Sunday Oliseh, Super Eagles Head Coach, tendered apology to the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) and football loving Nigerians over his YouTube outburst on critics calling for his sack because Nigeria failed to make impact at the just concluded African Nations Championship.
Oliseh poured his diatribe on critics calling for his replacement by calling them ‘insane’ arm-chair critics.
But yesterday, Oliseh made a u-turn, apologizing to his employers NFF and Nigerians, stressing that his message to those very critical of his team was misconstrued.
A member of Oliseh’s backroom staff, Tijani Babangida, told Goal.com that the former national team captain has expressed regret at his action.
“He just sent a letter to the NFF apologising to everyone for his utterances and that he is sorry that he never wanted to attack the NFF or embarrass them,” Babangida noted.
“He was just hurt and wanted the whole world to know that we have not been given money and he is also frustrated due to the high attacks on him and his crew.”
However, NFF’s Director of Communications, Ademola Olajire, said that he had not been informed of the coach’s letter of apology as at the time of this report.
Oliseh was appointed coach of the Super Eagles in July 2015 following the sacking of Stephen Keshi.
Despite his seeming inexperience, the NFF trusted him with the job and even referred to him as the “Pep Guardiola of Africa” in hopes that he would turn around the fortunes of the Super Eagles.
In 11 matches, Oliseh has lost two, once in a competitive game, won five and drawn four.
Nigeria will face Egypt in a double header next month as they continue their bid to qualify for the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations in Gabon.
However, the recent back and forth after the CHAN elimination has overshadowed preparations for the game and it is not yet known when the coach will present his programme as well as player invitations for the two matches.
Nigeria failed to qualify for the last tournament in Equatorial Guinea and now find themselves facing group leaders Egypt in must win matches next month.
Meanwhile former Super Eagles coach to the World Cup in 2002, Chief Adegboye Onigbinde has said Nigerians merited Oliseh’s flare-up owing to the barrage of criticisms that trailed his team’s poor outing at the African Nations Championship in Rwanda.
“The first issue is about his appointment which he claimed he didn’t beg for the job, in other words, the NFF begged him. And I begin to ask what qualities did the NFF see in him and begged to have him lead the Super Eagles?,” Onigbinde stressed.
“I still feel it is a big slap on the country to appoint a Nigerian or a foreigner who has never handled any club or a big team to handle the Super Eagles. That is an insult, and now the insult is now being complicated.
“Oliseh is now calling his critics insane. I watched the video and at a point was shedding tears for Nigerian football but we deserve it. Since he got this job, he has been going to Europe for treatment, shouldn’t the NFF have verified his health condition before being appointed. Now he has the gut to insult everybody.”
The former coach insisted that Oliseh was never an intelligent choice for the Super Eagles owing to his inexperience and his antecedents while a national team player.
“Also talking about his experience, has he not shown inadequacy in this? For instance, see the way he handled (Vincent) Enyeama’s case. If Oliseh was intelligent enough, he could have commiserated with him first on the loss of his mother and Enyeama would have been worshipping him but he wanted to be a boss,” he continued.
“Have Nigerians forgotten that the national team broke down in Mali as a result of gross indiscipline under his leadership and now that is the kind of person NFF feels is good enough for the Super Eagles job.
“These are the questions we failed to answer before giving him the job and to some extent, he is right in throwing hot water on the faces of those who landed him the job.
“You can imagine a coach coming out a day to the commencement of the African Nations Championship that his players are not well fed and all that, what kind of result do you expect from that kind of coach?
“The question now is, will this not affect our chances in future competitions? Now we are causing more confusion and destroying the team further.
“That is in the hands of those managing Nigeria football. I have made several enemies speaking the truth. The fact is we have administrative problems bedeviling our football,” he concluded.
posted by: Arit Ofem
