The Minister of Sports, Solomon Dalung, on Tuesday declared that he was not officially aware of the appointment of a new foreign coach for the Super Eagles by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF).
Despite Dalung’s preference for a local coach, the NFF had few weeks back selected a German, Gernot Rohr, to manage the Super Eagles.
Speaking with State House correspondents after briefing President Muhammadu Buhari on the nation’s outing at the just concluded Olympics in Rio, Brazil, Dalung said that he wished the new coach the best of luck even though NFF has not informed him of Rohr’s appointment.
According to him, he begged the President to host the Nigerian contingent to the Olympics Games in Rio, Brazil, despite winning only one bronze medal in football and coming 78th on the medals table.
He said that Coach Samson Siasia that handled the football team that won the bronze medal at the Olympics, has not resigned as been speculated in the media even though his contract with the NFF had lapsed.
The Minister also faulted the treatment by NFF to Siasia, which withdrew his official car in Abuja while struggling to secure a medal for the country in Rio.
Nigeria, he said, still needed Siasia for football development, as he pushed for his engagement on personal capacity if the NFF would not re-engage him.
He said that it would be sad to have someone like Siasia leave Nigeria to go and represent another country out of frustration, just like many athletes did at the Rio Olympics.
Dalung also exonerated Siasia and his team over the $390, 000 donation by a Japanese surgeon.
After meeting the donor in Rio, the Minister said that he was convinced there were no strings attached to the donation like match-fixing.
He however attributed the abysmal outing of the Nigerian Olympic contingent to late release of funds and inability to develop home-grown talents, noting that many athletes in the continent that performed relatively better were home-trained.
He pointed out that it was time to revisit the basic architecture of sports in the country, stressing that “we need to go back to grassroots” and groom talents for future competitions.
Replying his critics, he said, that he was not the problem of Nigerian sports as abysmal performance predates his appointment.
According to him, the National Sports Commission (NSC) was necessary but was unfortunately scrapped by a government committee that recommended merger of ministries.