The colour of the skin will not give advantage or determine who becomes the next Head coach of the Super Eagles, says Victor Ikpeba, reports www.totorinews.com
The 1997 African footballer of the year disclosed in an exclusive interview with your authoritative online news media – www.totorinews.com that what is needed for the Super Eagles is to get a top class coach for the team, adding that the job is very demanding and filled with pressure.
“Nigeria have to get a very good coach, a top class coach. Being the manager of the national team is very demanding, it comes with pressure, the pressure of more than 200millions football passionate Nigerians,” Ikpeba told www.totorinews.com exclusively in Abuja over the weekend.
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“I personally think that; though I’m a member of the technical committee and I’m not here to dwell on what the members think on who is going to be made Super Eagles coach. I can tell you that it has nothing to do with colour, who is best qualified will be given the job.
“We should be careful of how we say things out, because majority of our players plies their trade abroad. So, what do you think when the European media start thinking about some people say they are being colonised by white coaches, what will the young white European boys think when they see young black boys around them in their academy and all those things,” he queried.
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“Football is beyond colour. We need to educate our fans. It is very important and fundamental, most of us that made a name through football the Europeans gave us that platform, that opportunity to become who we are today, it’s the truth so we should be careful when we talk about colour , there’s no colour in football.
“Football is just a unique sport anybody can be a manager in this country. The technical committee members will not take the decision of who becomes the next coach of the Super Eagles based on colour, that is the fact.
Speaking further, the former Monaco of France winger praised the efforts of Finidi George while understuding Peserio as his assistant and he commended the NFF for giving the nod for the former Ajax of Holland player to act as the interim coach of the Super Eagles.
“I want to use this platform to say well done to Finidi George. The Federation has done well by giving Finidi George opportunity to lead the Super Eagles as an interim coach. He was the assistant coach of the team, he’s been there with the team from the beginning of Jose Peseiro so he has that relationship already with the players which is very fundamental in football. We have l seen managers being sacked and assistant took over and did well.
“We saw Ivory Coast did that. The assistant coach took over when the manger was sacked and we all saw the result. So we cannot do things in a rush.
“We did things in a rush when Gernot Rohr was sacked and we all remembered what happened after. We failed to qualify for the World Cup. We saw how ; may his soul rest in peace; Amodu Shuaibu qualified the Super Eagles for the World Cup. Remember that in that era many people did not believe in black coaches, so if there is a new wave towards that now, it is good, but Nigeria is too big enough to talk about colour.
“We are the most populous country in Africa with our tribes and ethnicity, we have to be very careful with the manager we employ. Stephen Keshi did it. Keshi had great personality, he was the captain, he started from the youth level as a coach, he went outside the shores of Nigeria to be coach of Togo and Mali.
‘There was a process for him and that is the reason we are happy that Finidi George is back home because he is involved with Enyimba (one of the best clubs in Nigeria) and as the assistant coach of the Super Eagles.
There’s a process for a manger to get to the next level and we cannot just bring a manager because of sentiment.
“Sentiment was on ground two years ago when the job was given to Eguaveon, with due respect I think he did his best, unfortunately Nigeria did not qualify for the World Cup.
“You can’t really blame him because he was not the architect of the team. So for me personally and the other members I think decision will be made and it will be very objective for the desire and the inspiration of football followers in this great country,” he concluded.