NFF technical committee a ‘big problem,’ says ex-NFF chiefs

It is not true, says Olajire

More knocks have hit the technical committee of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), following declarations by two former top NFF officials, Charles Ojugbana and Austin Mgbolu, that the body is “a source of destabilization” in the country’s football and they have only succeeded in bullying and sacking national team coaches.

Even before former coach Sunday Oliseh threw in the towel last week, there were several calls by some concerned Nigerian football fans for the dissolution of the present NFF Technical committee headed by Chris Green.

To them, the committee is the warm eating the taproot of the nation’s football. Some people have alleged that an official of the committee staged-managed the alleged mass resignation of the members just to put pressure on Oliseh and the NFF President, Amaju Pinnick.

According to Mtnfootball.com, the duo of Ojugbana and Mgbolu have raised serious concerns over the Chris Green-led technical committee, saying that it is one of the problems facing football in Nigeria.

“This group of people (technical committee) has hijacked football in the country. They have bullied and even sacked coaches who have gone against them,” Mgbolu, a former NFF spokesman said on a television discussion programme this week.

“They made sure they pushed out Stephen Keshi and now it is Oliseh.

“They have had overbearing influence and have shown they are a source of destabilization.

“This is a committee that should be dominated by technical experts with proven track record, not just somebody who will analyse the match between Arsenal and Manchester United.”

Ojugbana, who rose to be deputy general secretary of the NFF, also echoed a similar position, while arguing that the NFF have totally mismanaged the appointment and subsequent resignation of Super Eagles coach Sunday Oliseh.

“Oliseh was hailed as ‘Pep Guardiola of Africa’ when he was appointed.

But his resume did not back such a claim and his appointment was mismanaged,” he said.

However, the Assistant Director, Media and Communication of the NFF, Ademola Olajire, told The Guardian yesterday that the issues raised by the duo of Ojugbana and Mgbolu are ‘absolute falsehood.’

“That is not what we need at the moment,” he said. “But I want to say that no committee will want to frustrate it coaches,” Olajire added.