The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has sacked the Super Eagles’ technical crew.
The NFF confirmed this in a statement issued on Thursday, less than two days after the three-time African champions drew 1-1 with Ghana in a playoff for the competition.
The result sent the Black Stars to the tournament on the away goal rule after the first leg ended barren.
“The NFF has in the meantime withdrawn the two-and-half years’ contract offered the coaches and terminated the appointment of the entire technical crew of the team with immediate effect,” the communique read.
“A new crew will be announced after a proper review to lead the new charge of reinvigorating the Super Eagles to face future challenges appropriately.”
The football body, therefore, thanked the crew for their services and wished them well in future endeavours.
It also confirmed that Austine Eguavoen had earlier resigned as the team’s technical director.
Nigeria will be missing the World Cup for the first time in 16 years.
Following the team’s qualification failure, there has been a deluge of reactions from pundits, ex-players, and fans alike.
Many of them blamed tactical inefficient for the failure while others faulted the players for their lack of zeal.
One such is a former Nigerian international, George Abbey. The ex-Sharks defender blamed the players for not showing the desire to qualify for the tournament.
“When you put on that Super Eagles jersey, the whole nation is expecting you to go to war for us,” George, who played at the 2004 Africa Cup of Nations, added.
“This is not a time when you want to come and entertain; show skills and dilly-dally on the ball; take your time. Everything has to be crisp. From the start, we need warriors. We need players who are ready to bleed for the nation and I did not see any of that.”
Ojelabi, the publisher of Freelanews, is an award winning and professionally trained mass communicator and a recipient of the D9112 Superstar Icon Award, who writes ruthlessly about pop culture, religion, politics and entertainment.
