Decorated coach, Kadiri Ikhana, expressed his misgivings concerning the micromanaging of coaches by Nigeria’s football governing body, especially for International competitions.
Ikhana, talking to the media, directed his words to the President of the Nigeria Football Federation, Amaju Pinnick and Chairman of the League Management Company (LMC), Shehu Dikko, warning them to be careful not to impose player’s decisions on Super Eagles coach, Gernot Rohr.
Under duress
The 2003 CAF Coach of the Year expressed his discontent with the way coaches are sometimes forced to make decisions under duress:
“If a player is not qualified to be in the World Cup it is not by force, allow the coach to do his job so that we will be able to shift blame to anywhere we want to shift it to…If we say because we have local players playing in the league and one or two is to follow I don’t think that is good for the coach and it is not good for the team and it is not good for Nigeria as well.”
Ikhana explained that choosing a player for a match especially in major competitions should be solely dependent on the coach, because the coach knows exactly what he wants and will pick a player that fits the needs accurately.