The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has come under intense criticism from Coach Godwin Izilien for asking football fans in the country to vote for either renewal or otherwise of the contract of Super Eagles manager, Jose Peseiro, whose deal with the Nigerian federation expires at the end of this month (June).
The contract of Coach Peseiro would expire at the end of June and there is a dark cloud hanging over a possible renewal of his deal as the body language of the football house has shown that he may not continue as the coach of the former African champions despite the Portuguese reiterating his desire to win the 2023 Africa Cup of Nation in Côte d’Ivoire of which Nigeria has already qualified after beating Sierra Leone 3-2 at the Samuel Kanyon Doe Stadium in Monrovia, Liberia, penultimate week.
However, NFF President, Ibrahim Gusau, has revealed that they would push the issue to Nigerians to decide whether the coach would continue or not.
Gusau revealed: “We have the plan to push the votes to Nigerians to hear their views and thoughts,” he saidwhile speaking on a radio programme.
The NFF president admitted that the country’s top football organisation had previously attempted to hire both foreign and domestic coaches.
“We’ve tried the foreign coaches and also the local coaches.
“Maybe we didn’t get it right in the area of getting the right person. We are going to push it to the public, whether we should continue with Peseiro or he should go,” Gusau added.
Speaking to our correspondent, Izilien said the position taking by the NFF had shown that the Ibrahim Gusau-led football house is not in charge, alleging that they might have been compromised in order to run away from blame in the event it turned out bad.
“Why should they say that fans should vote? It has shown that they don’t know what they are doing?
“If they know what they are doing, why should they ask fans to vote to either retain or sack a coach they employed.
“Were the fans the ones that employed the coach? It shows that perhaps they have compromised somewhere and when it turns out bad, they will say it’s fans that called for the coach.
“NFF lacks direction and I can tell you that there is a problem in that football house; they don’t know what they are doing; they are not in charge. If you are truly in charge, the coach you hire must have a standard set before him and once he fails, you know what to do.
“It is very laughable to ask fans to vote to retain the coach; these are interlopers they hire to come and manage our football but they have nothing to show for it,” he said.
Izilien said it was high time experts and those who are in love with the game be allowed to manage the game in the country, noting that what is presently happening in the NFF is very unfortunate.
