Football analysts and enthusiasts argue against the continuation of Amodu Shuaibu as head of Super Eagle’s technical crew to the FIFA 2010 soccer fiesta in South Africa 

Controversy has been raging in Nigeria’s soccer circles   since the Super Eagles made a dramatic comeback into reckoning for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. The team had beaten the Harambee Stars of Kenya in Nairobi on November 14 to win the Group B ticket of the African zone qualifying series for South Africa 2010 World Cup finals. The controversy is on the fate of Shuaibu Amodu, chief coach, who led the national team throughout the qualifying series of the World Cup campaign.

Some football analysts are calling for a more competent hand, especially a foreign coach  to steer the national team to the World Cup if Nigeria is to realise its  dream of making an impact at the first ever World Cup championship to be held in  Africa.

Many people had lost hope on the Super Eagles’ chance of qualifying for the 2010 World Cup finals, especially as the Nigerians were trailing the Tunisians who led their Group B of the qualifying series from the first day of the qualifying series until the last day, November 14.

 From late March until the final games were concluded, Tunisia’s Carthage Eagles led the way in Group B. They had taken a sixth-minute lead in their opening game in Kenya and running home 2-1 winners. In the final game, the Tunisians came within just seven minutes of seeing the job through and claiming a place in the finals but  just about the same time that Mozambique were leading them 1-0 in  Maputo with the only goal of the match, Obafemi Martins was netting Nigeria’s winner in Kenya, capping a cruelly bad afternoon for Humberto Coelho, the coach of  Tunisia’s  side. That meant that five qualifying slots in the Africa Zone have now been taken with Cameroon and Nigeria joining Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire on a highly dramatic day.

While Nigeria were booking their World Cup ticket from Nairobi, Cameroon’s Indomitable Lions were winning in Morocco. With this qualification, Nigeria will be going for their fourth World Cup Finals appearance, having been to the US’94, France 1998, and Korea/Japan 2002 championships.

On the whole, the Eagles are rated among the most successful African teams in the finals of the competition having reached the second round on two occasions; in 1994 and 1998. But football analysts, who spoke to Newswatch want a change in the coaching crew of the national team  if the country is to translate the dream of Pele, who predicted that an African team would win the tournament or at worst reach the semi-final of the Mundial in 2010.  In fact, Pele had predicted that Nigeria stood the best chance among the rest of African teams to translate his prediction into reality with the country’s array of talents.

Rafiu Ladipo, president-general of the Nigerian Football and other Sport Supporters’ Club  while expressing gratitude to God for His intervention in ensuring Nigeria’s qualification for the championship  urged the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, to put the required machinery in place to ensure Nigeria made Africa proud in South Africa 2010. “It is one thing to qualify, and another thing to do well in the competition. If we are to do well, our team must improve on its technical abilities, an area that is lacking. The NFF must do something on this,” he told Newswatch in Abuja.

Ade Shomefun, the group sport editor of The Tribune and a sport journalist of more than 25 years experience spoke in a similar vein.

According to him, the Super Eagles are a team to reckon with “and we have to also appreciate the NFF board led by Sani Lulu for giving us the World Cup ticket.”

He said: Amodu has taken us to South Africa, but this is the time we should look beyond our qualification for the World Cup. We, therefore, need a sound technical and tactical crew to take charge of the team, and the NFF should look beyond the shores of Nigeria for a sound coach because, although Nigerian coaches are good, they still lack technical depth. Nigeria should, therefore, go for a sound man, a man that is versed on his job whom many of our coaches will learn the modern technicalities of the game from.”

He believes  that the Eagles, as presently constituted lacked the ability to compete with any of the top-rated teams in world football. “We have good players but tactically, our team is not there yet, and one cannot see any definite pattern in the playing style of the team,” he said.

Shomefun argued that if England which boasts as the cradle of football could go for a foreign coach to lift the game in the country, there is no reason why Nigeria cannot borrow a leaf from its former colonial master in this area. “Amodu should be retained as the chief coach, but Nigeria will have to go  for someone who will bring his technical know-how  to bear on our team and a foreign coach is the answer to the team’s inadequacies now.The person will have the final say on the Technical matters involving the team," he told Newswatch.

Sunnie Ephraim, who is the first vice- chairman of the African Sport Journalists Union, ASJU, supported the call for the hiring of a foreign coach. Ephraim called for the overhaul of the team that will result in the sacking of Amodu and some of the ageing players in the team.

Ephraim explained that Amodu has to be relieved of his position with immediate effect because “he has been playing only the big names instead of going for fitter and better equipped players who can deliver. Players like Yakubu Aiyegbeni, John Utaka and Nwankwo Kanu should give way for the younger and more productive ones. Look at how he has been showing his incompetence by telling Nigerians not to expect too much from the team, especially in the Angola 2010 Cup of Nations. He should be fired with immediate effect.”

The 2010 World Cup qualifiers equally served as qualifiers for the 27th edition of the African Cup of Nations which will hold in Angola from January 10-31. Apart from the World Cup-bound teams like Nigeria, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Algeria and Cameroon, other teams that made it to the biennial championship are Tunisia, Mozambique, Gabon, Mali, Benin, Burkina-Faso and Zambia. The rest are Malawi, Togo, Egypt - the defending champions and Angola, the hosts.

Result of the November 14 World Cup Qualifiers

Mozambique        1 - 0        Tunisia

Kenya                    2 - 3        Nigeria

Rwanda                                 0 - 0        Zambia

Morocco                                0 - 2        Cameroon

Togo                       1 - 0        Gabon

BurkinaFaso         1 - 0        Malawi

Côted’Ivoire         3 - 0        Guinea

Sudan                    1 - 2        Benin

Egypt                     0 - 1        Algeria(Replay)