The President, Nigerian Football Federation, Amaju Pinnick, has said that Super Eagles coach, Gernot Rohr, was sacked to forestall a “disaster” waiting to happen.
“It wasn’t an individual decision; it was a collective decision from the committee,” Pinnick said on Monday when he featured as a guest on a live television programme.
“We didn’t want a disaster to happen before taking the decision,” he added.
Pinnick said the last two games under Rohr were abysmal and Nigeria wouldn’t have qualified for the last round of the World Cup if not for providence.
The NFF President also said the 68-year-old coach failed to enforce discipline in the team, adding that there were so many things not known to the public on the matter.
He added that the football federation still owed Rohr some unpaid salaries but promised that they would be cleared off in months.
The NFF had terminated Rohr’s contract as the Super Eagles coach on Sunday after months of fireworks between the federation and the Franco-German coach who managed the first team for the past 64 months.
In his place, the football federation appointed Augustine Eguavoen, currently its Technical Director, as the Technical Adviser of the Super Eagles on an interim basis.
The NFF executive committee also appointed assistants for Eguavoen
Salisu Yusuf will serve as 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.
Eguavoen will now take charge of the team as it begins preparations for the 33rd Africa Cup of Nations taking place in Cameroon between January 9 and February 6 2022.
Before his sacking, Rohr had demanded that the NFF pay him his outstanding salaries of two months and an additional four months’ pay before he quit the team.
