Former Super Eagles Head Coach Augustine Eguavoen has attributed the failure of the team to qualify for the Qatar 2022 World Cup to insufficient time for preparation.
Eguavoen noted that due to the constraint in time, he was unable to blend the players ahead of the game by infusing his DNA into them.
The coach who is still the Technical Director of Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) stated this at the event where the 1994 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) winning Super Eagles’ squad was presented with Certificates of Occupancy to their honorary houses.
Furthermore, the football manager advised the NFF to appoint a new Super Eagle head coach/technical adviser on a long-term basis as that will help guarantee the success of the Nigerian senior men’s football team.
In a statement to the media and retrieved by The Trumpet, the 56 years old apologised to Nigeria for failing to secure the qualifying ticket to Qatar where nations’ football cultures are displayed on the international stage.
The former Super Eagles’ right-back defender opined that the prospective manager of the national football team will have to stick with 90% of the Super Eagles’ squad because of the difficulty involved in rebuilding a team from scratch.
He said: “I will just say anybody coming in should be given a long-term contract, just like a long-time project. “You can’t just raise a new team. It’s always going to be difficult. Any coach that is coming in now will still work with 90 percent of these players we have now.
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“First of all, I will like to apologise for our inability to qualify for the World Cup. It’s very painful that we didn’t qualify and I know how much we love football in this country. “But we didn’t lose the game. We only lost the ticket, and the fact that it’s a World Cup ticket makes it more painful. “I think we didn’t have enough time.
If we had enough time to bring in new players, and see them in friendly games, and the coach can establish his DNA, I think it would have been better. But we need to move on,” he added. The NFF is presently shopping for a replacement for Augustine Eguavoen with much ado being given to a foreign coach.
As earlier reported, the Minister of Youths and Sports Development, Mr. Sunday Dare is tilted towards the option of hiring a local coach.
