Siasia Opposes Foreign Manager For Super Eagles

Samson Siasia, former Super Eagles head coach, has stated that the country’s senior men’s national team can function without a foreign management.

This comes as the Nigeria Football Federation considers appointing a foreigner to coach the three-time African champions in the remaining 2926 FIFA World Cup qualifying matches next year.

The Super Eagles are presently fifth in the 6-team group, trailing Rwanda, South Africa, Benin Republic, and Lesotho, with three points from four games (three draws and one loss).

Rejecting the idea of another foreign manager for the Super Eagles, the former Flying Eagles and Olympic team boss stated, “We don’t want any foreign coach here because they are not here to accomplish anything.

We have enough good materials at home that we shouldn’t consider hiring a foreign coach.”

The 57-year-old also urged interim head coach Austine Eguavoen to officially resign from his position with the Super Eagles and focus on his primary duties as technical director of the country’s football regulatory body.

Even though Eguavoen successfully led the squad to qualification for the Africa Cup of Nations next year in an interim role, the NFF has yet to issue a comment regarding his status with the team as World Cup qualifiers resume.

Siasia, on the other hand, believes that his former teammate should pick between coaching and serving as the NFF’s technical director.

As for Austin Eguavoen’s future with the Super Eagles, I believe we should wait a time to see how the squad does. This is a fairly young team. Eguavoen currently works as the technical director. He should resign as Super Eagles manager and focus on his duties. He cannot hold two places simultaneously. He should truly choose which one to keep and leave the other.”

On Thursday, August 22, the 1994 AFCON winners and two-time Olympic Games medalist coach ended a five-year FIFA ban for match-fixing allegations.

The initial lifetime ban was lowered to five years on appeal by the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) in 2019.