NFF fires Rohr, appoints Eguavoen as interim coach of Super Eagles

[By VICTOR NZE]

With less than a month to the 2022 African Cup of Nations (AFCON) tournament in Cameroun, the country’s football governing body, the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), has issued an official statement confirming the termination of appointment of the Super Eagles Technical Adviser, Gernot Rohr.

The sack of Rohr, according to the NFF is with immediate effect, even as NFF named a member of the technical committee, and ex-international, Austin Eguavoen, as interim coach of the Super Eagles.

Rohr’s sacking by the NFF follows months of speculations over his continued stay and comes barely a week after the NFF had granted Rohr the permission to continue in the job as he prepares the national team for the 2022 AFCON tournament.

Draws for the 2021 African Cup of Nations (AFCON) competition have already been made in Cameroun with three-time defending champions, Nigeria drawn in a group comprising; Egypt, Sudan and Guinea-Bissau.

The tournament begins on January 9, 2022.

A statement by NFF’s Director of Communications, Ademola Olajire, on Sunday evening, said the appointment of Eguavoen was with immediate effect and followed the termination of the relationship with Franco-German Gernot Rohr.

The statement added further that the decision to sack Rohr and appoint Eguavoen on an interim basis was taken during a virtual meeting of the NFF Executive Committee on Sunday.

“It was decided that Eguavoen will work with Salisu Yusuf (Chief Coach); Paul Aigbogun (Assistant Coach); Joseph Yobo (Assistant Coach); Dr Terry Eguaoje (Assistant Coach) and Aloysius Agu (Goalkeeper Trainer).

“Former Nigeria captains Augustine ‘Jay Jay’ Okocha, Nwankwo Kanu and Garba Lawal have been appointed to provide technical and ambassadorial support for the crew,” it said.

Olajire quoted General Secretary of the NFF Mohammed Sanusi as saying that the relationship between the NFF and Mr Rohr had come to an end.

“We thank him for his services to the Super Eagles and Nigeria.

“We also want to thank the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports for its collaboration and guidance all through,” Sanusi was quoted as saying.

Eguavoen, a former Nigeria captain, was coach of the squad when it finished in third place at the Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt in 2006.

He was on-field captain when the Super Eagles lifted the Africa Cup for the first time on away ground, in Tunisia 27 years ago.

“He will now take charge of the team as it begins preparations for the 33rd Africa Cup of Nations taking place in Cameroon and until the appointment of a substantive head coach,” the statement added.

Opinions on Rohr’s stewardship have been hugely divided among Nigerian football followers, with as many for his continued stay same as those expressing  desire for his departure from the position.

Rohr was first appointed by the NFF for the Super Eagles and also to oversee technical matters for all the national teams in 2016. That contract was renegotiated and extended in 2020 ahead of qualifying matches of the African Cup of Nations (AFCON) and the FIFA World Cup in Qatar, all taking place in 2022.

Rohr was specifically tasked with qualifying Nigeria for those two major events. He has accomplished one, the AFCON, while on the verge of completing the other, having reached the final Third Round of the Africa qualifiers World Cup, only last Tuesday, after topping Group C ahead of Cape Verde.

Since his appointment, the German has also overseen tow other competitions, the AFCON in Algeria, and the 2018 World Cup in Russia. Nigeria are presently ranked by FIFA in 5^th.

Even by the own admission of the NFF, Rohr has stayed to his contract.

For some, with the likes of other top teams in the Africa playoffs, Nigeria will find it tough, if not impossible to make it through to Qatar World Cup.

One of those is the former Governor of Abia State, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, who stated in an interview, recently that Rohr’s five years as Eagles coach have been wasted as far as football in the country is concerned.

“In the last five years, we have wasted our time in football. There is nothing new we are doing any longer. To see a country with many professional players home and abroad struggling to qualify for the Africa Cup of Nations and World Cup is heart-breaking.

“Gernot Rohr is not a good coach and I don’t understand why he is still managing Super Eagles.

“When I Was Governor, he applied to become employed as Enyimba coach. He was brought to Nigeria by Oscar Udoji but I refused to employ him.

“I am calling on the Chairman of NFF, Mr Amaju Pinnick to wake up and to quickly find a replacement for Rohr,” Kalu said.

Ex- international, Julius Aghahowa also joined in the Super Eagles and coach bashing when he summed up by saying the country cannot ‘move forward like this.’

“If you talk of the players, the talents are there, the players have the capabilities but we are not having the coach to bring out the best in these players.

“I saw a couple of players that were not supposed to be in that team that day.

