16th October, 2014
The Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, executed what could be described as a coup in the early hours of Thursday against Stephen Keshi, the Super Eagles’ Head Coach, by terminating his contract. He was appointed in 2011.
Members of the Executive Board of the NFF in a meeting held at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel in Abuja unanimously agreed to kick out the Big Boss and his technical crew follwing the poor performance of the Super Eagles, Africa’s champions, in the qualification matches for the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations taking place in Morocco.
Former Eagles’ coach, Shaibu Amodu, who qualified the country for the Korea/Japan World Cup in 2002, returned as Nigeria’s interim coach to be assisted by three coaches from the Glo Premier League, namely Salisu Yusuf who handles El-Kanemi Warriors and Gbenga Ogunbote who is in charge of Sharks FC, while former Green Eagles’ goalkeeper, Alloy Agu will be the goal keeper trainer.
Although the choice of Amodu as new coach is akin to moving from frying pan to fire, observers belive that the sack of Keshi was long overdue. Soccer loving Nigerians have been calling for the sack of the former Mali national team coach after his team’s 0-1 loss in Khartoum, Sudan. The Eagles were also defeated in Calabar, Cross River State 2-3 by Congo. These two losses and a goalles draw with South Africa in Cape Town put Nigeria’s qualification ahead of 2015 Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco in disarray.
Nigerians queried the tactics adopted by Keshi in the qualifiers only for the team to come around to beat Sudan 3-1 in Abuja Wednesday.
The African champions, now third in Group A with four points, trail Congo and South Africa who have seven and eight points respectively. The Eagles now walk a tightrope in the group.
Judging by the performance of Eagles in their last four matches in the qualifying series, it was clear that the coaching crew led by Keshi was bereft of ideas as the players invited to national team were not good enough to take the country to Morocco.
Now that Keshi has been relieved of his job, the newly appointed coach, Amodu has a herculean task ahead. He needs to overhaul the team and bring the best players to the national team to win their two remaining matches.
Amodu has to reconcile with players such as Osaze Odemwingie, Obafemi Martins, Brown Ideye, Sunday Mba and Ikechukwu Uche sidelined by Keshi. They were not called up for crucial matches.
Aside this, Amodu and his technical crew should know that their next match against Congo in their home and South Africa in Nigeria will determine if the Eagles will qualify for the Nations Cup.
For the country to reclaim its lost glory in soccer, the NFF should get a coach in the mould of Clemens Westerhorf who came to Nigeria years back and took the country to the 1994 World Cup in America and also won the Nations Cup in Tunisia.
Although we have average players playing professional football in Europe and other continents, with a good coach and competent soccer administrators, the best can be brought out of these players. If Sudan, who paraded largely home-based players, could defeat African champions, it means that a better organised and well funded Nigerian League could produce local players that could take the Eagles to the next level. What the Super Eagles need are players who are committed and hungry for success, which was lacking in Keshi’s team.