Exclusive… NFF may replace ‘sick’ Oliseh with foreign coach

In from Nifemi Daniel . . .

Barring any last minute change, the Nigeria Football Federation has concluded plans to replace bedridden Super Eagles coach, Sunday Oliseh, with a foreign Technical Adviser.

Ripples Nigeria can exclusively report that the NFF are losing patience with Oliseh who is taking treatment in Belgium after suffering from a virus infection few months after taking the Super Eagles job.

Nigeria’s squad for next year’s CHAN began training in Abuja on Monday, without Oliseh, but assistants, Salisu Yusuf and Jean Francois Loscuito has been supervising the training in the coach’s absence, a move which has caused a big division in the NFF executive board.

Nigeria have been drawn in the same group with Guinea, Tunisia and Niger.

The CHAN Eagles are expected to continue training for the tournament in South Africa later this month, before a friendly match against Ivory Coast on January 9 in Pretoria where Oliseh is expected to join, but his health situation has necessitated the NFF to opt for other options.

“Oliseh’s health issue is a source of concern for the NFF especially the President, Amaju Pinnick, and that was why he has been clamouring for a foreign Technical Assistant in recent times,” a reliable source informed Ripples.

Read also: Oliseh flown to Belgium for treatment

He added that, “Oliseh’s contract does not include the role of the foreign Technical Assistant since he already has one in his Belgian assistant Jean Francois Loscuito, but the Super Eagles coach has no choice than to accept the NFF’s proposal considering his constant failing health situation.”

Another high riding NFF board member who also confided in Ripples Nigeria said: “We need to save our jobs too as NFF members by getting results especially with the Super Eagles. The CHAN tournament is a month away (January 16, 2016) and we don’t know the direction the team is going. The most crucial assignment is the 2017 Nations Cup double header against Egypt in March 2016 and we need to plan ahead but we cannot do that without the input of the coach.”

It would be recalled that in October, a very pale Oliseh after leading the Eagles to a 2-0 victory over Burkina Faso in Port Harcourt during their first leg African Nations Championship qualifying clash, was later flown to Belgium for treatment after
his health worsened as the team had to travel to Ouagadougou for the second leg CHAN qualifier without the tactician.

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