By Dr. Salau D.F (Dee Elf), NUGA Publicity Liaison Officer 1993-2001
The recent announcement of the appointment of Malian Coach Eri Semiu Chelle as the new Manager of the Super Eagles of Nigeria by the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) morning has generated a lot of criticism from Nigerians. Many are confused and baffled at the recent decisions of the Football governing body.
It all started with the botched announcement of another German Coach Bruno Labbadia in August 2024 who refused to take up the appointment on allegations of corruption, bribery and extortion by officials of the Glass House.
To save her face, the NFF had to resort to hiring home based tactician Augustine Eguavoine. Since he started with the team, the NFF board has never hid its love for first class foreign based managers. Even with the above average performance by Eguavoine qualifying the country for the 2025 AFCON and gelling with the players, they are still not satisfied with the home based Coach.
Nigerians were surprised with the announcement of Chelle, the Malian Coach as the Super Eagles Manager. A lot of football experts and lovers were disappointed in the NFF for bringing a low Class Coach to Nigeria to come and manage a world Class team in the mode of the Super Eagles. After all, the NFF promised to hire a world class Coach for the team.
Many football pundits posited that what was the Position of the Malian team tutored by Chelle in the last 2023 AFCON where the Super Eagles were runners up. What was the performance of the Malian team to warrant the NFF to hire the Coach for the Super Eagles.
Many football lovers query the fact that based on experience and performance on the job, Eguavoine and some Nigerian home based Coaches are far better than Chelle. They opined that it’s a terrible insult on the home based Coaches by the NFF for allowing an home based Coach Qualify a team for AFCON while you bring a low level African Coach to take the team to the Championship. They always use and dumb our home based Coaches as they like. Now, they have gone for another home based Coach in Mali.
Others even said that the decision was at the detriment of the Super Eagles who are gradually playing more together with the understanding of the Coaches in Charge less than two months to the resumption of a shaky World Cup Qualifiers. They alleged that the business involved in the hiring of foreign coaches was the only reason involved in this appointment.
It is noteworthy that the major task given to the 47 year old Coach Chelle is to qualify Nigeria for the 2026 World Cup. The below average performance of Chelle doesn’t qualify him to take on this job but NFF wants him.The late appointment of the Chelle May be an Alibi for him if he fails to qualify the team with the next round of Matches coming up in two months. Matches in far away Rwanda and at home against Zimbabwe will tell if NFF has not gambled with Nigeria’s 2026 World Cup qualifications. This decision on the new Coach should be the one that the board will swim or sink with.
‘ Dr Salau D.F (Dee Elf) writes from Lagos at 08023065052. | ‘ daudasalau2015@gmail.com