Last week, the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF), finally let the cat out of the bag with the news of the appointment of Finidi George, after months of speculations on who would succeed disappointing erstwhile head coach, José Peseiro, after he quit the job.
Peseiro’s reign was so uneventful and lacklustre that it is difficult to think of any former coach of the team that performed as poorly as the former Super Eagles Portuguese tactician.
Sadly, the penchant of our football administrators to go abroad for second rate coaches has continued to backfire with little or nothing to show for the salaries they are often paid in hard currencies.
Since after Clemence Westerhof’s reign, all the foreign coaches employed for the national team have had little or nothing to show for their stay with the team. Even Westerhof’s success was possible because he was allowed a very long stay with the team and had all the support needed from powerful forces above the usually misfiring football federation. A benefit no local coach has enjoyed.
Last week, the NFF announced Ex-Eagles star Finidi George, as the new manager for the team. A development that has gained wide acceptance from a lot of football fans.
Finidi was level-headed and very disciplined as a player, with little or no scandal around him during his playing days. Also as a coach of Enyimba of Aba, he has also shown his quality. Having also played at the highest level as a player, and a Champions League winner with Ajax, Finidi will certainly not feel inferior to any coach anywhere in the world. He will also not have problems extracting discipline from his team.
Before his choice was announced, there had been earlier reports that his former team mate, Emmanuel Amuneke was the preferred choice. Amuneke would also have been a good choice. A good player himself who also played the game at the highest level and can command the respect of his players. But as it is, Finidi has been chosen and he needs all the support he can get to succeed on the job.
However, the NFF must ensure that the old practice where local coaches are hardly supported or given the enabling environment to succeed does not repeat itself again.
The experiences of the local coaches are such that the NFF themselves deliberately set obstacles on the path of the coaches just so that they fail. Chief Adegboye Onigbinde was deprived of even enough balls to train the team. He got more support from private individuals to enable him perform than he got from his employers. His employment was just to fulfill all righteousness and the NFF had hoped that he would disappoint so they could go for their preferred choice of a foreign coach.
As for the experience of the late Stephen Keshi, the NFF had already prepared his sack letter in the course of the 2013 Nations Cup. His saving grace was that he eventually won the tournament held in South Africa. Keshi won the Africa Cup of Nations with 15 rookies at the tournament, the nation’s third title. That is also instructive for those who tend to insist on the choice of Europe-based players for the national team.
Another sad experience that the nation must not repeat is the tendency to owe local coaches and not pay them as promptly as they do with foreign coaches. Finidi must be paid promptly to enable him to concentrate on the job and avoid unnecessary distractions.
Given that the NFF is populated by politicians who are mostly interested in what they stand to gain from their tenure, they do not care a hoot if the team does well or not so long as their selfish interests are met.
Therefore, Finidi and the NFF must ensure that a contract is signed and that both parties respect the terms of the contracts. This is especially so, when you realize that almost all of the local coaches who have worked with the NFF are today calling for the payment of their owed salaries. The reason being that there were no signed contracts by the NFF with those coaches.
On the part of Finidi, he must take time to look out for those pitfalls that have hampered the performances of coaches before him, especially the local coaches. He should give equal opportunity to both local and foreign-based players.
The notion that only established and foreign-based stars are fit for the national team has been proven severally to be wrong. Let every player that is fit and hungry enough to don the national shirt be given the opportunity. He must take full responsibility for making his team based on his best judgement and not from external influencers.
Finidi should guide against immoral conducts like taking bribes to include players in the team. He should also not be caught in the web of trafficking players to clubs abroad for personal gains, an allegation which some have said is responsible for why some coaches field players that they want to sell to clubs abroad.
One of the benefits of having a local coach like Finidi is that because he has been in the local league with Enyimba for about two years, he would have travelled the length and breadth of the country and would have seen players from whom he can build a team of players that would be given the necessary exposure to fight for shirts.
It is unacceptable that a nation with all the talents as Nigeria would be struggling to defeat teams that are not spectacular. All through the stay of Peseiro, there was no game the Super Eagles played that we did not labour or struggle to win or earn a draw. The Eagles gave several people heart aches just watching them play. It cannot be for lack of players; there are talents everywhere in the country. A coach, like Peseiro, who was based abroad and only comes around whenever we had a game to play cannot discover the huge talents that this nation is blessed with.
So, Finidi is condemned to perform. He has to because he would with his performance be making a case for local coaches, going forward. He has to insist on the choice of those to work with to deliver the results, and NFF must give him that opportunity and necessary support in order to avoid the frictions that often occur with working with assistants that are imposed on the head coaches. No room should be given for him to blame anybody should he fail.
I do not have any problem with appointing foreign coaches. But I am totally opposed to engaging any low grade in white skin as a coach when they are not in any way better than the local coaches. If a foreign coach must be employed he must be such that even the local coaches would respect such a choice.
Congratulations Finidi. The die is cast and you must not fail. You must be above board at all times and watch your steps. There will be several pitfalls and booby traps from NFF officials, politicians and football agents to tempt you to derail, so you must be vigilant and careful.
Only hard work and good results can enable Finidi to keep the job, anything short of that would see the same Nigerians praising him now to high heavens calling for his head.
