FORMER member of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Shaibu Gara-Gombe, says the sacking of erstwhile Super Eagles Head Coach, Samson Siasia, will not stem the free fall Nigerian football is currently experiencing if fundamental changes are not effected on the country's football structure, especially in the technical department of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF).He, however, declined calling for the sack of the NFF Executive Board, saying their sack was both a legal and statutory thing and far beyond using the platform of print or electronic media to canvass.In an interview with The Guardian yesterday, Gara-Gombe questioned the credentials and currency of the football knowledge of most members of the Technical Committee of the NFF even as he pointed accusing fingers at some Super Eagles players saying they may have jointly sabotaged the efforts of Siasia, whom he described as a victim of the system he worked for.'Sack of Siasia is not the end of our football woes, it is just unfortunate that our failure to qualify for the 2012 African Cup of Nations is coming at a time that we have series of failures in our football. Apart from that, it was clearly stated in Siasia's contract that he has to qualify us for the Nations Cup.According to him, 'The most important job of the technical committee is to sit down with national team coaches and discuss their match plans, their team formation and the players they intend to use in any given match. So, with this scenario, Nigerians have to understand that if the coaches fail, the entire technical committee has failed too.''So the question we should be asking ourselves at this point in time is, why did we not qualify for the other competitions. The answer to me is that there is something wrong with the technical set up of our football. The quality of the technical committee of the NFF, in my assessment is poor because anywhere in the world, the technical department is the most important unit in a sports formation.'The NFF has been without a sound, qualified head of the technical unit for as much as three years now. When I chaired the Gombe United Football Club, Chris Green, was secretary of Sharks Football Club of Port Harcourt. After that, Green did not attend any coaching course, nor managed any club side, so how did he suddenly become the chairman of the all-important technical committee of the NFF''Other than Green, Adeboye Onigbinde and Christian Chukwu have handled the Super Eagles and national teams of some foreign nations, but they made little or no impact there. Austin Okocha was a fine player before he retired, but that does not make him a qualified or fine coach, same applies to Victor Ikpeba, who was at a time African Footballer of the Year. Garba Lawal says he has a coaching certificate, but what is his pedigree'Gara-Gombe, who opined that Siasia was a victim of the system he worked for said, 'When he went to take the job, I asked him, why do you want to take this job and he said he wanted to serve his country. At that point, I told him that the environment was not good enough for any good coach to succeed.'I believe strongly that Siasia was also sabotaged by the players because he has been having problems with some of them. Players are capable of sabotaging a good coach and also capable of making a good coach even in Europe. The kind of goals they failed to score in that match against Guinea were inexplicable. I say this because it is difficult to believe that players like Osaze Odemwingie that score from 25 yards when playing for his team and Emmanuel Emenike could not score from six yards in a match as vital as that.
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