assistant coaches of the Super Eagles Sylvanus Okpala
The
Nigeria Football Federation has downsized the national teams as was
announced late Tuesday. One of the assistant coaches of the Super Eagles
Sylvanus Okpala was the first to receive his letter but that was
quickly followed by a longer list of personnel dropped from the team on
Wednesday. Valerie Hounandinuou was among the nine Eagles back-room
staff who were relieved of their jobs afterwards.
Hounandinuou is the Togolese who joined
the Eagles back-room staff in November 2011 when Stephen Keshi was
employed as the national coach.
The chairman of the NFF’s Media
Committee Chief Emeka Inyama said that Keshi could retain Hounandinuou
provided he could afford to pay him.
But in what appears to be a shift from
the earlier official media release from the Federation on Tuesday, Keshi
may not be affected by the rationalisation steps. The coach is likely
to retain his salary as he agreed with the NFF on the day he was
appointed as the coach of the team. Even though it was first announced
that all the national team coaches would have their salaries slashed,
Inyama told us on Wednesday that the Federation would respect the contract it has with Keshi.
He said, “Yes we have cut down on the
back-room staff but Keshi’s salary is not in the areas we are looking
at. He has a contract with us so we have no reason to disrespect that
contract.”
The NFF took the decision following its
Technical and Development Committee meeting on Tuesday, and reduced the
17-man team to nine.
Some of those affected include Anderson
Elderson (video analyst); Robinson Okosun (Psychologist); Emmanuel Attah
(Team Coordinator) and Ben Alaiya (Media Officer). Demola Olajire, who
is the NFF’s spokesperson, will take charge of the media role. The team
Security Officer Gideon Akinsola has also been dropped.
The NFF also reduced the back-room staff
of the other national teams, the Flying Eagles and the Golden Eaglets,
to seven from 17. The Golden Eaglets left for Morocco before the changes
were implemented but the NFF General Secretary Mr. Musa Amadu explained
that the implementation as regards the team would take place when they
return from the African competition.
“They can’t certainly go to the World
Cup with the entire crew. We can’t drag them back from Morocco but the
changes will be made as soon as they return,” he said.
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