By Akinbode Oguntuyi
The last coach (single handedly) appointed by the President of Nigeria Football Federation, Amaju Pinnick, should have led the Nigeria Women’s National Team the Falcons, for the last time; following the loss to Zambia on Friday. But that may not happen. And nobody, except the Executive Committee of the NFF (or Pinnick) can make that call.
What we can do however, is highlight the series of bad calls that had been made the current NFF board, and shine a light on how those bad calls have affected Nigerian football
Let us start this chronicle from the Aisha Buhari Cup, because that should have been the pathway to avoiding what we witnessed at the ongoing Women’s Africa Cup of Nations. It is also represents the latest example in what has turned out to be a series of avoidable errors made by the man who managed to successfully secure (some would say, wangle) a historically hard-to-find second term as President of the NFF.
Randy Waldrum had presided over the near-shambles that was witnessed on the final day of that tournament, as the ‘Super’ in the Falcons of Nigeria was dragged in the mud by an effervescent South African side, coached by Desiree Ellis.
The American coach should have seen the moving train that is the Banyana Banyana coming: they had destroyed the Black Queens of Ghana 3-0 in their first outing two days after the Falcons took care of Mali 2-0 on opening day.
The victory of the South Africans over the Queens should have been a warning sign. To put it in context; the last time an African team put three past the Ghanaian women was at the 2010 WAFCON. But that was an Equatorial Guinea team in cheat mode, and the Black Queens even managed to pull one back.
Yet, four days after routing Ghana, the South African Women came out to complete the sack of arguably the two greatest soccer nations in West Africa with a masterclass that stunned the fans and the media at the spanking new Mobolaji Johnson Arena. Waldrum and his Falcons were completely caught off guard.
The decision to hire Randy Waldrum was taken by Amaju Pinnick.
But that singular decision in itself does not a disaster make; what made the decision hard to swallow – given what has transpired since the arrival of the long-haired American, are the decisions that had come before. Most, if not all, allegedly single-handedly taken by the President of the NFF. Every one of them a mistake that may have been avoided had there been consultation.
The allegation that the executive members of the NFF only became aware of the plan to hire Sunday Oliseh when the picture of the former Super Eagles skipper and Pinnick having lunch in London was whispered; it has never been denied.
The private visits and social media announcements of new recruits for the national teams by the NFF President, all are wrong moves every day of the week.
Then there was the decision on Florence Omagbemi. The petite midfielder captained the Super Falcons to multiple WAFCON Championships, led them to multiple Olympics and FIFA World Cups and generally negotiated a career devoid of controversy.
She put a cherry on the pie and became the first woman to captain and coach a team to an African title.
Everything went downhill from there. Omagbemi’s contract “was not renewed” for whatever reason. And up till today, the NFF President has not made public the reason for the non-renewal of Omagbemi’s contract, despite the many public demand for it. Instead, she was offered what looked like a Trojan horse.
Following the non-renewal of Omagbemi’s contract, the next stop was the appointment of Thomas Dennerby and what had come to be known as ‘the Thomas Dennerby affair’ given the way that romance ended.
In a nutshell, the Swede became the first foreign coach to willingly leave his Nigerian job as he cited unfulfilled contractual obligations among many other things. But there were romors that there was also power play with some members of the NFF over player selections.
Even the arrival of Dennerby wasn’t straight forward; the Swede was the second option when a certain Randy Waldrum refused to agree the terms of a contract after his name had been announced by the NFF. The question then was: why the hurry to announce his name if there was no agreement in place? Waldrum would finally be named coach when Dennerby unceremoniously left the position.
And finally, there is the unfolding drama of the controversy surrounding Monday Gift and her inclusion in the Falcons team to Morocco. There is a bit of background to this:
Remember the Aisha Buhari Cup and the merciless ‘dragging’ of the Falcons by South Africa? Well, before the game against Banyana Banyana, the Falcons had huffed and puffed against Mali, before Monday came off the bench to spare the blushes of the new coach with two well taken goals. Fast forward to the Final game, and with the Falcons trailing 3-0 from the first half, Vivian Ikechukwu also came off the bench to score two goals, before the South Africans iced the game with a late fourth goal.
But it would take near divine intervention for Gift to make the team to WAFCON – with many alleging that the coach detested the fact that she was ‘forced’ on him.
It is not relevant now to discuss whether the coach is right or wrong. The headache is the that it is arguably under the watch of Pinnick, that there have been constant instances of selection tampering; due to the multi-level layer of power players in the NFF. And the bigger question is: why is that a thing? What is the matter with the Amaju presidency, that it constantly throws up new matters for debate?
The appointment of the coach of the Super Eagles follow the same pattern: Pinnick decisions, and almost every selection, trailed by controversy. The last Super Eagles coach (Gernot Rohr, to be fair) started well, but flamed out. Almost every one watching the Eagles knew when that coach should have left, instead he got a new contract. Guess who took the decision?
Here we are now; the team that was supposed to be celebrating a 10th African title, has just managed to squeeze a place at the World Cup.
The Falcons are near extinction, and another fire brigade approach would not save the team.
What the Falcons, and the Super Eagles need right now are not knee-jerk quick-fix solutions. The problems of the Falcons and the Eagles are rooted in Nigerian football; the solutions are local…only if Pinnick can introduce one brilliant policy as a parting gift of his expiring Presidency.
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