Super Eagles: Nigerians intensify calls for Jose Peseiro’s sack

Nigerians have lost their cool on the Super Eagles’ head coach, Jose Peseiro following a string of poor results.

Calls are loud that the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) should disengage Peseiro ahead of the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations, AFCON, finals, which will be hosted by Ivory Coast from January 13 to February 11.

Others want the NFF to put their house in order before thinking of disengaging Peseiro or hiring local or another foreign coach to lead the Super Eagles.

This development comes following Nigeria’s recent 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers 1-1 draw against Lesotho and Zimbabwe, respectively.

Peseiro’s previous contract with the NFF expired at the end of June this year.

The Portuguese recently signed a new six-month contract that will expire at the end of the 2023 AFCON.

Peseiro’s side have already secured a place at the 2023 AFCON finals, but their chances of making it to the 2026 World Cup is currently in doubt after they accumulated two points in their matches against Lesotho and Zimbabwe in Group C of the qualifying series.

One of their opponents in the group, South Africa could open up an early 4-point if they best Rwanda on Tuesday.

Prior to the last two games against Lesotho and Zimbabwe, the Super Eagles had lost eight games and won six under Peseiro, who was first appointed as the team’s head coach on May 15, 2022.

Speaking with FLYINGEZE BLOG on the subject matter on Monday, Ochiba coach, Emmanuel Brown, insisted that even if AS Roma manager, Jose Mourinho is hired to coach the Super Eagles, the team’s result would not change unless the NFF do the right thing.

According to Brown, Peseiro is not the problem but the NFF, adding that the current Super Eagles players are not ready to give their all for the national team because of issues like bonuses and allowances not paid.

He also lamented the failure of NFF to show Nigeria’s last two World Cup qualifiers against Lesotho and Zimbabwe on local television.

“Speaking about Nigeria’s last two matches, it is unfortunate that the NFF couldn’t do anything to show those matches on local television, which is very bad on their part.

“Recently they told us about an App [application] that would be showing the local league games and we are expecting they would use the [World Cup] qualifiers as an experiment and show us the match live, but we were not able to view that match.

“Having said that, the truth of the matter is that everything in Nigeria is just not working. It’s not about the coach, Peseiro, (that is my opinion). It’s about the NFF. If you go to South Africa, North Africa, everywhere football is working.

“But when the people at the helm of affairs are not doing the right thing, what do you expect the players to do? No player wants to come to Nigeria and die for Nigeria anymore. All of them are playing, being careful, they do not want to sustain injury because at the end of the day what happens to these players, their career is gone.

“So trust me, if you bring Jose Mourinho to Nigeria, as long as the NFF is not ready to do the right thing, trust me that result will never come.

“So it’s not about the coach. It is about the NFF doing the right thing, everybody that is in the football house doing the right thing, then players will play with their mind.

“They [Super Eagles players] need encouragement. Sometimes we hear that players have not received their bonuses, allowances, they are not paying them and you expect them to come and give you 90 per cent? You can imagine the brouhaha that happened in the Women World Cup,” he lamented.

Also, speaking with FLYINGEZE BLOG, Idris Musa Adinoyi, the captain of Dawaki Rangers FC, said NFF should terminate Peseiro’s contract and pay him off.

Adinoyi also suggested that the 63-year-old is not technically sound to coach a team like Nigeria, which boasts varieties of talents across Europe.

“This should not just be about the recent disappointing results but several underwhelming performances since the appointment of Peseiro as Nigeria head coach.

“I feel it is long overdue for the NFF to change the national team’s head coach to someone that will give the team a proper sense of direction and style of play that depicts what we stand for as a nation. This current form is not what should be dragged into the 2023 AFCON in January,” Adinoyi said.

He added, “I don’t think Peseiro is the right coach for the national team. We need someone better that can bring out the best out of the multitude of talents we’ve been blessed with at the moment.

“Nigeria needs a coach that is capable of harnessing these talented individuals we have both home and abroad.

“It doesn’t have to be a foreigner for Nigeria to get it right, there are several homegrown coaches that can excel if given the opportunity. This is because they stand a high chance of understanding the footballing culture of the nation in the shortest possible time and integrating their ideals into the current crop of players, as well as the team management.

“Nigeria is too blessed a nation to be gambling on foreigners to lead us to the highest point we believe we can be in the footballing world. The time to act is now,” he said.

On his part, Hon. Nse Essien, a member of the Board of the NFF, said the football body is not responsible for the employment of Peseiro but the Sports Ministry.

Essien said: “When you say NFF should sack the head coach, this regime did not employ him. The Sports Ministry employed him. We were supposed to have paid their salaries but up till now, we have not paid a dime.

“We have to respect Jose Peseiro’s contract. If we had the money to give to him [pay Peseiro off] we are going to relieve him. We are not happy,” he admitted.