The Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Mr. Sunday Dare, has urged officials of the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF), under the leadership of Amaju Pinnick to take “necessary steps” against the technical adviser of the Super Eagles, Gernot Rohr.
Mr. Dare made the remarks while reviewing the Technical Report of the Nigeria/Sierra Leone AFCON qualifying match during a meeting with NFF officials on Tuesday.
The national team had failed to secure a win in the dismal two-leg draw against the Sierra Leonean side in the AFCON qualifier.
The minister also raised concern about the absence of home-based players in the team which featured only foreign-based.
The Special Adviser on media to the minister, John Akanji, disclosed this in a statement titled “National football team: Hold Rohr to higher standards – Ministry” issued on Tuesday.
Dare, who gave “marching orders” to NFF to hold Rohr to the higher standards, said:
“The NFF must tightly hold the Technical Adviser to the KPIs in his contract.
“Thus, we cannot wait for those conditions to come to life before we tighten the screws or demand higher or better performance, else Nigeria and Football lovers in Nigeria will be the greatest losers.
“In this area, NFF must take the necessary steps and actions beyond Rohr to protect our football fortunes.
“The right of Nigerians to ask of Government and indeed NFF explanations for dismal performances and football administration cannot be simply characterised as interference.
“NFF should be more concerned about the failure of technical depth and absence of a defense mechanism which were glaring during the encounter with Sierra Leone rather than the rush to defend the contract of the Technical Adviser.
“Starting now, Nigeria must demand higher or better performance from the technical adviser.
“We can’t wait until he fails to qualify our team for AFCON and the World Cup before we start to ask the tough questions.
“In this respect, I charge the NFF leadership to immediately take the necessary steps to protect our football fortunes.”
On his part, the NFF President—Pinnick assured the Minister that NFF will not shirk in its responsibilities and that few changes and adjustments as discussed and suggested by the ministry will be put into motion.