Nigeria’s Sports and Youth Minister Solomon Dalung on Friday condemned the Nigeria Football Federation’s approach to handling the issues that led to Nigeria’s crashing out of the AFCON 2017 tournament.
He said their internal disagreements, violation of contracts, constant sacking and hiring of managers was the reason the Super Eagles didn’t qualify for AFCON. The Minister gave his backing to former Super Eagles coach Sunday Oliseh who resigned following serial violations of his contract with the NFF as Super Eagles coach.
Dalung in a media briefing which he serialized with tweets, said he has convened a meeting of the entire board of the NFF for next Tuesday, so as to receive a comprehensive technical report and be able to x-ray the operations of the football body that led to Nigeria’s poor performance at the AFCON qualifiers.
Read his tweets below:
Apologies for Nigeria’s failure to qualify for a second consecutive AFCON
— Solomon Dalung (@SolomonDalung) April 1, 2016
We lack reasonable explanation and justification for not qualifying.
— Solomon Dalung (@SolomonDalung) April 1, 2016
The in- house fighting in the NFF and the resignation of the coach 2 weeks to the qualifiers were all responsible.
— Solomon Dalung (@SolomonDalung) April 1, 2016
A machinery to put in place reforms for our sports is in the pipeline.
— Solomon Dalung (@SolomonDalung) April 1, 2016
All the internal wrangling,litigation and impeachment in various federations are unhealthy and not in the interest of sports development.
— Solomon Dalung (@SolomonDalung) April 1, 2016
Lack of priority is one of the challenges hampering our football. A fire brigade attitude to every situation takes our sports nowhere.
— Solomon Dalung (@SolomonDalung) April 1, 2016
I feel we owe Nigerians the explanation of what happened inside the boardrooms that eventually led to our failure.
— Solomon Dalung (@SolomonDalung) April 1, 2016
Hiring and firing of coaches is a problem. The number of coaches fired by the NFF raise a presumption that something is wrong with the NFF.
— Solomon Dalung (@SolomonDalung) April 1, 2016
Siasia fired? I’m just hearing it from the questionnaire.
— Solomon Dalung (@SolomonDalung) April 1, 2016
We are here to discuss the development of sports and not to attack personalities. I will defend Oliseh again and again.
— Solomon Dalung (@SolomonDalung) April 1, 2016
When the sacking of Oliseh was muted by the NFF, I asked them If sacking him will add to the value of Nigeria’s football.
— Solomon Dalung (@SolomonDalung) April 1, 2016
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