Barrister
Solomon Dalung, the Nigerian Sports and Youth Minister, who interceded and prevented
the NFF from sacking embattled coach Sunday Oliseh
after his 'insane' video rant has lambasted the NFF for their relentless firin
In the long media session the minister also made a 'wild' allegation
that Oliseh's YouTube rant was influenced as the video was 'fluctuating' when
he was watching the video. Lol!
According to Goal.com
“The decision to
fix matches is the direct responsibility of the NFF not on the rectangular size
of my table," Dalung said in a Tuesday media briefing in his
Abuja office..
"I can tell
you that they have already had problems with the Kaduna venue because the coach
wants Port Harcourt, while the federation was insisting on Kaduna.
“When I waded into
it appealing to them, the coach told me that the team is playing against many
negative things but when I asked the leadership of the federation, they started
the whole story about the crisis with the coach.
"But I told
them they were drifting too far into the issue of sacking the coach since I was
not interested in listening to their stories.
“We should be able
to build a country where we should celebrate somebody that did well and
sympathize with him if he fails, encouraging him to do better. I told the
federation that overconfidence ruined the team.
“I told the
federation that they don’t need to sack the coach because he lost a game. They
brought the issue of YouTube complaining that the man embarrassed Nigerians and
must apologise.
"But I told
them that they should not judge him based on the YouTube because technology is
now so sophisticated that a man can be manipulated having an affair with a
woman when it is not true.
“Yes, I agree that
I am a novice as they claimed but I looked at that video and the way it was
fluctuating convinced that there was an act of manipulation. This is my own
judgment and I am free to hold this opinion.
“I told them if
they have not heard from Oliseh directly concerning those things on YouTube,
they have to hold on until I speak to Oliseh. When I spoke to him, he did not
indicate any bitterness throughout the 16 minutes the discussion lasted. He
rather pointed at issues we have to address.
“I know very well
the circumstances with which he trained the players and even NFF know. I
told the federation that based on the discussion, we have to look at how we can
make progress out of it instead of sacking Oliseh now and bringing another person
we will sack again when he loses against Egypt.
“After sacking
another, we will then look at how we can sack the NFF because if we sack the
coaches, we will face the people that employed them since they have also failed
too. It is going to be a sack game which is what we should avoid. I told them
it is natural to discipline coaches but not to sack them.”
“If I will
still be here when the elections into the board of the federations will be
done, I am assuring Nigerians that nobody will pick his in-law or farmers’
association chairman as a member of a board.
“Those who are
contesting must show their commitment, they must show how they will guide their
federation to success.
“Most of all the
problems we are having in the federations are linked to this. We have
federations that are existing and cannot do anything except the ministry gives
them money.
“The ministry even
funds the ticket for a president [of a federation] to come for meetings. At the
end of the day, you will discover that the federations have been reduced to a
battle ground; nothing but fighting over relevance and resources.
“A man who was a
leader of a farming group in the village will now be appointed a board member
in a football federation.
"Immediately
he arrives on the board, he considers himself as having been appointed into a
big political office where he must be paid allowances and he must be given
money, he has nothing to contribute but much is going to be spent on him.
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