who is in Angola, is his deep knowledge of the Nigerian team and players after scouting them during the qualifiers, and again for the Nations Cup.

“There is no time between now and the World Cup for someone to try to study the team and we need somebody who already knows the players and understands the team,” a top official of the NFF said.

An additional advantage for Nooij is that he is Dutch, and favours the 4-4-2 formation  which most Nigerians prefer  with an emphasis on wingers. The NFF top brass have also been impressed by the job the Dutchman has done with the Mambas.

Another NFF official however said  that although there has been no contact with Nooij recently, there has been ‘informal’ contact in the past and is confident a deal can be thrashed out after the Nations Cup.