Former Super Eagles midfielder, Oedema Fuludu, has kicked against the recent surge in the suspension of coaches in the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL).
  
Within two weeks, three coaches have been suspended in the NPFL for alleged poor performances in the seven-week-old season. First was coach Napoleon Aluma, who was suspended by the Delta Sports Commission after the club’s 1-2 loss at home to visiting Shooting Stars Sports Club (3SC) of Ibadan at Oleh.
 
Two days ago, the coach of Kwara United, Tunde Sanni, was suspended after the team’s 0-1 home defeat by Abia Warriors, while Coach Greg Ikhenoba of Bendel Insurance FC was sent packing on the same charge of poor performance. In his place, Coach Baldwin Bazuaye has taken over at Bendel Insurance FC.
 
Fuludu, a member of the Super Eagles team that won the African Cup of Nations in 1994 in Tunisia, said such practice of sacking and replacing coaches won’t allow league football to grow in the country.
 
The FIFA Coach Educator said: “To me, this wave of suspension of coaches in the NPFL is a wrong step because the league is too early to witness such.
  
“If a team loses a game to a team that is well-prepared, what I expect the management to do is to sit down with the coach and find a solution to the problem, instead of suspension. Coach Aluma of Warri Wolves, for instance, guided the club from the lower division to the elite NPFL. He was voted the best coach during the NNL Playoff, and he won his first match in the NPFL away against Katsina United, and also beat Enugu Rangers at home. That he lost at home to 3SC shouldn’t have led to outright suspension. Coach Tunde Sanni led Kwara United to a draw against Warri Wolves at Oleh. He is being suspended because they lost at home to Abia Warriors. It shows we are not learning fast. In the English Premier League, Chelsea, Manchester United, Liverpool and Manchester City have suffered a series of defeats, yet their coaches remain.”
 
Fuludu revealed that some of the people managing clubs in the NPFL are not knowledgeable enough to do so.
 
“Some of the people are too quick to react,” he said. “They always listen to people who are waiting by the side or praying for the coaches to make small mistakes so that they can take over the club. Maybe, during the recruitment period, the coach did not accept their players, and so, they are always around the stadium to pick holes in whatever mistakes that happened during matches. That is not fair enough.
 
“Again, I blame some of our coaches who rush to accept whatever agreement is handed to them by the management. If a proper contract was signed between the coach and the club, as we see in England and other leagues across the globe, I doubt that this wave of suspensions will ever happen. We must learn fast to reposition the Nigerian league for a better tomorrow,” Fuludu stated.
 
Meanwhile, there are indications that the interim coach of Warri Wolves FC, Austin Johnny, who led the club to defeat Barau FC in Kano last weekend, might not be given the nod to head the club because “he does not have the basic coaching requirement.”
 
“But we are watching the situation,” a source close to the team told The Guardian yesterday. “Coach Johnny did well in Kano, but the NPFL rules say that for a coach to head a club, such a person must have at least a CAF ‘B’ Licence. Coach Johnny has an NIS certificate. That is not to say we are doing away with him now. We are going to watch how he performs against Niger Tornadoes this Sunday and some other matches,” the source added. 
 
The Guardian learnt yesterday that players and officials of Warri Wolves barely escaped the wrath of fans of Barau FC in Kano on Sunday after their 1-0 away victory at the Sani Abacha Stadium.
 
“This is the same Barau FC that recorded an away victory against Kunkalifa FC in Owerri two weeks ago. They held the Warri Wolves hostage for over 30 minutes after the match in Kano. Maybe, if the Warriors had not packed their two brand new buses at the police station, the fans would have damaged them. The police had to escort them from the stadium after being held hostage for over thirty minutes. This is not good for our league.”