By Francis Ajuonuma
Facts have now emerged on why the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF)took a U-turn to reinstate, Coach Augustine Eguavoen as Technical Adviser of the Super Eagles and appointed former Tanzania coach, Emmanuel Amuneke as Head Coach in the reconstituted Super Eagles’ technical crew unveiled on Monday.
TNSports recalls that the NFF had in December 2021 announced the appointment of Portuguese coach, Jose Peseiro as new Super Eagles manager to replace former coach, Gernot Rohr, sacked from the position in December but will assume the position at the conclusion of the 33rd Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON 2021) which ended on Sunday, February 6 in Cameroon.
However, the deal broke down after the NFF failed to reach an agreement with the Portuguese coach.
Reacting to the development, Peseiro revealed that a deal with the NFF did not materialize due to financial issues and clauses in the proposed contract.
Writing on Instagram, Peseiro stated (translated to English): “After several weeks of negotiations, during which several news came out, on the part of the Nigerian Football Federation, that I would be the coach of their national team, from the end of CAN’2021, a fact that I never confirmed, these were not materialized due to disagreement regarding contractual clauses and financial matters”.
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The broke down of the deal, TNSports gathered and with the final round of the 2022 World Cup qualifier against Ghana in the corner might have informed the NFF to reinstate Eguavoen Technical Adviser (interim) and hurriedly appoint Amuneke as his assistant.
Peseiro was expected to be in Cameroon to act the role of an observer but it is unclear if he was in attendance during Nigeria’s matches at AFCON 2021.
This is not the first time the Nigeria Football Federation under the leadership of flamboyant president Amaju Pinnick have put the cart before the horse by naming a new coach for the national team without an agreement set in stone.
In 2016, prior to the hiring of Gernot Rohr, the NFF had confirmed the appointment of Paul Le Guen as Nigeria manager, only for the Frenchman to turn down the offer.
