AFCON: Sports Minister gives Peseiro standing order

Nigeria’s Sports Minister, John Enoh, has charged Super Eagles coach Jose Peseiro to be up and doing to ensure that the country perform well at the next year’s Africa Cup of Nations tournament in Cote d’Ivoire.

The minister informed Peseiro that the security of his job would be determined by the team’s performance at the end of the 2023 AFCON, which holds from January 13 to February 11.

The minister stepped in amid calls for the sack of the Portuguese coach following the Eagles’ disastrous start to the 2026 World Cup qualifiers when Nigeria played back-to-back uninspiring 1-1 draws against Lesotho in Uyo and Zimbabwe in Rwanda.

Enoh had summoned the coach last week following the team’s poor outings.

While featuring on Channels TV, Enoh admitted that he inherited the ministry’s stance on Peseiro as they were involved in his hiring and payment of salaries, while he was also involved in the contract renewal of the Portuguese coach.

“I’ll tell you what I met and what I have also done so far. I was given a brief when I became Minister of Sports Development about the employment of the present Super Eagles coach, the signing of the contract that took place in my predecessor’s office as Minister of Youth and Sports,” Enoh said.

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“I also got involved when the contract had ended with the outstanding monies not paid to the coach and the fact that there were some discussions as to what was going to happen going forward.

“The meeting took place in my office with the NFF that agreed to an extension of the contract to allow the present Super Eagles coach to be able to sit as coach and take the national team to the next AFCON coming up middle of January and then see how well we do in that tournament before determining what then happens to his contract.

“We also got involved in renegotiating the terms of the contract because the present NFF was not at the leadership of the NFF by the time the present coach was hired and therefore were not part of the contract.”

Following the expiration of his contract earlier this year, Peseiro accepted a pay cut to continue as the Eagles coach, heading into the AFCON in Ivory Coast after leading the team through the qualifiers.