Former Flying Eagles and Green Eagles star Paul Okoku says he foresee a conflict in the duties of the Super Eagles coach Stephen Keshi and a yet to be named Technical Director for the Nigeria Football Federation.
There are indications that the NFF would name Tom Saintfiet as the country’s new Technical Director soon, after the Belgian was interviewed recently.
But Okoku, a 1984 Africa Cup of Nations finalist, opined that the new development may cause problems if the roles of Keshi and the Belgian were not properly spelt out.
“Do we need a Technical Director? I would say no. I don’t remember Nigeria ever having one. So why now,” the US-based ex-player said in Lagos on Wednesday.
“I hate to be a pessimist. If this is the administrators’ way to bring success to the team, it’s okay but if not, their good intentions would be counterproductive.
“If the Technical Director’s job is to advise the coaches, what happens if the coaches carry out his instructions and the team fails? Who would be held responsible?
“I accept that they want to help Keshi and bring back the winning attitude to the national teams but I foresee conflict.
“We cannot totally dismiss a well intent plan but there have to be a defined role. Is the new Technical Director going to be involved in players selection? Will he tell the coach to change players during a game? If that is his position, then Keshi’s position is undermined. Is the issue of imposing players on the coach not part of the problems we are having today?
“In 1984, we didn’t have a Technical Director and we got to the Nations Cup final for the first time outside Nigeria with a Nigerian coach, Adegboye Onigbinde.”
Okoku also blamed the country’s football administrators for the age controversies that have bedevilled Nigerian football at age-grade levels.
He said, “Who do you blame for the age problem? It comes from the administration because when you lose a match and you get kicked out by the administrators, what do you expect? The coach is going to cheat to keep his job.
“None of our coaches are consistently employed in the last three years? In our time, the coaches were successful because they didn’t use one game or tournament to judge them.”
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