By 
Former Super Eagles’ captain and two-time head coach, Augustine Eguavoen 9Cerezo) has taken over the saddle of handling Nigeria’s senior national team on an interim basis, following the country’s soccer governing body’s decision to push aside Gernot Rohr.
In what marked a climax of claims, counter-claims, denials, tussling and shoving that had been going on over Rohr’s future in charge of the team, megasportsarena.com reports that Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) eventually decided to wield the big hammer on Sunday.
This, though, comes less than three weeks before the Eagles step out at the Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroon, which means ‘Egu,’ who won gold with the team as stand-in captain in 1994 and bronze as head coach in 2006, will have to undertake a crash programme.
The former versatile defender, though, would be on familiar terrain to a certain extent, as he takes charge of the Eagles’ preparations for the 33rd AFCON in Cameroon, from 9th January to 6th February 2022, and until the NFF announcement the appointment of a substantive coach.
It is left to be seen how he will cope within a short span of time, which apparently had been a major reason why the NFF dragged feet on sacking Rohr in the first place, but pressure from the sports minister, Sunday Akinlabi Dare allegedly spurred them into taking the daunting decision.
Rohr’s days in charge of the Eagles appeared numbered when his side struggled in their last four matches of the AFCON 2022 qualifiers, starting with a shock 1-0 loss at home against Central African Republic.
Although they did get an away win to assuage frayed nerves, only to toil to victory versus Liberia in Morocco and then narrowly ambled into the next stage with a 1-1 draw at home versus Cape Verde.
A message from the NFF’s communications department, however, did not state categorically that Rohr had been sacked, as the powers that be in the corridors of Nigeria’s football management are obviously apprehensive of paying the Franco-German gaffer severance fees
The press release, however, disclosed at length: “The Nigeria Football Federation has appointed Mr Augustine Eguavoen, currently its Technical Director, as the Technical Adviser of the Super Eagles on an interim basis.
”This is with immediate effect, and follows the termination of the relationship with Franco-German Gernot Rohr, who has been in charge of the three –time African champions for the past 64 months, and is Nigeria’s longest –serving manager.
“Following a virtual meeting of the NFF Executive Committee on Sunday, it was decided that Eguavoen will work with Salisu Yusuf (Chief Coach); Paul Aigbogun (Assistant Coach); Joseph Yobo (Assistant Coach); Dr Terry Eguaoje (Assistant Coach) and Aloysius Agu (Goalkeeper Trainer).
“Former Nigeria captains Augustine ‘Jay Jay’ Okocha, Nwankwo Kanu and Garba Lawal have been appointed to provide technical and ambassadorial support for the crew.”
NFF’s general secretary, Dr Mohammed Sanusi later confirmed the development, as he stated: “The relationship between the Nigeria Football Federation and Mr Rohr has come to an end.
“We thank him for his services to the Super Eagles and Nigeria. We also want to thank the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports for their collaboration and guidance all through.”
Comments