Former Super Eagles dare-devil striker, Emma Osigwe, has opened up on the exit of the Super Eagles from the ongoing FIFA World Cup in Russia.
Reacting to Nigeria’s ouster from the global tourney, Osigwe said the Super Eagles never played as a team because they were hurriedly assembled, thus hadn’t enough time to blend.
Speaking exclusively to The Point, the 1980 Africa Cup of Nations winner said he was disappointed with the kind of preparations accorded the team and added that the result was what soccer fans saw at the Mundial.
“I made it clear prior to the Mundial that the chances of Super Eagles qualifying from Group D was 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 had no team and what Gernot Rohr did was to play alongside his pay masters by simply applying fire-brigade approach to the preparations of Eagles for the
Mundial.
“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 said with a tinge of regret.
He further blamed Rohr for dropping all home-based players with the exception of goalkeeper Ikechukwu Ezenwa who never saw action at the Mundial.
“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.
“On the way forward, we need to start preparations early to avoid such poor shows as we witnessed in Russia even as the qualifiers for AFCON 2019 is around the corner,” he concluded.
