Sunday Oliseh has resigned as Head Coach of the Nigerian football national team, the Super Eagles, just over seven months after he was appointed.
Sunday Oliseh, new super eagles coach
Oliseh, who announced his resignation on Twitter, said he took the decision due to the inability of the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, to honour the terms of his contract.
“Due to contract violations, lack of support, unpaid wages, benefits to my players, assistant coaches and myself, I resign as Super Eagles Chief Coach,” he tweeted.
In a preceding tweet before announcing his resignation, Oliseh thanked Nigerians for the opportunity to serve as coach of the national team
“I feel fortunate, blessed and eternally grateful for having the honour to play, captain and coach this great nation of ours, Nigeria.”
Oliseh, whose appointment was made with much fanfare by the NFF, soon started having problems with the executives of the federation over remuneration, match tactics and results.
His complaint about being owed was not well received by the NFF, which rather threatened to sanction him.
He also had challenges managing the players. An altercation between the coach and the team’s former captain and the country’s most capped goalkeeper, Vincent Enyeama, led to the goalie’s premature resignation from the team last October.
Apparently, the last straw for Oliseh was the woeful outing of the Super Eagles at the CHAN competition in Rwanda, where the team was eliminated in the first round.
Following widespread criticisms that greeted the team’s elimination, a Youtube video soon surfaced in which Oliseh lambasted his critics, referring to them as “insane”.
On Thursday, the NFF directed Oliseh to henceforth report to former coach and the federation’s technical director, Amodu Shuaibu.
Sunday Oliseh, the Head Coach of the Super Eagles, will henceforth report to Shuaibu Amodu, the National Technical Director of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF).
Chris Green, the Chairman, NFF’s Technical and Development Committee, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Thursday that this development was for easy coordination.
Green also said this was because NFF’s Technical Department was structured in a way that all the national team coaches must report directly to Amodu.
“Shuaibu Amodu is the National Technical Director and as such he is involved in all the games of the national teams, whether in the under-17, under-20 or Super Eagles.
“Normally, as the National Technical Director, Oliseh will report to him (Amodu), while he (Amodu) reports to the Technical Committee and from there to the General Secretary and finally to the Executive Committee of the NFF.
“His (Amodu) function is to prepare programmes for the Federation for the various national teams for the next five years. So, for every game we play, he is involved by virtue of his position.
“All of us will have to work together. Oliseh is the Head Coach of the Super Eagles, while Amodu is the National Technical Director.
“However, Amodu is not directly involved in the handling of the Super Eagles, but he is directly involved in the formulation of policies and programmes for all the national teams,’’ Green said.
He said he was sure Amodu would not usurp the duties of Oliseh.
“He will only give directives through his programmes and policies for the team, ahead of the qualifiers with Egypt, Tanzania and Chad,’’ Green said.
On the committee’s meeting with Oliseh, scheduled for Friday, Green said the Eagles coach had written to indicate that he would be absent from the meeting.
He noted that Oliseh’s reason for being absent from Friday’s meeting would be viewed on its merit.
“The meeting has been slated. If Oliseh is writing to say that he will not attend, then we will look at his reasons for not attending. But the meeting is not only about Oliseh.
“We (the committee members) are also meeting to look at the programmes of all our national teams and the list of invited players for the national teams which have engagements in the near future,’’ the NFF executive committee member said.
Green however said what was important to the NFF now was for the Eagles to qualify for the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) scheduled for Gabon.
Vincent Enyeama ditched the Super Eagles in Belgium; calling time on his international career, but not without some controversy. He alleged the head coach Sunday Oliseh insulted his late mother, had security throw him out of the camp and stripped him. In an exclusive interview with www.footballlive.ng Sunday Oliseh debunked the claims insisting the 33-year-old defamed.
The full excerpt of the interview:
Super Eagles goalkeeper, Vincent Enyeama | credits: liveofofo.com
I am deeply saddened, troubled and profoundly hurt by the assassination of my person as Vincent Enyeama has done over the past two days on social about me insulting his mother, these allegations are unheard of.
When I was appointed the chief coach of the Super Eagles of Nigeria, I drove to Lille to see Vincent, took him to lunch and discussed how we wanted to move forward with him as my captain. I shared my philosophy with him and he made a statement I didn’t like, he said he was going to retire in a year or two and I told him I wouldn’t hear of it as he was the captain of the team because we were thinking of taking the team to the 2017 AFCON and 2018 World Cup; but we can’t build a team with you as captain if you are retiring in 2017.
2 weeks ago before the camp started he told us about his mother’s burial but I couldn’t go and there was an arrangement with the President who assured me he’d be there on behalf of the NFF and team. But he started talking about retirement so at that moment I felt we needed someone else as captain; it had nothing to do with hurting anybody.
I don’t know Vincent personally, I’ve only been named coach and in fact we’ve seen only once. He’s served Nigeria very well and as Captain, I was also captain and I know how difficult that job is.
We started camp on Monday, to my greatest surprise Mikel Obi and Ighalo camp in on Sunday night. We had invited 4 goalkeepers and he told us he had to bury his mother. So, Obviously he couldn’t report to camp early until Tuesday, just about the time we were rounding up; he drove into training ground.
Prior to his coming in, we had the Nigeria ambassador to Belgium come in to talk with the team because our delegation had not been given visas to come in, 6 players were stuck in Nigeria over the hitch; 2 of them were goalies. And somebody had to act in the absence of the Captain which Musa had been doing well prior to the Tanzania and Niger games. And I remember, when the Ambassador wrapped up I told Musa; as the captain, to introduce the team as a way to appreciate the support.
