The Nigeria Football Federation has
confirmed that former Nigeria international Sunday Oliseh will coach the
Super Eagles with a team that will include a Dutch as an assistant.
A manager close to Oliseh in Europe, who
has full knowledge of the talks between the NFF and Oliseh in London,
confirmed to The PUNCH on Wednesday that the former Eagles captain had
accepted the job offer and would work with an assistant from Europe.
He
said, “I can confirm that Sunny (Oliseh) has accepted the offer and he
will be working with an assistant coming down from Europe as well.”
On Wednesday, the NFF confirmed they
were in talks with the Belgium-based Nigerian to replace Stephen Keshi,
who was kicked out as Eagles coach on Saturday. Oliseh met with NFF
president Amaju Pinnick and Austin Jay Jay Okocha in London on Tuesday.
“An offer has been made, and there is an
understanding, but we have to work out the final details of the
agreement in a few days. Of course, the Executive Board has to give
approval for his appointment based on the final terms to be agreed,”
Felix Anyansi-Agwu, Chairman of the NFF Technical and Development
Committee said on Wednesday.
The NFF added that Oliseh would come
with a “foreign technical assistant, whose job description will centre
around development programmes, and working with clubs’ youth teams and
certified academies towards developing the game from the grassroots.
“Current stand-in coach Salisu Yusuf
will also be in the new team, but with greater devotion to the
home-based team, otherwise known as Super Eagles B, and will be the
interface between the technical crew and the home boys.”
From the details of the package being
finalised, Oliseh is expected to come up with a five-year developmental
plan “to fashion a unique playing and coaching philosophy for all the
national teams, and will for this purpose, interface regularly with
coaches of those teams.
“We are also looking at how he will
periodically organise clinics and seminars for coaches of clubs in the
Nigeria Professional Football League, probably once in a month, so as to
strengthen the playing philosophy across board. A robust youth
development programme, elite player development strategy and performance
programmes to drive higher standards, among other core sustainable
development programmes, are also part of the proposal,” Anyansi-Agwu
said.
NFF President Pinnick said, “Sunday
Oliseh has vast experience and immense knowledge of the game, and will
certainly add value to what we are doing. He has bought into our vision
and objectives towards the development of Nigeria football. He will
command the respect of the players and we trust he has the temperament
to work harmoniously with the Technical and Development Committee, the
Technical Directorate and the Technical Study Group.
“On our part at the NFF, we will give
him all the support to succeed as we have been giving to all our
coaches. Subject to the approval of the NFF Executive Committee, we will
conclude negotiations by weekend and he will be unveiled next week.”
No comments:
Post a Comment