Facts are sacrosanct. The truth must be told. Gernot Rohr has not fallen short of the targets set for him by his employers, the NFF.
He has qualified the team for AFCON and gotten to the World cup Africa play offs and he may or may not qualify for Qatar 2022.
I think talks about the need to sack him is coming on the hills of his inability to produce a team that play with consistency and robust kind of way the Super Eagles were known for.
Given the array of young and enterprising players in the likes of Osimhen, Ndidi, Ekong, Aribo and Chukwueze to mention a few, Rohr could not in 5 years establish pattern desirable to the average Nigerian Super Eagles fan.
His negative attitude towards home-grown talents and undesirability to help develop our football as national teams’ Technical Adviser are the main issues leading to this uproar about his removal.
His sack will of course shake up the Super Eagles, but it definitely will just be a stop-gap remedy in re-engineering the national team.
Other factors working against the team that we can lay bare on the table include, but not limited to-:
1. Welfare and prompt remuneration of players. It is not fair to owe players so much backlog of allowances having performed and matters arising from it treated like master-servant relationship with subtle threats, like we can replace you as many are even begging to put on the National jersey.
2 Merit on invitation to the national team has taken a back drop such that the modus operandi in invitation is “corrupted”.
We have a technical department yet one Tunde is sitting in Europe determining who gets called up or not.
3 The technical department of the NFF which is a very vital organ of the NFF I am sure has little or no input in what happens to the Super Eagles. This should not be in normal circumstances.
4.Complacency has set in in majority of the current players due to lack of effective competition for placement in the team. Fear of losing positions has disappeared thus reducing the verve to put up hundred percent at all times.
5. Personally, I think too many diaspora players is also another factor. Those who were born and bred in Nigeria have this different psyche and are always happy to be back home and want to perform to not only win, but please their families, friends and associates in Nigeria.
They understand the street mentality here and expect to see and felicitate with people here after a game regardless of the associated financial pressure on them.
This is purely a subjective opinion but it has its psychological consequences.
6. Finance: The NFF need funds and these funds when accessed must be judiciously and transparently deployed according to needs. Government must and should release funds as at when due and hold the receivers accountable. Too much controversy on funds received and utilized by the leadership of the NFF.
7. The current NFF President seems to be the star player of the national team. He is apparently more popular than the active players on the media front.
He should delegate and make sure actions are taken. Now reports say he is travelling to London to discuss with a substantive new coach.
WHAT TO DO
What we need to do include getting a new coach to inject new ideas and pump up players adrenaline on the need to be more patriotic and of course provide for their welfare.
I am an advocate of a home-based coach with structured backroom staff helped by an accountable technical department of the NFF.
We need a coach who will be allowed to do his job without the federation imposing so much influence on what must be or not. A coach who will not allow players to be forced on him.
We must begin to put into use positive scouting mechanism that allows merit to rule who gets called up.
Focus must also come to our domestic league because a country’s football prowess is mostly determined by its league. We had a football culture and pattern. There was a Super Eagles of Nigeria.
The future is now.
By Edema Fuludu, who was on the squad when Super Eagles won the 1994 AFCON in Tunisia
