Give me Reasons why Nigeria needs a foreign coach, Sports Minister tells NFF

Barr. Solomon Dalong at the Ministerial screening at the National Assembly Abuja

Nigeria’s Sports Minister Solomon Dalung has demanded justification from the leadership of the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) over their planned moved to hire a foreign coach for the country’s national football team, the Super Eagles.

At a meeting held at his Abuja office on Tuesday, Dalung gave the NFF four weeks to submit a ‘comprehensive report’ on why it wants to hire a foreign coach for the Super Eagles.

The sports minister and the executive board of the NFF met for over two hours on Tuesday with the biggest topic of discussion centred on Nigeria’s failure to qualify for the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations and the NFF’s decision to hire a foreign coach for the team.

NFF President, Amaju Pinnick, is insisting on a foreign coach for the Super Eagles following the failure to make the next Africa Cup of Nations after losing out to Egypt, but Dalung remains unconvinced that no Nigeria coach is good enough.

‘I cannot put our World Cup hopes on a local coach. We need a world class coach who can reshape our football,’ Pinnick told the media in Lagos last week.

While not totally foreclosing the idea of getting an expatriate coach, Dalung demanded a comprehensive technical report from the NFF board, and gave them four weeks to present the report which is expected to contain the merits of hiring a foreigner, before giving his approval.

Among other things, the report from the NFF is expected to be clear on how the salaries of the hired coach will be paid as the Minister was unequivocal on the fact that he would not shoulder such expenses.

“Money released by the Ministry to NFF does not include payment of their coaches. They have to mop up money from wherever and pay the coaches,” the minister said.

Meanwhile, the minister has also ordered the NFF to pay up the outstanding salaries and allowances owed coaches handling the country’s various other national teams.

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