Former First Vice President of the Nigeria Football Federation Mazi Amanze Uchegbulam has come out to rubbish the statement of former England Coach Sven Goran Eriksson in his book, where he was quoted as saying that the NFF at that time, demanded half of his salary before he would be given the job of the Technical Adviser of the Super Eagles to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa
Reacting to this trending statement, Mazi Uchegbulam who is the Chairman of Imo State Football Association said “it is very important I put things in proper perspective. I was the first vice president then. Because we had chequered journey to qualifications for 2010 world cup, President Goodluck Jonathan’s government set up a Presidential Task Force with then Governor Rotimi Amaechi as Chairman”,
“Other members include Segun Odegbami, John Fashanu, Austin Okocha, among others while Patrick Ekeji was the Secretary”,
“Some of us resisted the interference which landed us in trouble. Our Executive committee decided to settle for Amodu who qualified us for the World Cup, but the Government never wanted that. The PTF interviewed some foreign coaches and later settled for Coach Lars Lagerback who took the Super Eagles to South Africa”,
” The outcome is now history. Lulu’s Board never wanted a foreign coach and consequently, didn’t interview anybody. I am sure Eriksson may be referring to the PTF led by Rotimi Amaechi not the NFF Board then”,
“We didn’t interview any foreign Coach and there is no where anyone in the Board could have interacted with him”, he explained.
Mazi Uchegbulam further challenged the Coach to further name those that made the request from him.
Sven Goran Eriksson has accused Nigerian football officials of asking to take half of his salary before giving him the job of managing the Super Eagles.
The Swedish football coach said his inability to play balls with the football authorities deprived him of the opportunity of leading the Nigeria team to the first World Cup on African soil – South Africa. He wrote in his book titled ‘My Story’.