“We don’t have a playmaker. I think somebody was wearing the playmaker’s number, 10, but when you saw the play he could not carry the ball, to drive with the ball, and go and meet your opponents before releasing the pass.

“You are giving a pass when there is no one marking you so how do we progress from this pattern of football that we are playing. I don’t think that we can move forward like this?”Aghahowa told SuperSport’s Naija Made, weekend.

Also weighing in on the performance of Rohr, another ex-international, Felix Owolabi, expressed resentment over the service of the German coach.

“As far as I am concerned, the man (Gernot Rohr) has simply wasted more than five years of our football development. The fund we wasted in engaging him would have been used to refurbish the Liberty and National stadiums. Under him, the Eagles lack character, discipline and formation of any kind.

“Yes, I agree that we have individual players, but collectively, we do not have a team. To me, the man is not a coach because five years is more than enough to produce a world-class team

“If Rohr is confident of himself as a good coach, he would have looked at our local league for talents, whom he thinks he can groom for a period that he has spent with us. By now, at least he would have produced 10 players.

“But he jettisoned our domestic league players and looked for them in Europe, whereas the destiny of every country’s football lies in its local league. Rohr’s greatest mistake was when he made a pronouncement that he has nothing to do with the local league because the league was nothing to write home about.

“And that was where he shot himself in the foot. The excuse given by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) that it does not have the money to give him if sacked is a flimsy one. To me, the NFF is not ready to sack Rohr and is simply playing on Nigerians’ intelligence. I think we have the power to sack a coach at any time and engage another one.

“Look at the case of the Egyptian coach that was sacked and another one employed almost immediately during the World Cup qualifiers,” Owolabi said, weekend.

However, for some football analysts like Godwin Madu, the Super Eagles, the time is too short to start looking for a Rohr replacement, especially with less than a month to the AFCON tournament and barely two months to the Africa playoffs for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

Madu says what Rohr needs is a competent technical crew of the NFF, which, according to him, presently does not exist, as slammed the calibers of persons in that committee as not good enough.

Paul Aigbogun, Salisu Yusuf and Austin Eguavoen are members of the NFF Technical Committee for the national teams.

“You see, in this Gernot Rohr matter, I strongly believe that the man is doing his best just to qualify us for these competitions. There are countries in Africa with better players who did not even get this far. Ivory Coast is the most expensively-assembled team in Africa, but where are they now? You are only as good as what is front of you. And Rohr has demonstrated that he can always beat what is in front of the Super Eagles.

“Yes, his style of play is a bit negative, but then it works, depending on the team he’s playing against. Some countries in Africa don’t even play that so-called good football, but then you have no choice than to also beat them. African football is tough.

“I saw a recent statistics somewhere which indicated that Nigeria is the least scoring team in this qualifiers. That may be true, but then again, we are the least conceding team in the same qualifiers.

“I also understand that the coach was a defender for Germany in his playing days; that may be his weakness in playing adventurous attacking, or fanciful football. So that’s why I said earlier that the NFF should fill that technical committee with competent personnel who will provide Rohr with credible options in terms of style of play.

“For me, the man should be allowed to stay; so as not to regret losing that kind of quality material,” said Madu.

Corroborating Madu’s position, Member of the Nigerian Football Federation Technical Committee, and an ex-international, Victor Ikpeba, said the sacking of Gernot Rohr with less few days to the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations is not the best way forward.

“The speculation about his sack has been intense and I’m really surprised. I know what happened in 2002 and in 2010.

“Rumour of people going to the Sports Ministry and the Presidency calling for Rohr to be sacked.

“Rohr has done the needful qualifying the Eagles for the World Cup playoffs.

“Yes, we were not brilliant against Cape Verde but he has done the needful.

“Why not wait till after the AFCON and take a decision on his future. It will be a disaster if that happens now. If you sack Rohr and employ another coach, if the team fails at the AFCON who takes the blame? What will the new manager change. What changed in 2002 and in 2010. It was a disaster.

“This will happen again if Rohr is sacked now.

“My worry is that we forget history and we should not. Those who sacked the late Amodu Shuaibu twice said he was not good enough. Gernot Rohr has been too soft with the players the NFF can help him.”

Similarly toeing the path of Ikpeba, Sports minister, Sunday Dare, opined that sacking Rohr with few days tp a major tournament is a wrong move which has never benefitted Nigeria from history.

Quoting the Sports minister, a close aide said; “he (the Minister) told the NFF that from experience, sacking of coaches close to tournaments had never worked for Nigeria. It had always backfired.

“In addition, the minister counseled that, what the NFF should do, to assist Rohr and the team, is to rejig the technical crew, bring in one or two fresh heads with Rohr as the head.”