Prominent sports administrators Barrister Chris Green and Alhaji Ahmed Shuaibu Gara Gombe have both condemned the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) for its mishandling of the Super Eagles’ coaching recruitment process. This follows German coach Bruno Labbadia’s rejection of the position, citing the lack of a signed contract and agreement between the two parties.
Labbadia over the weekend reportedly turned down the Nigerian coaching job, stating there was no agreement between him and the NFF and this has provoked a wide spread of reactions amongst Nigerians and sports stakeholders.
Speaking on the development, Barrister Green, a former chairman of the NFF Technical Committee, said that the Ibrahim Gusau-led NFF was wrong to have announced Labbadia without revealing the contract details.
“The NFF didn’t tell us if he signed the contract, worth of the contract and the amount he was going to collect and other conditions incidental to such appointment and I started to wonder as somebody who had been there before because it is not the style; it all shrouded in such secrecy that one will not know if actually, the technical committee did recommend that or he was head hunted by the headships of NFF,” Green, currently the Commissioner of Sports in Rivers State, said on Brila FM. “It is smacks lack of professionalism and hearing that the contract would not go through because there are issues bothering on payment of tax or whatsoever .
“I begin to wonder why you announced that a coach had been taken and it all seemed all good that everything had been done but you have not dotted your I and crossed your T only for us to hear it was not a done deal.”
Speaking on the same matter, Gara-Gombe said the issue of getting a Super Eagles coach has turned to another national embarrassment: “This is one embarrassment too many and this is unacceptable in our sports.
“I am going to put every single embarrassment that is happening in our sports at the door step of the Minister of Sports Development .
“This is an issue the Minister of Sports Development and NFA (NFF) has been working on for a long time but failure to employ a coach for the Super Eagles is just a self-indictment on the minster and also the NFA (NFF).”
Meanwhile, the NFF have since named Austin Eguavoen as an interim Super Eagles coach ahead of the 2025 AFCON qualifiers against Benin and Rwanda on September 7 and 10 respectively.