posted March 14, 2023
The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has issued a statement debunking media reports that it sacked two members of the Super Eagles technical crew. Messrs Finidi George and Ike Shorounmu from the team.
The statement specifically addressed the rumour making rounds that the duo of Messrs Finidi George and Ike Shorounmu have been sacked from the team.
“As part of cost-cutting measures instituted at the beginning of the new administration, we established a rotation policy among the assistant coaches, based on the high number, which was agreed with all of them”.
“The last time that the team had a programme, Mr Finidi George was the person who travelled for the friendly match in Portugal. This rotation policy is only for matches. When there is a tournament, all of them will be with the team”, clarified the NFF statement.
“Furthermore, he (George) knew at that time that the next trip would be that of Mr Usman Abdallah. In actual terms, Abdallah is simply taking his turn to be in the camp for the program of Super Eagles versus Djurtus of Guinea Bissau. And in the next program, George will take his turn to be around.
“The other person who could have been contending, Mr Salisu Yusuf, has been sent to the U23 team. There was no victimization, sleight of hand or any disrespect meant to our illustrious ex-international players.”
“The case of goalkeepers’ trainer, Ike Shorounmu is somewhat peculiar, as the former Nigeria goalkeeper neither did show up in camp for the matches against Guinea Bissau or sent a message to excuse himself for the period”.
“We do not want to go into any details because we have the utmost respect for all our ex-internationals, including Mr Shorounmu. It was only when we got the clear signal that he was unwilling to come, and the Head Coach was in a quandary, that he (Coach Peseiro) requested the services of Olatunji Baruwa, who he had seen at work during the U20 AFCON in Egypt, to help do the work of training the goalkeepers.”
“We are aware that there are some challenges concerning contracts of coaches of National Teams that we need to resolve and speedily, too. The NFF is working on these and the issues will soon be in the past”, concluded the statement.