But the boys did not train well that afternoon, the ball playing was good but our objectiveness on the ball was not up to my liking so later at dinner I called the team and told them I was not happy and demanded more from them. Only for Vincent to stand up insisting on saying somethings but I told him to see me about it later. He refused and as side talks persisted I called him to order, he started raising his voice, I told him we couldn’t have two coaches in the team and that he had to retire to his room. His colleagues got up and escorted him out of the hall. Two of his colleagues came in later to see me; the Captain Ahmed Musa and Mikel Obi, pleaded on his behalf and we left it there. Only for issues to start popping up on social media alleging we insulted him and his late mother.
Most people are not aware of this but I’ll tell you now that when we went to play in Tanzania I personally asked for the team to wear the black band in honor of his mother and for us to observe a minute’s silence , we asked and we went through the channel of Dayo Enebi, but they said we should have made the demand earlier, does this sound like a man who wants to humiliate his captain?
What happened after wards, was alarming. We had only two goalkeepers, 15 players and we were playing a friendly game so we had to call in players who did not need visas to come into Belgium as quick as possible to make up numbers. We now had to call in Alampasu because we had only 2 goalkeepers; we were already making a case with Alloy to get ready if anything happened. We called Efe Ambrose and Madu in, working like we were a fire brigade.
I did not even have time to reply social media chats because we had to work.
However on the match day, Vincent did not come to lunch, I was confused because I thought we’d put all of the previous night’s issues behind us. I called him and asked why he wasn’t in for lunch and he said he was returning to his club. He said because I invited Alampasu he was leaving. Alloy Agu is my witness, God is my witness.
Super Eagles Chief Coach, Sunday Oliseh yesterday explained why he left out Chelsea of England midfielder, John Mikel Obi from his list of players invited for the forthcoming 2017 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifier against Tanzania. Oliseh who revealed this at a media parley in Abuja said he made several phone calls including text messages to Obi’s number but he never responded to any.
Sunday Oliseh, new super eagles coach
The former international who reluctantly spoke about the issue of Obi revealed that he has no bias against anybody adding that under him, the national team will not favour or malign any Nigerian player.
“Well this issue is an enigma and we have been trying to understand it but I am in the dark personally, and with my assistants we spent time about 11 days in and around Europe talking to players, watching games. We contacted each of the players, call them up, call the clubs and eventually met with the players.
“I went to England on a Thursday and Chelsea was just coming back, we had fixed our visit to coincide with the end of their tour before they played Arsenal. I contacted Obi Mikel, called him on phone four times, the phone kept on ringing nobody picked it up, I sent him an SMS and got no response. But I called Victor Moses the phone rang three times and he picked it up and I spoke with him, told him to concentrate on his game.
After the game he came to my hotel and we met and I told him my plans for the national team. I left to Liverpool to meet the other player and I spent about six hours to go there and back but there was no response from Mikel until I returned here.
I think it was yesterday (Wednesday) that I saw a missed call, so at the moment I don’t know what the situation is. For me everybody is the same and will be treated the same.”
He also gave words of encouragement to the home based players by stating that any of them that proves his worth will be given the opportunity to play, if they were better than their foreign based compatriots.
Super Eagles coach Sunday Oliseh has finally laid to rest rumours that he does not see eye-to-eye with his former assistant in the Eagles Austin Jay-Jay Okocha when he said; ‘’yes, I hate Jay-Jay’’.
A reporter had asked him to clear the air on rumours that he does not see or stay in the same room with the former playmaker of the Super Eagles. The hall was like a graveyard when he made the pronouncement. He looked round and explained further. “I hate Okocha because anytime we play Tennis, he beats me.
We played at the weekend at Sheraton Hotel and he defeated me’’. He made light of the rumour that started after he was appointed coach of the senior national team. Many still believe that Okocha stabbed Oliseh in the back when he accepted the captaincy of the Eagles to the 2002 World Cup.
‘’We’re the best of friends and we played Tennis at the weekend’’, he emphasised. Okocha is currently the Chairman of Delta State Football Association and Chairman of NFF’s Study Group.
Speaking on the Eagles, Oliseh said that he was going to make the Eagles to play team football combined with individual talents. ‘’If you remember our victories in 1994 and 1996, it was based on individual talents. But we do not have such individual talents again. What we need to do is to play collectively. That is what obtains in Germany and Spain. It’s a lot of hardwork. We’re here to do our best’’, he added.
Sunday Oliseh has been unveiled by the Nigeria Football Federation as coach of the Super Eagles.
Sunday Oliseh, new super eagles coach
The 40-year-old was the overwhelming favourite to be handed the role after the ‘Big Boss,’ Stephen Keshi, was shown the exit door by the NFF two weeks ago.
On Wednesday, Oliseh finally signed a contract with the NFF which ties him to the Super Eagles until 2020, becoming the fifth player in the 1994 class to handle the senior national team after Austin Eguavoen, Samson Siasia, Daniel Amokachi and Keshi.
“It’s a great honour to be coach of this great national team,” said Oliseh at the unveiling ceremony in Abuja.
“I’m not coming as a messiah. I’m coming as a man who wants to serve his country and give 150%.
“Gone are the days when we had individual players who can win games on their own. But we have potential,” he said.
He also laid down the law to players of Nigerian origin on his requirements before they can feature for his team.
“No player outside of first division in Nigeria or elsewhere will play for the Super Eagles. We will work together with the technical committee because if we fail, they fail,” he concluded.
The ex-Nigeria international will now hope to inspire an immediate improvement in the Eagles’ fortunes, starting with a win against Tanzania in an Africa Cup of Nations qualifier in September.
