A former Super Eagles skipper and coach, Sunday Oliseh, has blamed the poor run of the senior national football team on the engagement of a foreign coach for the team.
Oliseh was emphatic about his view of having a Nigerian coach to handle the Super Eagles.
He noted that Eric Chelle, a Malian, is not better than many Grade A Nigerian coaches.
The former Juventus player was speaking following the unimpressive run of the Super Eagles in Group C of the CAF 2026 World Cup qualifying series.
Only on Tuesday, Nigeria played a 1-1 draw with the Bafana Bafana of South Africa in a match the country needed the three points to be back in the race.
Sadly, the result left Eagles with 11 points from eight games and third in Group C with five draws, two wins and one defeat. South Africa have 17 points while Republic of Benin have 14 points from same number of games with two matches left.
With the Eagles on the brink of an impending ouster for the World Cup taking place in the USA, Canada and Mexico, Oliseh placed the blamed on the Nigeria Football Federation.
He said: “I am a fan of the Nigerian brand. I’m totally in disagreement with foreigners running our national team and any Nigerian who states otherwise should give back his/her passport.
“That is because the moment we accept that another race is better than us when it comes to managing our affairs, then if we are going to keep Chelle as coach, we are keeping the foreign coach then the next step for the government is bring foreign football administrators. Let’s take it one step higher then maybe they will realise that they are killing the pride of Nigeria.”
The Super Eagles will play the last round of games in the series next month against Lesotho away and Benin Republic at home.
