Football Nigeria -- Eagles Etcetera

I looked forward to the outcome of the NFF’s Executive meeting called yesterday in Abuja discuss critical matters pertaining to Nigeria’s football. However, after reading the meeting’s Communique, it seems to me that the NFF has raised even more questions than answers.   Of course, NFF’s decision to meet yesterday (Wednesday) was laudable considering that the all important World Cup qualifiers begin in ten weeks, Nigeria’s only round of preparatory games is just six weeks away, and the first set of player invitation for Nigeria’s next national coach is four weeks away. Yet, there is no national coach named and with the timelines noted above, Nigeria now is operating under Code Red . Yesterday, one expected resolution to the issue of a national team coach. It didn’t happen. Instead, Nigerians have been offered another week’s wait to know about yet another recommendation. That one week wait is full of uncertainty as that deadline has created a situation where the federation...

The Technical Committee for Nigeria's Football Federation (NFF) finally recommended Frenchman, Paul Le Guen, as manager in the run up to the final rounds of the 2018 World Cup qualifiers. The announcement was anti-climactic as the choice of Le Guen has been the worst kept secret for several weeks. So who is this guy? Paul Le Guen is no stranger to Africa. He led Cameroon to the 2010 World Cup. Nothing new there. However, the committee's recommendation is strange because the country had recently turned away from hiring foreign coaches to focus on appointing its own coaches who had played professionally in Europe. So why the sudden change? Well, failure to qualify, under local coaches, for three of the last four Cup for African Nations finals (2012, 2015, and 2017) was a bit much to swallow for a proud nation. Thus, a 180 degrees turn to foreign coaches seems to be a concocted path to a hopeful solution. Nigeria and a Problem Unsolved But does the mere appointment of a...