A member of the technical committee of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) Victor Ikpeba has given a proper view on the managerial situation of the senior national team of Nigeria ahead of the AFCON qualifiers games against Libya, OwnGoalNigeria.com reports.
Eguavoen was handed an extension to his stay as coach of the team in interim capacity for the games against Libya on the 11th and 15th of October respectively.
The statement by the NFF didn’t state if he will be occupying the role in interim capacity or otherwise and Ikpeba was asked to define the role of the coach following the extension.
“Yes, I can confirm that the role is still as interim”, Ikpeba said during the broadcast of Monday Live Football on SuperSports.
Pressed further on if the NFF is still searching for a foreign coach , Ikpeba said the time hasn’t come saying it could be revisited pending on how the team evolve under the interim management of Eguavoen.
He went further to explain why they have experienced difficulties in hiring a foreign coach for the team since the departure of Finidi George, and the announcement of an expatriate coach expected to be his replacement.
” You know, I think the process have problems initially, we wanted a foreign manager, but there was a lot of speculation. Some people from the government, from the ministry, wanted a home base coach, which eventually we had. Unfortunately Finidi’s situation ended the way it did and hard decisions has to be made. We had the manager we wanted that was Bruno Labbadia whom I believe chickened out of the job.
” There will be a time when decisions will have to be made on Eguavoen continuing as the head coach or revert to his role as technical director of the NFF. He knows it and everyone around is also aware but I will rather prefer we get there first because a lot can change in football”, he concluded in response to Eguavoen picking up the role of the coach or permanent basis or not.
Mohammed Mowiz Suleiman
