Government will not pay foreign coach, Dalung tells NFF

Sports Minister, Solomon Dalung, has told the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) that the Federal Government will not pay the salaries of any foreign coach the body hires for the Super Eagles, reports africanfootball.com.

The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) is pushing for a foreign coach to take charge of the Super Eagles ahead of the 2018 World Cup qualifiers, which begin in October, after the three-time African champions failed to qualify for the AFCON a second straight time.

“The minister made it very clear during his meeting with the NFF on Tuesday that the government will not pay for a foreign coach and he does not expect the NFF to use the subvention they receive from the government to pay such a coach,” the official said.

Another official further disclosed, “What the minister really wants is that in four weeks, the NFF will come back with how they hope to pay for a foreign coach.
“If they can prove they can afford it, he will not stop them from hiring such a coach.”

NFF president Amaju Pinnick has been quoted as saying he will get a private company to offset the salaries of a foreign coach. The NFF had earlier announced that the salaries of Sunday Oliseh will be borne by a top commercial bank, but by the time the coach quit his post he was owed three months’ pay.

Meanwhile, the NFF has charged members of its executive committee, management, players and officials of the Super Eagles, everybody involved one way or the other in the senior national team to work assiduously to ensure Nigeria’s qualification for the 2018 FIFA World Cup finals to be staged in Russia.

This, according to the federation, would ensure the country did not fail to qualify for the 2018 Mundial after losing the bid to make the 2017 African Nations Cup billed for Gabon.

In a communiqué issued after its executive committee meeting in Abuja on Tuesday, the federation, which acknowledged receipt of reports from the ad-hoc committees put in place to compose governance structures for the Nigeria National League, Nigeria Women Football League and Nationwide League One, directed that all efforts must be made by the different leagues to start their seasons as soon as possible.

The communiqué  also revealed that members of the committee expressed their support for the leadership of “Mr. Amaju Melvin Pinnick, and reiterated that the Board remains one indivisible unit.”

On Nigeria’s quest to reclaim the CAF Champions League, which the country last won in 2004, the communiqué said: “In view of the fact that Enyimba Football Club of Aba is the only Nigerian club remaining in the hunt for continental glory this year, the executive committee resolved to give the team all necessary support to qualify for the group stage of the CAF Champions League. Committee also called on philanthropic Nigerians who are inclined to support football to give the team every support possible, and charged football fans in Port Harcourt and environs to be at the Adokiye Amiesieamaka Stadium on Sunday to cheer the team to victory, against Etoile du Sahel of Tunisia.”