Daily Independent Online.
*
Monday, July 26, 2004.
Eagles coach to be named next month
Anxious Nigerians will know who is the
country’s new foreign coach next month, boss of the NFA technical
committee Sulaiman David has announced.
“The new coach will be in place by
next month,” declared David, whose committee will meet later on Friday in
Abuja to screen the six applications they have received for Nigeria’s top
coaching job.
David
said that his committee has asked for more details from world soccer
governing body FIFA in respect of all the applicants.
The technical committee is expected to draw
up a short list of the applicants and table their recommendations to an
emergency board meeting of the NFA shortly.
It is widely believed that firming up an
agreement with telecoms company Globacom will be the first step by the NFA
toward hiring the Eagles new expatriate coach.
NFA boss Ibrahim Galadima has already said
it was most crucial that they have an iron-cast agreement with the telephone
company which they will then present to the sports ministry to prove they can
afford a foreign coach.
Last year, Sports Minister Musa Mohammed
booted into touch the FA’s choice of former England World Cup skipper
Bryan Robson on the grounds that the soccer house could not afford to pay the
coach 50,000 US dollars a month over six months.
Officials also informed that Bamako-born
Jean Tigana is still very much in the plans of the NFA despite some media
reports to the contrary.
“Tigana is still very much in the
picture as regards the Eagles job. He was just not happy that the whole thing
was already in the press even before he has stated his terms,” a top
official said.
“Nobody really wants what happened in
the Bryan Robson case to repeat itself and that includes Tigana.”
