Tag: Rohr

The Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, is considering hiring Serbian Mladen Krstajić as new head coach of the Super Eagles.

Pressure has mounted on the NFF to sack Eagles head coach, Gernot Rohr, after the national team put up an underwhelming performance against Cape Verde in their Qatar 2022 World Cup Group C final qualifier at the Teslim Balogun Stadium, Lagos, last Tuesday.

Federation officials held a crucial meeting to decide the future of Rohr, following the nervy 1-1 draw against the Cape Verdeans, to evaluate Rohr’s performance since he took charge of the team August 2016.

The Franco-German’s current deal expires December 2022, but the Eagles’ recent poor run of form, which included a 1-0 home defeat to minnows Central African Republic in the qualifiers for the 2022 World Cup, sparked calls for his dismissal.

It’s understood that both the NFF and Rohr have entered into negotiations on how to part ways by mutual consent.

In a chat with The PUNCH on Sunday, a top official of the federation, who spoke on condition of anonymity said Krstajić was among the coaches the NFF was considering, adding that they had not taken a final decision, since Rohr had not been sacked.

“We haven’t taken an official decision yet, but Serbian Malden Krstajić is one of the coaches we are considering for the job,” the source said.

“We cannot hire a new coach when the current coach has not been sacked. So, I don’t know where the online platforms got their stories from. Like I said, he’s among those we are considering for the job, but we haven’t given him a job yet.”

Krstajić managed Serbia’s national team from 2017 to 2019, leading them to the 2018 World Cup in Russia, where they crashed out from the group stage.

He quit as manager of FK TSC Bačka Topola, a Serbian SuperLiga side, last October, after just 10 months in charge, thus fuelling speculations he might be the next man for the Eagles’ coaching role.

The Minister of Youth and Sports, Sunday Dare, says the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) will decide the fate of Super Eagles Head Coach, Gernot Rohr, next week.

Dare stated this on Thursday at the weekly ministerial briefing organized by the Presidential Communications team at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

According to the minister, Rohr’s future with the Super Eagles will depend on a report to be submitted by the NFF in the coming days.

He said “Once we have national matches like these, there is an operating procedure.

“First, the NFF will receive a technical report that analyses the game. And based on that, we will review, scrutinize and benchmark the report. Thereafter it will make a decision either about the players or about the coaching staff.

“The ministry is waiting for that report from the NFF. What it will contain or recommend, I cannot say for now. Before the end of the week, we’ll have that report and it will touch on many areas.”

“We know what the concerns are. We’ll do whatever is necessary and we’ll be timely about it to make sure Nigeria’s football is of the highest quality and that we’ll play in Qatar,” he added.

Speaking on athletes’ welfare, the minister revealed that his ministry had tripled its remunerations to athletes representing the country in various global tournaments including the Olympics.

He, however, disclosed that the ministry still owes 54 athletes a total of N44.37m in bonuses and remunerations.

“For the first time in a long time, we have decided to triple the bonuses for the out athletes. We tripled their bonuses too.

“We also moved away from just giving them naira to giving them dollars because when you check other countries and what they pay their athletes, they pay in dollars.

“The Paralympians who won 10 medals, less than eight weeks after they returned, we paid them a bonus of 15,000 dollars for gold, 10,000 dollars for silver and 7,500 dollars for bronze.

“We still have a few outstanding; we have a balance of 2,000 dollars to pay to about 54 athletes. And that’s because I increased their allowances from 3,500 dollars to 6,000 dollars at the Olympics.

“So, we had to rework our budgets and we are almost there. As we speak $4,000 has been paid to all of them. The 2,000 dollars will be available soon,” he said.