Recently, there was a disturbing news that world football governing body, FIFA, ordered the Nigeria Football Federation to pay the sum of $1, 045,000 (about N433,873,550 officially) as compensation and salaries to former Super Eagles coach, Gernot Rohr. We recall Rohr was fired as Super Eagles head coach in December 2021 while still being owed several months’ salaries as well as bonuses and allowances.

The NFF says six months of the money was paid but the German reported Nigeria to FIFA and the world football governing body has ordered them to pay him the said amount to cover his entitlements and additional compensation. FIFA ruled that the NFF had no justifiable reason to terminate Rohr’s contract in the manner that they did, especially as they owed him such a large sum. We take this as a global disappointment for Nigeria especially as the same NFF only during the week signed Jose Peseiro as Rohr’s replacement with a monthly salary of about $70,000. It was learnt that the ministry of sports insisted on a proper evaluation of all shortlisted candidates before the Portuguese emerged.

The technical committee of the NFF had recommended Peseiro along with three others – Philip Cocu, Laurent Blanc and Ernesto Valverde – for the Eagles’ job. As things stand, the NFF might end up piling up more debts with another foreign coach unless the plans of the sports ministry to have the government take over the payment of the salaries of the foreign handler materializes.

With less than a month to the first match of the qualifiers, the NFF has also made wholesale changes in the technical crew and even players of the Eagles, as Abubakar Salisu rolled out a list of 30 players for the friendlies slated for May 28 and June 2. Incidentally, not too long after releasing the list, the same man was kicked out for Finidi George to take over as the first assistant. This is absurd and one wonders if the NFF chieftains are really interested in the development of the game in the country. It is fine that domestic league players were invited but nobody deemed it fit to explain the absence of some key players on the list.

We make bold to say no lesson has been learnt about the ouster of Eagles from the World Cup just as the NFF has moved on without doing things differently to get better results. The NFF certainly is on the wrong track. No doubt, the effects of the Super Eagles’ ouster from the Qatar 2022 World Cup are still a big subject of discourse in many parts of the country especially among football stakeholders.

Many possible investments will be lost and many other plans for a proposed deal or sponsorships have been shattered. Journalists banking on sponsorship to cover the Mundial are having their hopes hanging in the balance. One can go on and on about the effects but it was generally believed that lessons would have been learnt from the shocking setback.

It is expected that the NFF chieftains and the handles of the team will buckle up to do things in a better way going forward to avert a recurrence of the misadventure. As a body, the NFF has not shown that the future will be better taken care of in terms of planning and provision of all necessary things for the players.

The Nigeria/ Ghana World Cup playoff ties ended with bonuses and allowances not paid to the players and officials. It is sad that the entire team prosecuted the encounter without getting anything from the federation despite all the propaganda about handling all logistics correctly.

The return tickets were provided but the players and officials entered camp in Abuja and spent their own money on a daily basis for about 10 days of camping for the back-to-back encounters decided in Kumasi and Abuja. Rather than face the reality of the problem areas and take responsibility for Nigeria’s failure, the NFF, led by Amaju Pinnick, has been chasing shadows.

No doubt, Austin Eguavoen did not do well enough in the playoffs but the NFF fired the entire crew because of the World Cup ouster as if the federation was totally blameless. Ironically had the ticket been won, the NFF would be all out trumpeting the efforts of the federation but predictably, Eguavoen and company were made the sole scapegoats for the failure.

Sad enough, with less than a month to the 2023 Nations Cup qualifiers against Sierra Leone, the NFF failed to name a coach. Rather it was the assistant coach announced in April that picked a controversial list of 30 players for the two friendly games to be played against Ecuador and Mexico.

It is great that eight home-based players were invited for the USA friendlies but there was no explanation on why Victor Osimhen, Kelechi Iheanacho, Taiwo Awoniyi, Paul Onuachu and Odion Ighalo were excluded. Now, Peseiro, who knows nothing about the list, is expected to be in charge in the two friendlies against Mexico and Ecuador just as the qualifiers for the 2023 AFCON are also around the corner. This does not show any seriousness in the administrative structure of the federation which over the years has been disappointing. Nigeria, in concrete terms must show seriousness in the running of football which is now a multi-billion dollar business in many parts of the world.

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