As rumors over Nigeria’s bid to replace present coach of the Super Eagles of Nigeria Gernot Rohr with English man Harry Redknapp, the country’s minister for Youth and Sports Sunday Dare has set out standard that must be met by the coach if he wants to continue in his job.
Rohr has been in charge of the senior national team of Nigeria since 2016 but for the first time, opinions on extending his contract has been largely divided with many suggesting that the team hasn’t truly evolved under his leadership.
However the Nigeria Football Federation ( NFF) have already agreed for the coach to stay for a further two and half year with the Super Eagles with all that is missing just an official announcement of the deal.
That delay resurrected talks of a possible u-turn by the NFF with Redknapp mentioned as the choice of the minister who in an online interview monitored by Owngoalnigeria.com revealed that there are standards that Rohr must meet if he wants to keep his job after the extension.
“For Rohr to have come in the first place he must have been world standard. Except when it comes to world standard coaches too there are various levels with the conditions we have put in. I think it’s only fair if he has accepted to let him continue but then we are going to hold him to a higher standard of responsibility to a greater depth of technicality in our football and to a greater level of success”, Dare said.
“Looking into that contract they are points in which if he does not me the desired standard we can terminate his contract. So we are not really stuck with him, he has an opportunity to prove himself. Even if we bring the best coach in the world. We’ll set the same standard for that coach, we’ll build in points in which if those expectations.
The expected outcome are not met, that best coach in the world will also be shown the way out. So I think we’ll just let this play out. He (Rohr) has also made promises that things will get better and I think we’ll just wait and see what happens eventually”, he concluded.
Reacting to the allegations that the minister is trying to force Redknapp on the NFF, the media aide to Dare Kola Daniel rubbished the reports terming it as a figment of the writer’s imagination as the minister hasn’t made any of such demand.
Daniel warned that such reports could truncate the good relationship the minister has with the football house which is about the best any serving minister has enjoyed with the NFF in a very long time.
Osas Mahawi
