Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) president Amaju Pinnick has come out in strong support of national team manager Gernot Rohr.
There have been some calls for the German to be relieved of his post after Nigeria finished third at the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations, but Pinnick believes these have been engineered by jealous coaches who are looking to poach Rohr’s position.
“Does it really make sense for the NFF to sack Rohr now?” Pinnick told Nigeria’s The Guardian.
“What are his offences? Some Nigerian coaches who are so desperate to take over the Super Eagles are those engineering people to mount pressure on the NFF to sack the coach.
“But we won’t give them that chance. We know them, and what they are capable of offering the nation as coaches.
“Nobody can push us around again on issues concerning appointment of coaches. We gave some of them the chance to prove themselves in the past but failed woefully.”
The federation supremo added, “Rohr still has existing contract with the NFF and we believe in him. We appointed him in 2016 with the mandate to qualify Nigeria to Russia 2018 World Cup, and he did it.
“The Super Eagles finished unbeaten from a tough Group B that had Zambia, Cameroon and Algeria. We later extended his contract to 2020 after he qualified the team for the Nations Cup.
“The fact that the Super Eagles couldn’t win the AFCON title in Egypt is not enough for people to clamour for his sack. So many countries are looking for him [to hire Rohr] as we speak.
“We should be thinking on how to build the team for future challenges and not how to look for money to pay off the coach and his assistance, and then begin the search for new ones. No, that is not in our agenda.
“I want Nigerians to remember where we are coming from. Before Rohr took over, we could not qualify for two editions of the Nations Cup.
“He qualified us to Russia 2018 with a game in hand and also booked the ticket to Egypt 2019 with a game in hand.
“And in Egypt, Rohr qualified us to the round of 16 with a game in hand. So, why should we sack him?”
