Nigeria: Why NFA Sacked Falcons’ Coaches

Daily Independent (Lagos)

20 March 2011

The Nigeria Football Association (NFA) has given reasons why two Super Falcons assistant coaches, Ann Chiejine and Idris Gidado were dropped at the weekend.

NFA’s technical committee chairman, Chris Green said the output of some of the coaches in the team was far below expectation, sying they were dropped in order to enhance the team’s perfomance.

“I don’t see the rationale behind this prolonged talk over the matter; an employer has decided that a couple of employees are not living up to expectation and told those employees to stay away.

“The truth is that we are assessing coaches of all the national teams and it is a continuous exercise. Whoever does not measure up would have to give way. The era of Nigerian teams going to championships simply to make up the number is over.

“Yes, we know we are the best in Africa in women’s football, and it will remain so for a very long time. But we must think bigger and plan for better performances on the world stage. We have been at all previous five World Cup finals and have not been able to make the kind of mark that Nigerians looked forward to.

“The quarter final showing of 1999 remains our best outing. Instead of going up at the global stage (World Cup and Olympics), we have been going down. So, it is important that we take a hard look at all areas of the technical aspect and see what the problem is.

“The two coaches were found to be far below what we want, and we will announce replacements very soon. This is another FIFA Women’s World Cup year. We cannot afford to go there and simply make up the number again,” said Barrister Green.

Super Falcons takes on Namibia over two legs in a 2012 Olympics qualifier in April and will also play the winner between Ghana and Liberia in an All-Africa Games qualifier in May, before setting up a training camp in Germany ahead of the 6th FIFA Women’s World Cup finals in that country 26 June – 17 July.

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