₦airaland Forum

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.”