By Emmanuel Afonne
Three sports journalists based in Abuja on Sunday urged the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to relieve Jose Peseiro of his Super Eagles Head Coach job before it is too late.
They made the call following the Eagles’ 0-1 loss to Guinea Bissau on Friday in a 2023 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifier at the Moshood Abiola Stadium in Abuja.
Romanus Ugwu, a sports writer and an Assistant Editor with the Sun Newspaper, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that retaining Peseiro was like holding on to expired drug.
“There is nothing we can do unless the NFF takes action, but if you ask me, I will automatically ask for the sack of Peseiro because he has not given us anything.
“Subsequently I will have to decide whether to watch Super Eagles match. I can’t be devastated like this all the time after Super Eagles match.
“I have learnt not to invest emotions in the team because I know that certainly they will disappoint.
“I am not surprised with the outcome of the game but I expected that after we lost the World Cup ticket to Ghana, that we are going to see something else.
“All of a sudden, we are seeing thunder striking twice at the same place,” Ugwu said.
For Ndubueze Chidoka, Chairman of a faction of the FCT Chapter of Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN), noted that everything about the country’s football was on the decline.
“I am disappointed that the Eagles could not fly considering the fact that we are nursing the pain of not qualifying for the World Cup when Ghana came to deny us the ticket at this same venue.
“And many football fans were looking up to the Super Eagles to make up in subsequent matches.
“It was unfortunate that the Super Eagles lost to Guinea Bissau barely 42 hours after the under-23 team drew against Guinea.
“This is a humiliation. The worst would have been a draw. For Guinea to come here and defeat us means that we don’t have a team and a coach.
“Everything about our football is going down drastically and something urgent must be done,” Chidoka said.
A former chairman of FCT SWAN, Victor Iroele, on his part said a lot of factors contributed to the team’s lacklustre performance in recent times.
Iroele noted that weather and the pitch could be contributing factors to the poor show of the team.
But he added that the technical crew had a lot of work to do if they would be retained.
“NFF needs to apply the big stick if necessary, to save the country from further embarrassing outings and to ensure the country did not miss the AFCON ticket, the way it missed the World Cup ticket.”(NAN)
