Akinwumi Ojo
14 February 2002
The unceremonious defeat of the Super Eagles in the semi-final of the 23rd edition of the African Cup of Nations Mali 2002, have thrown the Sports Ministry and the Nigeria Football Association (NFA), into different camps.
The two bodies as represented by the Sports Minister Ishaya Mark Aku and NFA's chairman Brigadier General Dominic Oneya who worked at cross roads during the tournament were expected to come back to the country, reconcile and chart new ways forward for Nigerian football but have gone different ways since their return from Mali on Monday.
A source at the Ministry told THISDAYSports on Wednesday that efforts by Aku to reach the NFA chairman who was expected to make inputs into the report that would be submitted to the Presidency has failed to yield any positive result with Oneya reportedly avoiding the Minister.
Oneya's grouse with the Minister had to do with the manner he (Aku) conducted himself, particularly the way he handled the return ticket issue that was cited as responsible for the team's loss to Senegal in the semi-final.
The source said this could pose negative consequences on the Super Eagles performance at the 2002 World Cup which is just three months away.
"This is the time for the Ministry and the NFA to start making arrangements towards turning the disaster that the Nations Cup represents into a glorifying participation in Korea/Japan but unfortunately that has not started," he said.
He revealed that one of the decisions to be taken is the recruitment of a new technical adviser or the cotinued retention of the present technical crew led by Shaibu Amodu which many football experts and Nigerian fans have condemned as incapable of leading the Eagles to the World Cup, adding that talks had commenced albeit secretly on the employment of another coach to take over from Amodu.
Football experts have expressed concern over the decision to contract another coach for the Eagles with the limited time to the World Cup, citing instances when officials had wasted valuable time in recruiting coaches that could only lead the team to disastrous outings as they hardly know the players.
"It could take the NFA months before another coach would be contracted to take over the team. One would have expected the association to have done its homework so that the coach would commence work as soon as possible. There is very little time left to prepare for the World Cup," he said.(ACONS)
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