PH
Nigeria’s Minister for Youth and Sport Solomon Dalung has blamed former coach Sunday Oliseh and the Nigeria Football Federation for the Super Eagles’ failure to qualify for the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations.
The Super Eagles played a 1-1 draw with Egypt in Kaduna, before suffering a 1-0 defeat in the return leg played in Alexandria on Tuesday.
Speaking on Friday in Abuja, Dalung says the internal crisis in the NFF, and the resignation of Oliseh jiust two weeks to crucial games against Egypt, was responsible for Nigeria’s inability to go past Egypt.
“Apologies for Nigeria’s failure to qualify for a second consecutive AFCON
“We lack reasonable explanation and justification for not qualifying.
“The in- house fighting in the NFF and the resignation of the coach 2 weeks to the qualifiers were all responsible.”
Dalung went further to state that hiring and firing of coaches will not help the growth of football in Nigeria.
“All the internal wrangling, litigation and impeachment in various federations are unhealthy and not in the interest of sports development. Lack of priority is one of the challenges hampering our football. A fire brigade attitude to every situation takes our sports nowhere.
“I feel we owe Nigerians the explanation of what happened inside the boardrooms that eventually led to our failure.
“Hiring and firing of coaches is a problem. The number of coaches fired by the NFF raise a presumption that something is wrong with the NFF.”
Nigeria will be missing out on the second consecutive AFCON after failing to qualify for the 2015 edition.
