AT the end of their campaign at the last FIFA Women World Cup in Germany, Super Falcons' winger, Stella Mbachu, announced her retirement from international football saying she had seen enough. It was at a post-match conference in the city of Dresden, where the Falcons scored their only goal against Canada.But before Mbachu stepped out of the venue, she commented that no matter how tempting the amount would be, she would never venture into the coaching business: 'This is my last World Cup, but no one should bother to ask me if I will go into coaching. It is a dangerous job; anytime the team fails, the coach is the first to pay for it.'When it so clear that the players were responsible for the defeat, it is the coach who pays the prize. Even if it is also clear that the FA of that particular country failed to play its part well, everybody would be calling for the head of the coach. I don't envy them (coaches) even if they get fat pay. I can become a player agent, but certainly not a coach.'At the moment, the fear Mbachu expressed in far away Germany in July this year may be playing out in the Super Eagles following the team's failure to qualify for the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations at the weekend. A 2-2 draw against a tricky Guinean side in Abuja ended the nation's dream, and coach Samson Siasia, the 'lover boy' of many football fans, is now under fire.His sack letter is said to be ready at the NFF Secretariat in Abuja and might be delivered after today's friendly against Ghana in London However, some Nigerians are kicking against it (the sack). Before the Abuja 'disaster,' some concerned Nigerian football followers had warned the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) of the impending doom.To them, the Aminu Maigari-led NFF was not doing the right thing to save the team from the visiting Guineans. They based their analysis on the fact that as an employer, the NFF should be able to give Siasia the right direction whenever the coach was 'over shooting.Some of the analysts like Green Eagles' former goalkeeper, Emmanuel Okala, who were uncomfortable with the War Against Indiscipline that Siasia introduced into the team, felt that the NFF was playing a blind guide's role that might do more harm than good to the nation's football.Two major issues occurred in the Super Eagles team in the build-up to the game, which, if well managed by the NFF, could have saved the ugly situation last weekend. These are Siasia's refusal to accept goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama back into the fold despite his apology and the $5,000 fine slammed on midfielder John Obi Mikel..In the days of Abdulmumuni Aminu, Dominic Oneya or Sani Lulu as chairmen of the FA, Siasia would have been called into the 'inner chamber' for advice on how to go about the situation without harming himself and the nation's football in the process.But rather than give such fatherly advice when necessary, Maigari and his co-journeymen in the NFF were content to avoid being accused of direct interference in team selection and muzzling of the. One of the analysts, Martins Okoh, asked in a chat with The Guardian: 'How come the NFF allowed things to degenerate to the extent that players were being fined on pages of newspapers instead of allowing the usual procedures to take its course''According to him, the $5,000 fine, which the team's Press Officer, Colin Udoh, announced to newsmen without following laid down procedure of informing the player, was a big error on the part of the NFF. He said: 'I have been part and parcel of the Super Eagles for many years and in those good old days when things were coordinated properly, that announcement by the press officer shouldn't have come without the player getting to know of it.'It was a way demoralising the player before the game; we saw the reaction from Mikel that he was not going to pay the fine because he was not aware of it in the first place. As I was saying, there were standard operating procedures for sanctions within the team in years past. It is normal for players and officials to be subjected to certain camp rules.'Under normal circumstances, if anyone falls foul of camp rules, it is the job of the team co-ordinator to take down the name, the date and the nature of offence, and then pass it on to chief coach. Then, the chief coach signs off on it and it is handed over to the team secretary. When it is time to pay out camp allowances and bonuses, the secretary deducts these fines from whatever is due to the player/official.'But in the case of Mikel, I saw the press officer (Udoh) running his mouth on television that Mikel had been fined $5,000 for not coming to camp early. Is Udoh the team co-ordinator or secretary' Why not wait for the player to come to camp and inform him of his fine or better wait for the appropriate time to deduct the money without making so much noise about it' There is no other way of killing the morale of a player than what the NFF did to Mikel.
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