Eagles: NFF confirms Oliseh, approves Dutch assistant

The Nigeria Football Federation has confirmed that
former Nigeria international Sunday Oliseh will coach
the Super Eagles with a team that will include a Dutch
as an assistant.
A manager close to Oliseh in Europe, who has full
knowledge of the talks between the NFF and Oliseh in
London, confirmed to The PUNCH on Wednesday that
the former Eagles captain had accepted the job offer
and would work with an assistant from Europe.
He said, “I can confirm that Sunny (Oliseh) has
accepted the offer and he will be working with an
assistant coming down from Europe as well.”
On Wednesday, the NFF confirmed they were in talks
with the Belgium-based Nigerian to replace Stephen
Keshi, who was kicked out as Eagles coach on
Saturday. Oliseh met with NFF president Amaju Pinnick
and Austin Jay Jay Okocha in London on Tuesday.
“An offer has been made, and there is an
understanding, but we have to work out the final details
of the agreement in a few days. Of course, the
Executive Board has to give approval for his
appointment based on the final terms to be agreed,”
Felix Anyansi-Agwu, Chairman of the NFF Technical
and Development Committee said on Wednesday.
The NFF added that Oliseh would come with a “foreign
technical assistant, whose job description will centre
around development programmes, and working with
clubs’ youth teams and certified academies towards
developing the game from the grassroots.
“Current stand-in coach Salisu Yusuf will also be in the
new team, but with greater devotion to the home-
based team, otherwise known as Super Eagles B, and
will be the interface between the technical crew and the
home boys.”
From the details of the package being finalised, Oliseh
is expected to come up with a five-year developmental
plan “to fashion a unique playing and coaching
philosophy for all the national teams, and will for this
purpose, interface regularly with coaches of those
teams.
“We are also looking at how he will periodically
organise clinics and seminars for coaches of clubs in
the Nigeria Professional Football League, probably once
in a month, so as to strengthen the playing philosophy
across board. A robust youth development programme,
elite player development strategy and performance
programmes to drive higher standards, among other
core sustainable development programmes, are also
part of the proposal,” Anyansi-Agwu said.
NFF President Pinnick said, “Sunday Oliseh has vast
experience and immense knowledge of the game, and
will certainly add value to what we are doing. He has
bought into our vision and objectives towards the
development of Nigeria football. He will command the
respect of the players and we trust he has the
temperament to work harmoniously with the Technical
and Development Committee, the Technical Directorate
and the Technical Study Group.
“On our part at the NFF, we will give him all the
support to succeed as we have been giving to all our
coaches. Subject to the approval of the NFF Executive
Committee, we will conclude negotiations by weekend
and he will be unveiled next week.”