How Finidi won the Eagles coaching position over Amuneke and others

According to The PUNCH, new information has surfaced regarding how Finidi George defeated Emmanuel Amuneke, a fan favorite, and other candidates for the Super Eagles position.

In preference to more than sixty other domestic and international candidates, the Nigerian Football Federation on Monday accepted the recommendations of its Technical Committee to name Finidi as coach.

Other coaches that submitted applications included Daniel Amokachi, Sylvanus Okpala, former Katsina United coach Henry Makinwa, who is based in Spain, and US U-19 coach Michael Nsien. According to reports, Dutchman Danny Bujis and former Cameroonian coach Antonio Conceicao also applied for the position.

Speaking to our correspondent on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the subject, an NFF Technical Committee member claimed that certain stakeholders had attempted to sway their choice in favor of their nominee.

But regardless of whose ox was gored, he continued, the members of the Technical Committee decided to stand by their decision to select the best applicant for the post.

“Some of these people think they are the masters of the game, but they don’t know that some of us have been in this game for some time too. Do you know they set up a WhatsApp platform to decide and influence who will become the coach of the Super Eagles. But we snubbed them,” our source said.

“It could have been the other way round and we would still move on and support whoever the NFF picked.

“We know that some candidates that were not picked for the job would complain, that’s life for you. The important thing now is to support who is there and see how we can qualify for the World Cup. Now we have a manager, he’s going to coach the team, he has the desire to coach and he’ll definitely sit down with the federation officials to sort out his contract.”

With only a few weeks until the pivotal World Cup qualifiers against rival South Africa, our source explained how they came to believe that Finidi was the best option for the Eagles. They needed someone with a deep understanding of the team, not a new coach who would introduce a foreign mentality to the players.

He went on to say that Finidi, who had worked under Peseiro for 20 months, had shown to be the best candidate for the position due to his experience playing both domestic and continental football for Enyimba, the current NPFL champions.

Our source added, “Finidi, with due respect to him, has been on ground, and he’s in tune with the dynamics of the modern game, and that for us is a big plus. He’s working with Enyimba, won a league title for them, has coached on the continent and he’s been busy coaching in recent years.

“At the national team level, he’s been with the Eagles as assistant and we know we have some tricky World Cup qualifiers ahead. A new coach might come in with tactics that the players will struggle to adapt to. We don’t need that now.

“Also, as a coach who understand the domestic league very well, his experience in this regard will come in handy when selecting players for the home-based players.”

The member of the Technical Committee mentioned that Finidi’s selection for the position was also influenced by financial factors.

In modern Nigeria, who would pay a foreign coach $70,000? Simply put, the money isn’t there,” our insider continued.
Some of the applicants have since spoken about the procedure that resulted in the selection of the new coach.

Emmanuel Amuneke acknowledged that there was no interview to determine who was the greatest fit for the position, despite characterizing the procedure as “fair”.

“Neither the interview nor any discussion about the employment with the federation took place about the position. The federation did not get in touch with anyone or make an offer to take the position. They have chosen a new coach, who is one of us, we just need to move on and support him,” Amuneke said.

US U-19 coach Michael Nsien, who also sought for the position, responded, “It depends on people’s standards of process,” when asked if he thought the selection process for the coaching position was transparent. The absence of interviews, which is fundamental in my opinion and would at least give the impression that it was transparent,

Former U-23 national team player Nsien is confident Finidi will have a capable backroom crew to work with.

He remarked, “Hopefully he has good staff around him.”

While he congratulated Finidi, another applicant, Sylvanus Okpala, who won the AFCON title in 1980 as a player and as an assistant coach in 2013, chose not to comment on the selection process that produced Finidi as the winner.

He said, “The important thing is that Finidi has been selected and he is there now. All he needs is the support of everyone to excel, but the biggest support he can get is the one he gives to himself to be successful and take the Eagles to where they belong.

“I feel okay with Finidi’s appointment as the new Super Eagles coach because all of us cannot be there and obviously only one person will be appointed among us. I congratulate him and I wish him the best, hoping that he will take the Eagles to the next level.”