…blames NFF for team’s poor preparation
…says Rohr is only interested in making money
…gives reasons for neglect of home-based players for the Mundial
Former Super Eagles dare-devil striker, Emma Osigwe, has taken a swipe on the Nigeria Football Federation for the poor preparations of the Super Eagles ahead of the World Cup, saying the team is not rock-solid.
Speaking exclusively to The Point, the 1980 Africa Cup of Nations winner said he is disappointed with the kind of preparations accorded the team and added that the result of their last two friendlies against England and Czech Republic shows that the team has nothing to offer at Russia 2018.
He stated that the chances of Nigeria coming out of Group D which has ‘mighty’ Argentina, ‘resilient’ Croatia and ‘giant killers’ Iceland is very slim.
“The chance of Super Eagles qualifying from Group D is very slim because we never prepared well. In the first instance, the NFF never started the preparations on time and that is why at the eleventh hour the coaching crew of the Eagles were still searching and testing players who will represent the country at the Mundial.
“We ought to have started our preparations as soon as the last world cup ended four years ago, as is done by other top football playing nations. But NFF are only interested in fire-brigade approach to preparations for big sporting events for the Super Eagles which is not right.
“As far as I’m concerned, we have no team and what Gernot Rohr is doing is playing alongside his pay masters by simply applying fire-brigade approach to the preparations of Eagles for the Mundial,” he began.
Speaking further on the opening game against Croatia, Osigwe said the outcome of the match on June 16 will determine how far Nigeria will go at the Mundial.
“The opener against Croatia is going to be tough and the outcome of the match will determine how far Nigeria will go at the tourney.
“Croatia is a resilient side that has produced great players like Davor Suker and I foresee them becoming a hard nut which Eagles must crack if they really mean business in Russia.”
Reacting to the failure of home-based players making the team with the exception of goalkeeper Ikechukwu Ezenwa, Osigwe heaped the blame on the doorsteps of the administrators of football in Nigeria.
“It is unfortunate that our home-based players were neglected in the final selection of players to the Mundial with the exception of Ikechukwu Ezenwa; but it is a reflection that the quality of Nigerian league has gone down drastically despite all the noise that it is progressing.
“The Nigeria Professional Football League is nothing to write home about. The managers of NPFL have destroyed the league because our home-based players are forced to play in bad pitches. The league lack good facilities for the players to use, bad officiating and poor management of players has contributed to the total destruction of our league. And that is why our good players at home cannot rise above the foreign-based players when it comes to selection of players for the national team.
“We have good players at home but they are not well groomed because of the aforementioned factors I earlier said. That is why these good players when they eventually travel abroad they become super stars overnight because they are motivated by receiving good salary, good officiating and good management.
“During our playing days, you cannot differentiate between a home-based and foreign-based player because our league was good. The league was churning out good players and you could see that in all our matches then we played as one formidable unit.
“Therefore, coming to the world cup proper, it all about a country’s best first eleven against another country’s best first eleven and for a team to excel, preparation is key! However we have chosen to start late and that is why it is difficult to have a blended side. There is so much of individualistic and selfish play among our current players in Eagles as a result of late preparation.
“We cannot present a solid side at Russia 2018 with such shaky preparation on the side of Eagles and even Gernot Rohr is out to exploit the situation and make good money for himself,” Osigwe concluded.
