Less than 24 hours after the sports writers body in the country issued the coach of the Super Eagles with a 7-day ultimatum, the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) is preparing a US$30,000 on the embattled coach who had called his critics ‘insane’, weekend.
Oliseh looks set to consult with his lawyers about contesting the sanction.
The 41-year-old posted a video on his own website to hit back at what he called the “insanity” of his critics.
He had come under pressure after Nigeria failed to get past the group stages of the African Nations Championship (CHAN) in Rwanda.
The coach has since apologised to the NFF for his outburst aimed at the Nigerian media as well as his vociferous former international teammates.
“When I spoke of critics I did not mean the general public of Nigeria! I would never dare refer to my beloved country men as insane!” Oliseh published on his Twitter account.
In another Tweet: “How dare I insult 170 Million people who I love and have shown me so much love. Please forgive the error of editing! God bless you all.”
The country’s sports minister Solomon Dalung and NFF boss Amaju Pinnick met in the capital Abuja on Tuesday to discuss the embarrassing saga.
Former Nigeria captain Oliseh, who succeeded Stephen Keshi as coach in July, has seen his reign in charge of the three-time African Champions blighted by controversies.
Some high profile players have decided to retire since he took over as coach including goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama – Nigeria’s most-capped player – who quit after he was replaced as captain.
Two weeks later striker Emmanuel Emenike also announced his retirement from international football.
Oliseh, unpaid for five months, had also gone public with the money problems affecting his team during the CHAN tournament to the embarrassment of his employers.
Early Wednesday, umbrella body of sports journalists in the country, the Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN), had given Oliseh, a seven-day ultimatum to name the journalists he alleged, last weekend, demanded money from him.
Oliseh who fumed, Sunday, that Nigerians who are criticizing him for not doing well in CHAN are ‘insane’ had also accused some sportswriters of demanding money from him before writing positive stories about him.
SWAN in a statement signed by its national secretary, Andrew Abba called on the coach to ‘come up with the names of the sportswriters involved.’
“He has seven days within which to come up with the names as SWAN will not fold its arm and allow any frustrated coach to blame her members for his misfortune,” SWAN stated.
Meanwhile, former coach of the national team, Chief Festus Onigbinde has blasted the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) for ‘insulting’ Nigerians with the appointment of Oliseh, who he described as ‘a coach without experience’ to manage the national team.
Onigbinde, who led the Super Eagles to the 2002 World Cup in Korea/Japan, said he had warned the NFF before the appointment of the 41-year old pundit, insisting it ‘was a disgrace for the NFF to have begged anyone with no experience to manage the Super Eagles.’
“The first issue is about his appointment which he claimed he didn’t beg for, in other words, the NFF begged him. And I begin to ask what qualities did the NFF see in him to have him lead the Super Eagles?
“I still feel it is a big slap in the country to appoint a Nigerian or a foreigner who has never handled any club or a big team to handle the Super Eagles. That is an insult, and now the insult is being complicated.
“Oliseh is now calling his critics insane. I watched the video and at a point was shedding tears for Nigerian football, but we deserve it.
“Since he got this job, he has been going to Europe for treatment, shouldn’t the NFF have verified his health condition before his appointment? Now he has the guts to insult everybody.
” He further explained that the former skipper of the national team was inexperienced and never a good manager of men.
“He has shown his inadequacy in terms of experience. For instance, see the way he handled Vincent Enyeama’s case. If Oliseh was a good manager, he could have commiserated with him first on the loss of his mother and Enyeama would have been worshipping him but he wanted to be a boss.
“Have Nigerians forgotten that the national team broke down in Mali as a result of gross indiscipline under his leadership and now that is the kind of person NFF feels is good enough for the Super Eagles job.
“These are the questions we failed to answer before giving him the job and to some extent, he is right in throwing hot water on the faces of those who landed him the job.
“You can imagine a coach coming out a day to the commencement of the African Nations Championship that his players are not well fed and all that. What kind of result do you expect from that kind of coach?
“The question now is, will this not affect our chances in future competitions? Now we are causing more confusion and destroying the team further.
“That is in the hands of those managing Nigeria football. I have made several enemies speaking the truth. The fact is we have administrative problems bedevilling our football,” he concluded.
