President, Nigeria Football Federation, Amaju Pinnick, on Thursday dismisses speculations that the the federation planned to employ a ‘foreign super coach’ as head of the Super Eagles’ technical crew.
Pinnick was categorical that the NFF had absolute confidence in the ability of Oliseh to reposition the senior national team.
The NFF, who spoke in Lagos, said that Oliseh was a key part of the programme to lift Nigerian football.
“I never said we would employ a heavyweight coach. What I said was that if goal scoring was a problem, we could help him interface with a coach whose club scores plenty of goals. It can be done through an internship which we will sponsor,” he said.
According to him, the plan of the federation is to ensure a cordial relationship among the coaches of the national teams, positing that such a development will aid seamless transition of the teams.
“For instance, we have appointed Emmanuel Amunike as Manu Garba’s assistant in the U-20 team so that the players, who won the U-17 World Cup in Chile recently, can move smoothly to the next level. Amunike will still retain his job at the U-17 level.
“If there were a close relationship between Samson Siasia’s team and the CHAN Eagles, there would have been many players from the CHAN team in Senegal,” he said.
“The U-17 team is the first point of the transition to a formidable national team and we are in control of their movement. We will not leave them at the mercy of agents.
“We believe the parents of the boys should benefit from their talents, just as the NFF should also reap from it because we propelled them to success.
“We are coming out with a legislation that will ensure that anybody coming for them must pass through us else he will not get their transfer certificate.”
Pinnick also revealed that the NFF would start its youth development programme within the next two weeks, adding that Zenith Bank was in concert with the federation in the bid to build the next Eagles.
“This will ensure that we will have real U-17 boys and girls playing for the cadet teams,” he enthused.
