The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) finally opens up on how difficult it was for its Technical Committee to come up with Finidi George as new Super Eagles manager; npflupdates.com reports.
Finidi George who is the interim manager of the Super Eagles was yesterday announced as the new permanent head coach.
The three-time African champions has been without a permanent head coach following the exit of Portuguese tactician Jose Peseiro.
In Peseiro’s absence, Finidi who has worked as an assistant to Peseiro for about 20 months was tasked to steady the ship on interim basis.
With more than 60 curriculum vitae submitted to the NFF, the Technical Committee last weekend reached a consensus that Finidi George is the right man to lead the 2013 AFCON champions.
The football governing body’s President Ibrahim Musa Gusau, however stated that arriving at the former Ajax Amsterdam winger wasn’t a walk in the park.
NFF canvas support for Finidi George
According to the football executive, it’s time Nigeria starts supporting their own.
“It wasn’t an easy decision. We’ve to begin to trust our own. We will give Finidi all the respect and support he needs,” former Super Eagles media officer Oluwatosin Ibitoye quoted a conversation between him and Gusau on his X formerly Twitter handle.
In a related story, Ibitoye canvassed for the same salary that was paid to expatriate coaches be paid to Finidi as well.
Speculations in the past has been that the NFF also price-down local coaches; while reverse is the case in their foreign counterparts.
“Finidi George shouldn’t be earning less than 30/40million naira per month,” – former Super Eagles media officer. Oluwatoyin Ibitoye.
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Football pundits and fans are worried that the contract agreement between Finidi and the NFF wasn’t made public in the statement.
Finidi George is now saddled with the responsibility of helping Nigeria qualify for the 2025 AFCON in Morocco. And more importantly, qualifying for the 2026 FIFA world cup tournament having missed out from the last edition in Qatar.
