Effective monitoring of players will curb corruption in team selection, says Sofoluwe

Former Super Eagles player, Yisa Sofoluwe has called on the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to fashion out effective ways of monitoring players’ form to avoid corruption in team selection in the male and female national teams.

Reacting to the recent incident involving Super Eagles’ Assistant Coach, Salisu Yusuf, who was caught on camera receiving bribe to field two players in a recent competition, Sofoluwe said the various national teams had been facing challenges in international engagements in the past because of the way some of the coaches picked players to represent the country in international championships.

He noted that a situation where issues of players’ invitation and participation in international assignments is not well checked, agents and players, who do not have the required standard to earn national team call up, would continue to pay their way into teams to the detriment of the country.

Sofoluwe stated that the revelation in the bribery scandal should be used as a benchmark to monitor the activities of coaches to forestall future embarrassing situations, stressing that the scandal is not a good omen for Nigeria’s football development.

“The technical committee should step up its job by ensuring the players that deserve national team call up at all levels are used to prosecute international matches.

“Over the years, we have seen players not respecting coaches and playing without commitment because money has exchanged hands. It has been one of the factors hindering the success of our national teams,” he said

Sofoluwe added, “things have to be put right to ensure only the best players play for the country. A team cannot perform well if coaches continued collecting bribe to use players.”

This does not portray the nation on a good light at the world level. So, the NFF needs to wake up to its responsibilities and stop this national disgrace from happening again.
“The process should begin with the appointment of disciplined and knowledgeable coaches to the teams,” he said.