CAF save NFF, Coach Eric Chelle from CHAN championship test
By Dr. Salau D.F(Dee Elf) – NUGA Publicity Liaison Officer 1993-2001.
The odds are against the NFF and the newly installed coach of the Super Eagles, Eric Chelle. The litmus test for Coach Chelle would have been to test his skills and convince several doubting diehard Nigerian Football lovers with the Confederation of Home Based African Footballers (CHAN) in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda which has now been dashed with CAF postponing the Championship from February to August 2025.
The odds are extremely against NFF and Chelle as the timing of employment was quite bad. Coach Chelle will have no opportunity of showcasing his talents to doubting Nigerian Football fans as CHAN is postponed and It also means he has to organize and prepare the Super Eagles for the ultimate decider two matches of the 2026 World Cup Qualifiers against Rwanda in far away Kigali and at home in March without any window for any friendly match for the team before the qualifiers.
The Coach is just going round the mound now to familiarise with players who have established themselves with another Coach and the team a few weeks to the World Cup Qualifying matches. Players’ decisions towards matches are pivotal to the success of the team. How the players hold this Coach is personal to them as they have not been together before. This has been the main reason why players perform well or otherwise when coaches are sacked and new ones are brought in.
There are enough reasons why the NFF can’t blame this Coach if Nigeria’s World Cup dream is truncated. They should surely be ready to man up if it happens. The timing of the appointment is wrong. The Coach will have no window of any friendly matches before the qualifiers to meet with the team and the fact that many football pundits observed that the qualifications and experience of the Coach doesn’t measure up to Coaching the Super Eagles.
As I said in my last article, NFF is seriously gambling with Nigerian Football and should be held responsible for failures that may result in this gambling project. The precarious situation we are faced with the World Cup Qualifiers for the 2026 Games and AFCON Championship doesn’t need gambling but honest and decisive decisions which we ought to have taken before this hurried appointment of the new Coach.
Our experiences in the past where we have lost the opportunity of participating in the prestigious World Cup due to careless administrative decisions should serve as a lesson to our Football administrators. However, it seems we do not learn from our past mistakes and rise up to correct the mistakes.
It’s clear that Nigeria always boasts of world class Footballers as is the case now. The ability to put our administrative acumen to use to combine these talents judiciously and get results has always been the problem. It’s high time we sit up and forgo pecuniary issues and do what is best for this country.
The NFF has to realize that Football is the only language that combines all Nigerians together. It’s always painful when we dampen the spirits of millions of Nigerians who follow the game on a platter of carelessness. It happened during the last 2022 World Cup Qualifiers when our neighbour and brother Ghana defeated us to play in the 2022 World Cup. It took several months before Nigerians nayFootball lovers could come out of the shock of missing that World Cup.
We are on the move towards other qualifications. We should not allow our carelessness due to administrative issues allow us to lose Nigeria’s participation in this global highest Football Mundial. All hands must be on deck as no excuses will be tolerated. Together with the total support from the players, Coaches, administrators and Nigerians we can book our ticket to the 2026 World Cup.
‘ Dr Salau D.F (Dee Elf) writes from Lagos at 08023065052 | ‘ daudasalau2015@gmail
