The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), has dismissed the rumours in the media that it has asked Super Eagles assistant coach, Finidi George, and goalkeeper trainer, Ike Shorunmu to recuse themselves from the national team.
A statement obtained by Tribune Sports from the Communication Department of the football house on Monday in Abuja said nobody was sacked in Super Eagles’ technical crew.
According to the NFF, the coaches are only being moved on a rotational basis as part of the cost-cutting measures adopted by the Ibrahim Musa Gusau-led administration and agreed to by all parties.
“As part of cost-cutting measures instituted at the beginning of the new administration, we established a rotation policy among the assistant coaches, based on the high number, which was agreed with all of them.
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“The last time that the team had a programme, Mr. Finidi George was the person who travelled for the friendly match in Portugal. This rotation policy is only for matches. When there is a tournament, all of them will be with the team.
“He (Finidi) knew at that time that the next trip would be that of Mr. Usman Abdallah. Abdallah is simply taking his turn to be in the camp for the program of Super Eagles Vs Djurtus of Guinea Bissau, and Mr. George will be around for the next program.
“The other person who could have been contending, Mr. Salisu Yusuf, has been sent to the U23 team. There was no victimization, sleight of hand, or disrespect meant to our illustrious ex-international players.
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“The case of goalkeepers’ trainer, Ike Shorounmu is somewhat peculiar, as the former Nigeria goalkeeper showed a clear lack of desire to be in camp for the matches against Guinea Bissau.
“We do not want to go into any details because we have the utmost respect for all our ex-internationals, including Mr. Shorounmu.
“It was only when we got the clear signal that he was unwilling to come, and the Head Coach was in a quandary, that he (Coach Peseiro) requested the services of Olatunji Baruwa, who he had seen at work during the U20 AFCON in Egypt, to help do the work of training the goalkeepers.
“We agree there are a number of challenges concerning contracts of coaches of national teams that we need to speedily resolve. The NFF is working on these and the issues will soon be in the past.“