The new Technical Direc
tor of Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), yesterday Bitrus Bewarang,in Benin assured that the federation would not neglect developing football from the grassroots.
Bewarang told news Agency of Nigeria (NAN) this was necessary in order for the game to grow appropriately in the country.
He said zonal offices would be re-introduced across the country’s geo-political zones in order to achieve this, saying this was necessary for effective supervision and monitoring of coaches and players.
Bewarang who bemoaned the present state of Nigerian football said grassroots football development was part of the drastic measures needed to turn things around for the better.
“To me, the present state of our football development is not acceptable. You will recall that we were fifth in the world and number one in Africa some years back.
“But now, we have fallen to number 17 in Africa and 70 in the world. That is not good at all.
“But the only way out of this is to develop the game at the grass root level.
“We are all aware of the performance of Clemens Westerhof in the history of Nigerian football. One of the reasons why he succeeded was because he looked in the direction of home-based players.
“It is for this reason that I will be looking at the direction of re-introducing zonal offices, where our coaches as well as the players will be properly supervised and monitored,’’ he said.
The former Super Eagles assistant coach said his predecessor, the late Shaibu Amodu, did his best in his capacity as the National Technical Director, and had made his job easier.
“I only have to look at the files and add one or two things, in addition to what is already there,’’ he said.
Bewarang, who is also the Chairman of Nigeria Coaches Association (NCA), decried the way Nigerian coaches were being treated in the country, in comparison to their foreign counterparts.
He said Nigerian coaches are capable of taking football to greater heights in the country if given time and the free hand to operate.
The NFF Technical Director expressed regrets that in spite of the positive impact made by some Nigerian coaches on the national teams, Nigerian coaches were still been viewed as inferior.
“We have good coaches, but the problem is that they are never given enough time, especially when handling the Super Eagles.
“You don’t judge a coach by one or two matches lost. Westerhof succeeded because he was given a free hand and the time to tinker with the team.
“It is because of this poor condition Nigerian coaches work under that you see that over 70 per cent of us are hypertensive,’’ he said.