After Sunday Oliseh debacle, we have definitely turned the corner. We are now going to start shopping for a well-grounded and qualified foreign coach to tinker the team. Enough is enough— NFF president Amaju Pinnick.
Since this statement was credited to Pinnick barely a week ago, very many football followers have expressed great concern about the ‘colonial mentality’ in the Glasshouse and how such retrogressive disposition would further impede the growth of our football.
One of them, Aloy Amamchukwu, had a particularly illuminating take on the subject: “At times like these when Nigeria is looking inwards the NFF is looking outwards. They always claim to be broke and can’t adequately finance the national team even with a low wage local coach, now they are talking about employing a foreign coach to…waste hard earned dollars that we all know is scarce these days. Maybe Nigerian government should get foreigners also to run the NFF since we don’t believe in ourselves.”
Some others even expressed disappointment with me for not weighing in on the matter with what they felt were my “usually compelling views. But, what really can I say that I have not said a thousand, no, ten thousand times before. No doubt, nothing about our football will be new for a long time to come. And that is so regrettable.