Former international Sani Kaita has maintained that the coaches are not only to blame for the recent disastrous run by the country’s teams internationally.
This year alone Nigeria U17 team, the Golden Eaglets, failed to go past the Round of 16 of the U17 World Cup in Brazil, the U20s also crashed out of their own World Cup in Poland prematurely while both the men and women’s teams also failed to qualify for next year’s Olympics in Tokyo, Japan.
“We cannot always blame coaches every time our national teams failed at any competition or games, it is not always their fault,” said Kaita, who is doing his coaching badges in England
“Other factors like lack of motivation for the players, poor preparation for major competitions have also contributed to disappointing results recorded by Nigeria lately.”
Kaita, who won the FIFA U20 silver medal and 2008 Olympic silver medal for Nigeria, said the NFF must move quickly to halt the downward slide of Nigeria football.
“I am very disappointed that Nigeria football is going down drastically,” he told SCORENigeria
“We crashed out of the FIFA U17 World Cup, we couldn’t make it at the U20 World Cup, the U23s and Falcons failed to qualify for next year Olympics.
“I believe something is wrong somewhere with Nigeria football.
“The NFF cannot continue to hide under some excuses, but rather ensure they find solutions to the factors that caused these failures.”