Eagles: NFF confirms Oliseh, approves Dutch assistant

The Nigeria Football Federation has confirmed that former Nigeria international
Sunday Oliseh will coach the Super Eagles with a team that will include a Dutch
as an assistant.
A manager close to Oliseh in Europe, who has full knowledge of the talks
between the NFF and Oliseh in London, confirmed to The PUNCH on
Wednesday that the former Eagles captain had accepted the job offer and
would work with an assistant from Europe.
He said, “I can confirm that Sunny (Oliseh) has accepted the offer and he will
be working with an assistant coming down from Europe as well.”
On Wednesday, the NFF confirmed they were in talks with the Belgium-based
Nigerian to replace Stephen Keshi, who was kicked out as Eagles coach on
Saturday. Oliseh met with NFF president Amaju Pinnick and Austin Jay Jay
Okocha in London on Tuesday.
“An offer has been made, and there is an understanding, but we have to work
out the final details of the agreement in a few days. Of course, the Executive
Board has to give approval for his appointment based on the final terms to be
agreed,” Felix Anyansi-Agwu, Chairman of the NFF Technical and Development
Committee said on Wednesday.
The NFF added that Oliseh would come with a “foreign technical assistant,
whose job description will centre around development programmes, and
working with clubs’ youth teams and certified academies towards developing
the game from the grassroots.
“Current stand-in coach Salisu Yusuf will also be in the new team, but with
greater devotion to the home-based team, otherwise known as Super Eagles B,
and will be the interface between the technical crew and the home boys.”
From the details of the package being finalised, Oliseh is expected to come up
with a five-year developmental plan “to fashion a unique playing and coaching
philosophy for all the national teams, and will for this purpose, interface
regularly with coaches of those teams.
“We are also looking at how he will periodically organise clinics and seminars
for coaches of clubs in the Nigeria Professional Football League, probably once
in a month, so as to strengthen the playing philosophy across board. A robust
youth development programme, elite player development strategy and
performance programmes to drive higher standards, among other core
sustainable development programmes, are also part of the proposal,” Anyansi-
Agwu said.
NFF President Pinnick said, “Sunday Oliseh has vast experience and immense
knowledge of the game, and will certainly add value to what we are doing. He
has bought into our vision and objectives towards the development of Nigeria
football. He will command the respect of the players and we trust he has the
temperament to work harmoniously with the Technical and Development
Committee, the Technical Directorate and the Technical Study Group.
“On our part at the NFF, we will give him all the support to succeed as we have
been giving to all our coaches. Subject to the approval of the NFF Executive
Committee, we will conclude negotiations by weekend and he will be unveiled
next week.”