Administrators to blame for Eagles decline, says Edobor
Former Nigerian star, Humphrey Edobor, believes that the poor sequence of results posted in recent months by the Super Eagles cannot be blamed on the team’s playing personnel but, rather, entirely on those charged with the responsibility of running football in Nigeria.
The Super Eagles have been far from impressive since the start of the year, beginning with the Africa Cup of Nations tournament, in Angola, where they secured yet another third-place finish - their fourth in the past five edition of the tournament - as well as at the World Cup in South Africa where they failed to advance beyond the group stage. Just last month, the Super Eagles suffered a lone goal defeat at the hands of Guinea in an 2012 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier, thus jeopardizing their chances of qualifying for the tournament, to be co-hosted by Equatorial Guinea and Gabon.
But Edobor insists the players are not to be blamed for the team’s inadequacies. “I played the game so I’m not going to criticize any player but the management,” Edobor told Sports flight, a sports programme on City FM 105.1, where he also hailed the selection of Samson Siasia as the new coach of the Super Eagles. “I am very impressed that the voice of the people have been heard and we will now have our own coach to take the team to any competition,” he said.
Battle of the coaches
Edobor, who was a regular fixture in the national team during the late 80s, also dismissed the idea that foreign coaches are better than their Nigerian counterparts. “You see it’s not that the foreign coaches are better but I see our coaches as far more better because they know the players better than the expatriates,” he said. “I am impressed that Siasia is the chosen one and I wish him all the best.”
Siasia was selected ahead of Stephen Keshi following a one-on-one interview session with the technical committee of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF). But Edobor picked holes with the NFF’s selection process. “To me that was not fair enough,” he said. “Both of them played locally and internationally, they gave their best for the country and, also, actually best of friends. Even though they (NFF) made their choice by succumbing to the wish of the people but that was not the best way to go about it putting both friends head-to-head. Any of them would have been good for the job having played the game, coached the game and they know the game. They should have just identified one and discussed with him instead of that kind of contest.”
Posted by Darey
on 6:03 AM. Filed under