As rumours continue to go round about the future of the coach of the senior national team of Nigeria Eric Chelle, the chairman National Sports Commission (NSC) Alhaji Shehu Dikko has given his opinion.
There have been talks about firing the coach after the 1-1 draw against South Africa in the world cup qualifiers, which means the team is now walking a very tight rope on making it to the world cup.
Dikko in an interview with Channel TV, the celebrated sport administrator said the decision to sack Chelle lies with the NFF, but will need the approval of his office before the Malian is axed.
“Eric Chelle is the responsibility of the Nigeria Football Federation to decide. At the end of the day, after they finish, they’ll do the analysis, and then they will recommend to us, and then we look at it, we approve or disapprove, or we engage to do that,” said Dikko.
He however made a case for the coach, citing where the team was before he took over and the amount of points they have picked since his appointment.
“As for the World Cup, we all know where we are. When we came on board, we only had three points out of 12, but now we have been able to, at least with Eric Chelle, the NFF, pull ourselves together. Now, we have eight points in another four games.
“If we had gotten these results before, probably, we could have been preparing to qualify for the World Cup,” he added.
Mohammed Mowiz Suleiman
