After several weeks of controversy between the Chief Coach of Nigeria's national team, Sunday Oliseh and his employers, the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Oliseh, in the wee hours of Friday, announced his resignation as Chief Coach of the Super Eagles.
Sunday Oliseh, Fmr Super Eagles Chief Coach
Sunday Oliseh has resigned as the Head Coach of the Nigerian football national team, the Super Eagles, just over seven months after he was appointed.
Oliseh, who announced his resignation on Twitter, said he took the decision due to the inability of the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, to honour the terms of his contract.
“Due to contract violations, lack of support, unpaid wages, benefits to my players, assistant coaches and myself, I resign as Super Eagles Chief Coach,” he tweeted.
He thanked Nigerians for the opportunity of serving as the coach of the team in a preceding tweet before announcing his resignation.
“I feel fortunate, blessed and eternally grateful for having the honour to play, captain and coach this great nation of ours, Nigeria.” Oliseh tweeted
Oliseh, whose appointment was made with much fanfare by the NFF, soon started having problems with the executives of the federation over remuneration, match tactics and results.
His complaint about being owed was not well received by the NFF, which rather threatened to sanction him.
He also had challenges managing the players. An altercation between the coach and the team’s former captain and the country’s most capped goalkeeper, Vincent Enyeama, led to the goalie’s premature resignation from the team last October.
Apparently, the last straw for Oliseh was the woeful outing of the Super Eagles at the CHAN competition in Rwanda, where the team were eliminated in the first round.
Following widespread criticisms that greeted the team’s elimination, a Youtube video soon surfaced in which Oliseh lambasted his critics, referring to them as “insane”.
On Thursday, the NFF directed Oliseh to henceforth report to former coach and the NFF’s technical director, Amodu Shuaibu.
In a swift reaction, the NFF denies sabotaging Sunday Oliseh's efforts as Super Eagles Chief Coach and has planned to appoint Samsom Siasia as Interim Chief coach of Super Eagles for the Nigeria-Eygpt AFCON qualifier match scheduled in Kaduna on the March 25, 2016.