The president of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) Ibrahim Musa Gusau has confirmed the sacking of some backroom staff and also technical assistants of the various arms of the national team of Nigeria.
Rumours has been going on about the trimming down of the coaches and backroom staff of the various arms of the Nigerian teams and Gusau in an interview confirmed it is true. He said the move is meant to cut the excesses of having too many hands in a national team.
He said it was part of the cost cutting measures embarked on by the new board of the NFF and the affected coaches and backroom staff have been told their fate. For the Super Eagles he said the decision is why some of the coaches and backroom staff didn’t make the trip to the friendly game against Portugal, which Nigeria lost 0-4.
“We started with Super Eagles by trimming the backroom staff to a manageable number from the over 20 attained in the past during their last friendly in Portugal. This I must confess saved us millions of Naira that should have gone into payment of flight tickets and accommodation, as well as daily allowances and expenditures”, he told Complete Sports.
” These measures will also affect the Super Falcons, Falconets, Flamingos and the Olympic Eagles and other age-grade national teams. Henceforth, only four coaches will be attached to each of the national teams, but perhaps, the Super Eagles and Super Falcons getting some preferential treatment as the occasion demands.
“The issue of coaches cut across all national teams including the Super Eagles. We cannot be managing 7-8 coaches in a team. That is an invitation for chaos and it’s money-consuming. To this end, we have told some of the coaches that their services are no longer required while some may be redeployed, ” Gusau stated