Ndubuoke urges NFF to sack Rohr as part of austerity measures

Immediate past chairman of the Imo State Sports Commission, Mr. Fan Ndubuoke has urged the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to sack Super Eagles’ Manager, Gernot Rohr to show its seriousness in cutting costs and making effective use of its lean resources.

The NFF leadership recently held a crucial meeting through conference call where far-reaching decisions were taken on the best ways to sustain football development in the face of the harsher economic downturn necessitated by the Covid-19 Pandemic and the free fall of oil price.

Ndubuoke, who commended the federation for ‘being proactive and sensitive to the prevailing circumstances and situations threatening lives and our beautiful sport (football),’ explained that part of the decisions reached at the meeting “include the mandate handed to the president and general secretary to cut down expenses from all areas possible and enforce belt-tightening measures in the running of the Federation, to ensure the Federation operates only within the framework of guaranteed revenue.”

He added that the meeting tasked NFF President, Amaju Melvin Pinnick to “interface with the federation’s partners and sponsors to appraise, balance and optimise the relationship each way with a model that will take care of the interest of all parties within the realities on ground.”

According to Ndubuoke, the NFF’s proposal of a new contract with Super Eagles manager, Rohr cast a dark cloud on the lofty plans of the federation to keep football alive.

“Though, Rohr’s proposed new contract may have slashed his pay, but it is still bogus enough to constitute a hiccup in the overall financial plans of the NFF to reduce cost through austerity measures.

“Since Rohr’s arrival, our league (NPFL) has taken a nosedive in terms of production of quality players. The simple reason behind this is that the morale of the local players has been dampened by Rohr’s refusal to give them a look in. This is destroying our domestic game, which coaches before Rohr used as breeding and recruitment ground for top European clubs.”

Ndubuoke said the ‘Near Success Syndrome of Rohr’ doesn’t support his continuation on the job, adding, “for over four years, we have been fed with he qualified us for the World Cup as if suggesting that we had never featured in the World Cup nor won AFCON tournament. Qualifying Nigeria for Egypt 2019 where he finished with a bronze medal has been the alibi of his supporters to keep him on the job.

“Rohr (unlike Clemens Westerhorf who impacted so much on local coaches like Christian Chukwu and Bitrus Bewarang, among others, who assisted him) has failed to impact on the likes of Imama Amakapabo, Alloy Agu and others working with him in the past few years. No league can improve with such coaches who learn nothing from their supposed superiors or principals.”

He also said the NFF’s choice of Salisu Yusuf, “who is unpopular among stakeholders to assist Rohr strikes the smack of a hidden agenda. Certainly an agenda of failure. I dare ask, is Yusuf the best or most qualified coach we have to assist Rohr?”

The former NFF board member also queried the wisdom in allowing Rohr to “run around Europe and engaging every teenager who has a Nigerian blood running in his veins irrespective of the cadre of league he plays is not the best way to search for talents or scout for players.