Sports
Ndubuoke Wants Interim Manager, Overhaul For S’Eagles
The General Manager, Heartland FC of Owerri, Fan Ndubuoke, has urged the Nigerian Football Association (NFA) to appoint an interim manager for the Super Eagles pending the restructuring of the team.
Ndubuoke told the Tidesports over the weekend in Owerri that the NFA needed to fill the vacuum created by Samson Siasia’s sack while it took time to analyse what led to his failure.
“The best thing should be for NFA to take time and analyse the situation and find out why Siasia failed and what made him arrogant as people say,” he said.
The Heartland boss warned the NFA against being in a hurry to appoint another coach for the Eagles.
“ I am not comfortable with the names that are being bandied about as possible replacement. I am still laughing at the names that are being bandied about.
“Why is NFA in a hurry to appoint a new coach just because people are looking for jobs?”
Ndubuoke also advocated for an overhaul of the national team using players from the Nigerian league.
“The practice of always inviting more than eight foreign players each time Nigeria has an international engagement should stop.
“We should not have more than four foreign players and the bulk should be from the Nigerian League.”
Also reacting to Siasia’s sack, the Chairman of the Imo chapter of the Sports Writers Association of Nigeria, John Nwogu, said that the action was a welcome development.
Nwogu said that since it was part of the terms of contract for Siasia to qualify Nigeria for the Nations Cup, he should be sacked having failed to do so.
He urged the NFA to go for a foreign technical adviser for the Super Eagles, “preferably a Dutch, who will relate well with the players’’.
Meanwhile, in Ilorin, football enthusiasts also received the sack of Siasia with mixed feelings.
A cross-section of football fans, who spoke with Tidesports condemned the decision of the NFA, saying that it was taken in a hurry.
Some of the fans blamed the failure of the national team to qualify for the 2012 African Nations’ Cup on the the players’ loss of focus.
Fatai Alagbede, a football fan, asserted that impatience made the nation’s football governing body to arrive at the decision.
“Siasia should have been given another opportunity. Inconsistency in appointing coaches for the Super Eagles is what has caused the problem of the team.”
He suggested that instead of terminating Siasia’s appointment, a foreign technical adviser should have been considered to oversee the team.
Another, football enthusiast, Lanre Mahmud, condemned the NFA’s action, saying that it was not in the interest of football loving people in the country.
“We are strongly against the decision”
However, some fans lauded the step taken by the body, describing it as a step in the right direction.
Alhaji Fatai Eleja, in his reaction, said that failure of the Eagles to qualify for the Nations’ Cup was enough reason for the NFA to relieve the coach of his appointment.
“Siasia has failed in the mandate given to him to qualify the team for the Nations’ cup.”
He, however, said that efforts should be mad to fill the vacuum in time with a better replacement.
“The NFA should strive hard for a better replacement. It should engage an experienced foreign coach for the job,” he said.
A well-known football pundit in the State, Chief Christopher Okonkwo has lauded the efforts and vision of the Super Eagles Coach Eric Chelle for going from one venue of the Nigeria Domestic Nigeria Professional Football League match to the other in monitoring Nigerian players, with a view to invite some exceptional good one discovered into the main stream of the Super Eagles team.
Okonkwo, who made the commendation in an interview at the Port Harcourt Club recently, described the positive move by Coach Chelle as a good step in the right direction, noting that the practice was how its been done in the past among any contracted coach assigned to tinker the Super Eagles team.
“Truly, it has been an old tradition in the country seeing any newly engaged Coach to lead the National team, visiting some our Nigeria League venues during the league matches to spot light some good talents that could be used to beef up some grey areas in the department of Eagles team”
He, however, frowned at the current situation where our coaches had continously been over depending on the use of foreign based players during invitation of players to the National camp, thereby, relegating the domestic home based league players to the background as if they have nothing much to offer to the team.
“I can vividly recall that the likes of great players in the mode of Finidi George, Taribo West, Kanu Nwankwo, Austin Okocha, Richard Owobokiri, Emmanuel Osuigwe among others started from Nigeria football league before they graduated to play in Europe through which they later invited to Super Eagles camp to represent Nigeria”
“Besides, I’m also of the view that going to secondary school football competitive games could equally serves as a a good platform to discover budding talents that could be nurtured to become great stars in near future”, Okonkwo frankly added.
Okonkwo, therefore, prayed that any football coach to be engaged by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to tinker the Super Eagles should be told not to confine himself in staying in big hotel alone but to be visiting some of our local league match venues, with a view to discover some good players that can be drafted into the Super Eagles team.
“Indeed, I stand to be challenged that there some young good players in the Nigeria Professional League. If spotted and exposed, could give the some of the invited foreign based players a stiff competitive fight in securing a postion in the team”, Okonkwo emphatically stated.
Ezechukwu, one of the youngest members of the Nigerian contingent at the championship in Ghana, said her ambition was to win the 100m title in style and cap it with a new personal record.
The fresh secondary school graduate explained that she is fully focused on contributing to Team Nigeria’s medal hopes and is determined to deliver strong performances across her events.
“My main objective in Ghana is to clinch the 100m title and the 4×100m,” Ezechukwu told Tidesports source.
“Nigeria can be assured of my very best and my commitment to the Team. I would love to set a new personal best in Ghana, but anything that comes, I will take it. The spirit in the team is high, and I think we are ready to go,” she said.
Ezechukwu, who was part of Nigeria’s women’s 4x100m relay squad at the World Relays in Botswana, said the experience gained from that competition has strengthened her mindset heading into the continental championships.
She admitted that she learned valuable lessons from her previous outing, including a difficult moment during the relay where an early error affected the team’s rhythm, but said she has used the experience to improve her discipline and composure.
“The secret is just being disciplined, training hard and trusting my coach and believing in God, and the result will show,” she added.
The teenager is part of a 41-member Nigerian team comprising 24 female and 17 male athletes competing at the championships, which begin today at the University of Ghana, Legon.
Nigeria are expected to compete across multiple track and field events as they aim for a strong finish against the continent’s elite athletes.
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