The decision by the board of Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to pick Manu Garba as head coach of the National U17 team, the Golden Eaglets, is not going down well with some Nigerians.
The Golden Eagles, under coach Garba, won the FIFA U-17 Championships in 2013 in the United Arabs Emirates (UAE). The team retained the title in 2015 under coach Emmanuel Amunike, who was Garba’s assistant in 2013.
But under coach Nduka Ugbade, the team failed to qualify for the last FIFA U-17 World Cup, losing their last group game to Burkina Faso, and in the process missed the semis, which would have served them the World Cup ticket.
Garba’s achievement with the team in 2013 notwithstanding, former coach of Eko United FC, ex-Green Eagles winger, Adegoke Adelabu says his re-appointment by the NFF was wrong.
“We have a sufficient population of ex-players that we can train to handle various stages of our football,” Adelabu told The Guardian, yesterday. “I have been talking about the issue of development of our football from the perspective of educating our coaches on the dynamics of learning and understanding human performance.
“The national objective should transcend any form of tribal sentiment. The issue is no one is holding the football house responsible for their unhealthy performances. The U17 is a very critical stage in our football development hierarchy that needs well-groomed and sophisticated tacticians who will identify the next players for the Super Eagles. This was the case in the past.
“I think other coaches should be allowed to handle the U-17 with the mandate to produce the next generation of Super Eagles,” he stated. Adelabu, a Sports Scientist and former player of IICC Shooting Stars of Ibadan, stated that one thing that makes the advanced countries better than Nigeria is the ability to evaluate the performances of the coaches and educate them in the areas where they are lacking technically and tactically.
“The U-17 should consist of talented student soccer players, but now we source for our Golden Eagles from soccer academies where players are already over-aged.
“As a nation, we must have our own developmental football programmes to produce and identify the talents amongst us. It is important that other people be given the opportunity to showcase their technical abilities so that we can be fair to all,” he stated.
On his part, former Director of Sports, Delta State Sports Council, Seigha Porbeni, said: “To me, this appointment of Manu Garba as coach of the U-17 team has nothing to do with professionalism or competence. It is still all about tribal or federal character. That being in the President’s mind and he is coming from the North and he has to protect his people. I don’t see any reason for his re-appointment. The NFF should give other coaches the chance to handle the Golden Eaglets.”
