By Tai Emeka Obasi
Gernot Rohr, the former coach of the Super Eagles, was sacked few weeks ago. The ripples of that action is still bubbling, or foaming rather.
Call them NFA or NFF, the actions of the men at the Glass House in the nation’s capital city hardly differ, irrespective of the nomenclature of the man heading the affairs. It’s all about the Nigerian system – a rotten system at most stages of our endeavours.
The Amaju Pinnick-led Nigerian Football Federation kept the German coach far past his usefulness. The German had no reason staying five years as the Super Eagles tactician but in Nigeria, lasting in your job as a foreign technocrat depends largely on who and who brought you on board and hardly ever dependent on performance. If you know you know.
But talking about professional management of the game, football is hardly any enterprise you cut corners and excel. Unwritten rules of the game demand that you don’t sack a coach after he has qualified for a tournament and expect another stepping in to excel in same tournament. Unless, of course, you’re replacing the sacked one with his assistant or someone very close to the team.
By employing Eguavoen to take charge, the NFF at least demonstrated appreciable level of professionalism. Egu was a former player and coach of the national side. He understands the Nigerian players and very importantly their strengths and weaknesses. His three matches so far at the tournament is a clear testament.
Now, a Portuguese, Jose Peseiro, has already been employed to take over the Super Eagles immediately after the Nations Cup in Cameroun. He’s at the tournament, to get first-hand knowledge of the players he will inherit. Another professional arrangement.
Question now – what if Eguavoen guides Eagles to the trophy in Cameroun? Even if he doesn’t win it, hasn’t he demonstrated appreciable capability with his three matches so far?
After the Nations Cup, 10 teams in Africa will go into two-legged World Cup playoffs. Nigeria is one of them, still waiting for would-be opponent. Hasn’t Eguavoen demonstrated enough tactical ability that he should be allowed to execute those two very important matches?
I’ve seen Nigeria employ coaches midstream and they all backfiired. We won Olympic football gold in Atlanta because Jo Bonfrere that took over from Willy Bazuaye had stayed over five years in Nigeria, working with same players he took to Atlanta in 1996.
A similar experiment with Bora Milutinovic ended in a very unpleasant disaster in France ’98 because the man knew next to nothing about the Nigerian players.
So far, Egu has won my respect with the way the Eagles are playing. Even when he made eight changes to his starting 11 against Guinea Bissau, the team still played very harmoniously.
If Pinnick and his team don’t intend to bungle our World Cup appearance in Qatar, they should reshuffle their intentions. Eguavoen should be allowed to handle the playoffs.
