Do NFF have cash to pay foreign coach to lead Super Eagles?

It is a matter of cash when it comes to the hiring of a foreign coach especially for the Super Eagles.

These coaches are paid good money and in foreign currency as well.

Since the days of the German Manfred Hoener to Berti Vogts and even Gernot Rohr, the NFF have often found it difficult to meet up with the salaries of these expatriate coaches so much so that it needed the intervention of FIFA for them to eventually get what is due to them.

When Jose Peseiro was employed two years ago, then Sports Minister Sunday Dare gave a commitment to the NFF that the Federal Government will pick up the salary bills of the Portuguese coach.

Peseiro’s initial contract paid him $70,000 a month, but after the FGN did not pay up, the NFF struggled to do so that he was owed for several months.

Peseiro’s outstanding salaries were only cleared by a special intervention fund approved by President Bola Tinubu prior to the recent AFCON in Cote d’Ivoire.

And it is now understood that the FGN has also made it abundantly clear that should the NFF settle for a foreign coach, the football federation will be the one to pay up.

Chairman House Committee on Sports, Ekene Adams, has warned the NFF to think through a decision to employ a foreign coach especially if they cannot afford to pay him.

“We are thinking of hiring a foreign coach and the question is, do we have the money to hire a foreign coach without owing him?,” he asked

“We are not saying they should not hire a foreign coach if they have the money to pay without owing him.

“The National Assembly standpoint is that they should not hire a coach they cannot afford to pay, they must make sure they hire a coach they can pay at the end of every month because we will not fold our hands and allow anyone to drag Nigeria name in a dispute.”

This cash question has given more fuel to those who are demanding for an indigenous coach to lead the Super Eagles.

Those in support of the local coach argue that he is affordable.

But will such a coach command the respect of the players, most of who have been exposed to the latest coaching trends and ideas in world football?

Will this coach get the total support of the NFF and will his employers give him the free hand to do the job they gave him?

Will the coach resist personal and sectional interests in the discharge of this national assignment?

Can a local coach not only qualify Nigeria to the 2026 World Cup, but also match the semifinal run achieved by Morocco at Qatar 2022?

I know that besides the grants the NFF receive regularly from both FIFA and CAF, the FGN also doles out special intervention funds for major tournaments like the World Cup and the AFCON.

It is also on record that a foreign coach earned the NFF more than $4 Million and far in excess in goodwill for getting the Super Eagles to the championship game of the last AFCON.

The country will earn far more when the team qualify and do well at the next World Cup.

After all the arguments for and against the appointment of a foreign or local coach, Nigeria football only deserves the best man for the job in a country where the game is far more than a sport.