Reading Dare’s mind on Super Eagles new technical adviser

It is no longer news that less than five weeks to the commencement of qualifiers for the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations, the Super Eagles are still without a substantive technical adviser. What is news, however, is the decision by the Minister of Youths and Sports Development, Sunday Dare, to take full control of the […]

It is no longer news that less than five weeks to the commencement of qualifiers for the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations, the Super Eagles are still without a substantive technical adviser. What is news, however, is the decision by the Minister of Youths and Sports Development, Sunday Dare, to take full control of the process that will lead to the hiring of a new coach for the Super Eagles.

After the 2022 World Cup mishap in Abuja in March, there were series of meetings between the sports ministry and the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) and both parties agreed that a foreign coach should be engaged to continue from where Gernot Rohr had stopped.

Consequently, the NFF rushed to submit to the sports ministry the names of four foreign coaches, Phillip Cocu, Laurent Blanc, Ernesto Valverde and Jose Peseiro as recommended by its technical committee for the plum job.

Following the submission of the names to the ministry, many Nigerians had concluded that within the shortest possible time, a substantive technical adviser would be announced. However, after several weeks, nothing was heard again from the sports ministry or the NFF.

It was, therefore, a surprise to many when the sports ministry, obviously dissatisfied with the way the NFF is going about the whole exercise decided to call out the football federation. The ministry expressed shock and utter disappointment that the football federation is finding it hard to comply with its very simple directives.

One of the directives is that out of the four coaches that have been listed, only the most qualified coach should be picked by the NFF because Nigeria deserves the best gaffer who will help with rebuilding the national team. The ministry categorically said no to the just ‘anything in white skin’ mentality.

The ministry also disclosed that it had approached President Muhammadu Buhari and secured approval for the federal government to henceforth pay salaries of the foreign coach to be appointed. It, therefore, declared that the Super Eagles are yet to have a new technical adviser because the NFF is finding it hard to name a ‘solid’ coach for the team.

According to the ministry, all the NFF needs to do is to pick the most ‘solid’ of the four foreign coaches and forward the contract and salary document to the federal government through it for necessary action.

As the football federation continues to dilly-dally, the ministry has given it latest this week to respond to its ‘firm position’ on the issue of the appointment of a foreign technical adviser. This is a deadline the ministry is hoping the NFF will honour unfailingly.

On getting wind of this marching order from the ministry, my mind was immediately flooded with a myriad of thoughts. I instantly perceived what scented like usurpation of someone else’s responsibility. However, when I reflected on the whole thing, I realised that the NFF indirectly invited the ministry to take over its statutory responsibility.

Without doubt, appointment of coaches is supposed to be done by the NFF with little or no input from the ministry but because the federation has remained consistently inconsistent in respecting its contract with coaches, especially in the area of payment of salaries, the ministry has to step in this time.

In fact, while justifying its decision to ask the federal government to take over the payment of salaries of the incoming technical adviser, the ministry had cited the many struggles of the NFF with remuneration of coaches.

It is imperative to state here that despite the billions of naira that the NFF scoops annually from sponsorship deals with big corporate organisations, it has never exhibited the capacity to meet its financial obligations. The federation is always running cap in hand to the federal government.

Therefore, when I reflected deeper on the decision by the sports ministry, I realised that even as it may appear like a bad precedent is being set, it is not a new thing because the government has all along been paying salaries of coaches hired by the NFF.

What the NFF does is to include such expenditure in its yearly budget which is funded by the government. So, what the ministry wants to do now is to take direct control of hiring and payment of a new foreign coach for the Super Eagles.

Once this is done, the ministry will take full control of the coach. He will be answerable to the ministry because he who pays the piper dictates the tune. In the past, the government paid salaries of the coaches but the NFF decided what it wanted from them.

If the ongoing ‘battle’ is won by the sports ministry, we may no longer have a foreign based Super Eagles technical adviser. I am sure the sports minister wants a technical adviser who will reside in Nigeria and help develop our football.

I think this is one of the reasons the ministry has decided that the NFF can choose a coach but must submit the contract papers for vetting. Nigerians who know how NFF’s contracts with foreign coaches are usually shrouded in secrecy will certainly welcome the latest move by the sports ministry.

However, the ministry should be ready to face the wrath of other sports federations who would sooner than later demand that the government should take over payment of salaries of their foreign technical advisers.

If this happens, less endowed sports federations like handball, volleyball, cricket, swimming, weightlifting, boxing, judo, karate, taekwondo, tennis, table tennis and a host of others would get my unflinching support because what is good for the goose is good for the gander.