NFF plans to employ Redknapp in doubt after sponsor develops cold feet over wrangling

PLANS by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to employ former Tottenham Hotspurs coach Harry Redknapp to manage the Super Eagles are under threat after the potential sport developed cold feet in response to the current crisis affliction the association.

 

Nigeria is currently facing the threat of a global footballing ban after a Jos high court ruled that elections held in 2014 under which Amaju Pinnick emerged as the NFF president were illegal. His election and the legality of the summit was challenged by a rival group led by Giwa Football Club chairman Chris Giwa, who refused to accept the result of the elections.

 

Mr Giwa succeeded in getting the court to declare him the NFF president but global footballing body Fifa and the Nigerian sports ministry have refused to recognise him. Fifa statutes forbid the taking of disputes to court and stipulate that all disagreements should be referred to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

 

Last week, the NFF tentatively offered Mr Redknapp the job to manage the Super Eagles subject to his salary being paid by a sponsor. However, the sponsor is now having second thoughts given that the future of Nigerian football is in doubt as a result of the ongoing legal wranglings.

Apparently, the oil company was ready to pay $2m spread over two years but it is now reluctant to do so. Before the current crisis, the NFF had planned to unveil the new manager next month.

 

One NFF source said: “The oil company was ready to give the NFF close to $100,000 a month to take care of a top foreign coach and his assistants but since the latest round of instability in the Nigerian football polity, the company has developed cold feet. The NFF on their own do not have the cash to pay for such a coach and the government through the sports minister has made it very clear it will not pay for a foreign coach.

 

“That could well have informed the NFF recent announcement that the vacant Super Eagles top post will be taken up by the best candidate whether he is local or foreign.”

 

Redknapp, a former Portsmouth, Tottenham, West Ham and Queens Park Rangers manager, was once the favourite to become the England manager before Roy Hodgson was appointed to the position in 2012. Redknapp has worked with ex-Nigerian internationals in the past, notably Nwankwo Kanu and John Utaka at Portsmouth.