A war of words has erupted following the resignation last week of Nigeria’s national football coach Sunday Oliseh.
Oliseh cited unpaid wages and contract breaches as his reasons for walking out, as well as accusing Nigerian football’s governing body, the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), of unfairly criticising his team. He told BBC Sport: “Members of the federation were going public to criticise the team, even though we were winning. When you have played 14 games and you have lost only one competitive match and one friendly, I don’t see what there is to complain about.”
He added he felt he was not only playing against opposing teams “but I felt I was also playing against my own federation, especially the technical committee”.
On his Twitter feed on Thursday, the day he tendered his resignation, Oliseh posted:
“Due to Contract violations ,lack of Support,Unpaid wages,Benefits to my players,Asst.Coaches & myself, I resign as Super Eagles Chief Coach” (sic)
A statement posted on the Federation’s website on Monday (February 29) countered:
“With regard to the allegation that he was not supported, it is pertinent to note that Mr. Oliseh himself had on numerous occasions expressed gratitude for the support he had received from the NFF and in particular from the NFF President and Vice Presidents. The NFF makes bold to say that he has been supported throughout his short tenure as the Super Eagles coach. Not only have his requests and choice of training camps been accepted, his choice of players have never been interfered with, his choice of venues have all but once been accepted and even where not accepted, an explanation was promptly given which was duly appreciated and accepted by the coach.”
The lengthy NFF statement goes on to lay out ways in which it was Oliseh who violated the terms of his contract:
“Even though by the terms of his contract he was obliged to return to Nigeria at least 2 weeks to any Super Eagles match and is obliged to watch our domestic league matches from time to time, one can count how many local league matches he has watched and one can point out that he did not return to Nigeria before he went to the CHAN championship on the grounds that he was ill. Yet, he went to South Africa and Rwanda but did not return with the team to Nigeria.”
Describing Oliseh’s management style as “impulsive” and his behaviour as “bordering in some cases on insubordination”, the statement suggests Oliseh had at one stage wanted to sack all the Super Eagles’ backroom staff and that a walk-out of the squad’s senior players was only averted when high-ranking NFF officials intervened in the former coach’s row with goalkeeper Victor Enyeama, who resigned and announced his retirement from international football after being stripped of the captaincy at a training camp.
Of the former coach’s accusation that he has not been fully remunerated for his services, the NFF says:
The NFF gives the foregoing assurances despite the circumstance which has arisen with the untimely resignation of Coach Sunday Oliseh and despite the fact that the decision was taken unilaterally without discussion with NFF or any of its officials or board members, without giving the requisite 1 (one) months (sic) notice as stipulated in his contract immediately after he was paid his arrears of salary and housing allowance after his request to travel across Europe to visit potential call ups for the matches against Egypt was approved by the President of the NFF and; despite the fact that we have crucial qualifying matches to play next month.
Also on Monday, Oliseh responded as follows in a piece entitled “Why I quit as Super Eagles Chief Coach”:
“I wrote an official legal binding demand letter to the Nigeria football federation through the General Secretary, requesting payment of salaries and bonuses that were already long due and pending. In my said demand letter I listed 11 unpaid heads and articles. These 11 articles included demand for all sums dating back to July 2015. I therein also specified that I was willing to wait only up to the 25th February, 2016 before seeking means to get relief.
“Owed wages and accommodation were just 2 of these eleven articles.
“My letter was sent by email and by registered courier, both went unacknowledged nor honoured.
“This type of silence had become the new trend and my said demand letter was ignored just as my other e mails in the past weeks seeking support to prepare for the Egypt game.
And later in the piece:
“Again some luxuries could have been shelved by the NFF to accommodate the outstanding bonuses for the players of the earlier qualifiers as the owed bonuses had become an issue with the players.
“As I have often been treated, along with my coaching crew and players it is pertinent to note that days after my resignation and contrary to The NFF official press release and numerous interviews and misrepresentations and outright falsehood, my bank has confirmed that no payments whatsoever as alleged by the NFF has been made to me. (as at as this afternoon of the 29thof February 2016).
“I dare say that the NFF I know would have made public, evidence of the said payment. I leave to the imagination of the public what conducts of this nature would do to our players just before vital games as often was the case.”
It is clear the mud-slinging is set to continue for some time, but Nigeria have an AFCON qualifier coming up that could do without the distractions.
Despite their technical director Shaibu Amodu rejecting an offer to take temporary charge of the Super Eagles, the NFF has ensured a coach is in place for the upcoming Nations Cup qualifiers against Egypt by swiftly reappointing Samson Siasia as interim coach to replace Oliseh.
Siasia was national coach for the twelve month period from November 2010 to October 2011, when he was sacked after Nigeria’s failure to qualify for the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations finals in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea.
The first task for Siasia, who was the coach of Nigeria’s Under-23 team (Dream Team VI) that won the 2015 U-23 Africa Cup of Nations in Senegal, is to prepare the senior squad for the Nations Cup qualifiers against the Group G leaders at home on 25 March and the return match four days later.
