Sunday Oliseh resigns as Super Eagles head coach less than a month from crucial qualifiers

SUNDAY Oliseh has resigned as the Super Eagles head coach less than a month to the national team's crucial two-legged African Cup of Nations qualifier against Egypt over continuous disagreements with the Nigerian Football federation (NFF).

 

Oliseh, 41, was appointed head coach in July last year but since assumi8ng office has had a tempered relationship with the NFF and its technical committee. Earlier this month, Oliseh called the members of the technical committee insane in a Youtube outburst after they criticised him for the team's performance during the Championship of African Nations (Chan) in Rwanda.

 

After the outburst, the NFF technical committee asked the NFF to relieve Oliseh of his position but when this did not happen, its members resigned en mass. Oliseh later apologised and was slapped with a $30,000 fine by the NFF but the niggling disagreements have refused to go away.

 

Nigeria is due to play a 2017 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against Egypt on March 23 in Kaduna and the return leg in Cairo five days later. Preparations for the crucial tie have brought disagreements to the fore again as the NFF has asked to submit his plans for review but the coach said he is off to England to meet his players.

 

It appears this latest disagreement was the last straw and early this morning, Oliseh handed in his resignation letter to the NFF. In the letter which Oliseh handed in just after collecting the back-log of his salaries owed him, he thanked the NFF for the opportunity to serve the country.

 

Dr Mohammed Sanusi, the NFF secretary general, said: “Yes, we have received a letter from him and I can tell you he has resigned as coach of the national team.  I can't tell you the content of the letter yet because we haven’t met to deliberate on it.

 

"We are in Zurich for the Fifa congress but as soon as we are through with the meeting, you will be in the know.”

 

Since assuming office, Oliseh has had a topsy-turvy relationship with the players too, as one of his first actions was to strip captain Vincent Enyeama of the skipper's armband. This led to Enyeama resigning from international football and several other senior players like Emmanuel Emenike have since followed suit.

 

Oliseh has accused agents, journalists and his assistants of working against him after Nigeria’s ousting at the 2016 Chan tournament in Rwanda. In the tournament, Nigeria got knocked out during the group stages after losing 0-1 to Guinea in the final group game.