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President of the Nigeria Football Federation, Amaju pinnick, has slammed Nigeria coach, Sunday Oliseh, over his Youtube rant, which he described as a distraction.
Oliseh, wh
o reacted to calls for his dismissal as Super Eagles coach following the team’s early exit at the Rwanda 2016 African Nations Championship, on Sunday in the video, attacked his critics in the media and his ex-teammates in the Eagles.
Pinnick, who spoke in another Youtube interview posted on the NFF handle on Thursday, lamented the trouble the rant has caused, saying it has divided the football house.
The NFF president said the outburst was quite needless, adding that it had constituted a major distraction to Nigeria’s build-up to the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers against Egypt.
“So, it’s not just seeing a letter of apology and accepting it; now we need to make some repairs, make some fence-mending. We need to talk to various stakeholders that were directly or indirectly affected by his ranting, for example, the Sports Writers Association of Nigeria.
“So, we need to appeal to SWAN, we need to appeal to their conscience, we need to make them understand that it is all about Nigeria. We need to appeal to the Technical Committee, they’ve done a thorough job. They wrote a simple letter requesting for a report and the (Oliseh’s) response was rather appalling. They feel so slighted, they feel so hurt and of course they feel even betrayed by us, so we need to appeal to them.
“Look at the calibre of people in the Technical Committee; you have Mutiu Adepoju, Christian Chukwu, Victor Ikpeba, Danladi Fresh as the vice chairman and then my brother Green. Shuaibu Amodu, these are people that contributed immensely to the development of the game; on and off the field of play.
“We also need to appeal to the members of the NFF and to the backroom staff that were called names. We need to appeal to a lot of people and ensure that frayed nerves are calmed. We also need to appeal to the financiers and sponsors, that is the kind of dilemma we are in right now – the leadership of the NFF. I want to assure Nigerians we are committed to the qualification race for the next Nations Cup. I can say that this board has been facing a lot of distractions – from (Chris) Giwa going to court and a host of others. It is not about Amaju Pinnick but it is about the talents we have in Nigeria and distractions will not help us chart positive ways forward for the sport.”
