Former FIFA and CAF Executive Committee member, Amos Adamu, has advised the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to employ a coach whose salary would be paid promptly.
He advised that before the NFF’s leadership embark on the project of employing a coach, either foreign or local, it should carefully check its purse to avoid any possible failure to pay whoever is employed to do the job.
Adamu stated that having been in charge of Nigerian sports for a long time, he knows where the shoe pinches and how hard it is for a government parastatal to achieve its set targets, when the budget is not forthcoming “as is the case at the moment”.
“My stance on this has always been the same. If you want a coach, consider your pocket. Don’t hire a coach that will earn above your purse or else, it will backfire. My concern is that the NFF should hire a good coach whether foreign or indigenous. Just get a coach that has the capacity to do the work.
“When you start classifying coaches as foreign or local, you bring sentiment into it. Class is about performance and not colour. If you bring in a high class coach, then you pay him heavily. When you fail to pay him, you lose control over him,” he added.
Adamu equally advised NFF to cultivate the culture of borrowing in order to meet up with their many pressing needs and also ensure they pay back promptly once the money is made available by the government.
“When I was there, I used to borrow to carry out my programmes. But I paid up promptly, which made it easier for me to go back again once the FA was in dire need.
“I always anticipated a situation like this ahead and prepared for it. If I had sat down and waited for money when it was not coming, Nigerians wouldn’t understand.
“While in the Sports Ministry, our equipment for Nigerian contingents to major competitions like the Olympic Games always arrived ahead of time even without payment because I was credit worthy,” he added.
