6 January 2009
Lagos — Checks close to the Glass House have revealed the two coaches have been at loggerheads since the Yuletide period.
The problem began when former Super Eagles winged back, Iroha, was said to have asked his immediate superior, Bosso, for permission to take a few days off from camp in order to go and see members of his nuclear family who are still in America. Coach Bosso was said to have told him that may not be a leave of absence he could freely grant.
He was said to have told his assistant that the timing was not too good, considering the task ahead. But it was alleged he added some other reasons to that, which might not have robbed well with his assistant. He was said to have told him that only a few weeks before, when there was the Salah break, he too wanted to go back to Niger State to go and spend the time with his family, but he could not because the WAFU tournament was on. He then said for this reason, he could not grant Iroha his wish and added that the only way his assistant could have his wish granted was if he went up the echelon of federation power to get his days off approve.
Hearing this, Iroha was said to have proceeded straight to the 1st Vice-president Amanze Uchegbulam to lobby for the time off. The Vice-president was said to have gone to the Secretary General to make a case for the assistant coach, who then had his application for the leave subsequently granted.
However, this did not go down well with Coach Bosso. He was said to have actually felt slighted. Thus, on the return of Iroha from America, the cold war that had been waging between the two escalated into a full blown hot one.
Tella Factor
To further make things bad, the camp had been getting gradually polarized into two factions of Tella loyalists and Bosso Boys before. This arose from the manner the players arrived into the team. Some of the players were bequeathed to the camp from the successful South Korea Under-17 team of the legendary coach, Yemi Tella, who won the FIFA World Cup of that level in 2007. Others were players sourced by Bosso, who therefore see the coach as their mentor.
While the Bosso Boys saw the Niger State-born coach as mentor, the ones from the Under-17 team of late coach Tella still see their transited mentor as their hero, and since coach Iroha was from that World Cup winning team as assistant coach, they see him as more their man in the absence of Tella.
On the goings on in the camp, an NFF official volunteered on phone last night that the federation is averse to seeing petty bickering mar the chances of the team in the Rwanda championship.
He said: "We will not want a situation that will lead to a divided camp at the African Youth Championship. If we fail to qualify for the final tournament in Egypt later in the year, let it be that we lost to better teams during the competition and because of self inflicted problems."
The team is expected to depart Lagos aboard Kenya Air this weekend, to Nairobi, before making the short trip to Kigali where they had been booked to stay in an hotel outside the official one booked by the Local Organising Committee (LOC), for them. They will remain in that hotel until January 14 when the arrival date of all the eight teams would be due and they can move into their official accommodation for the championship.
Nigeria will start the tournament with their Group B opening match against Egypt on the 19th at the Stade Regional, Kigali. Three days later, the Bosso-led team will take on South Africa. Their final group game will be against Cote d'Ivoire at the same stadium.
In Group A, host Rwanda will contend with oppositions from Mali, Ghana and Cameroon. All the semi finalists will automatically qualify for the World Youth Championship coming up in Egypt in August this year.
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